Only a Fairytale?
The Perpetuation of Race, Class, and Gender Stratification in Disney Animated Feature
Films
But Disney is Good!
Unquestionably, the values portrayed in Disney films are good.– Follow your dreams– Honor your parents– Tell the truth– Be loyal to your friends
The themes of innocence and magic pervade.
Disney is good, but….
Disney films were created at specific historical moments in the United States.
Those who created the films were upper class white men whose reality provided the context for the stories.
At these moments, various forms of racism, sexism, and classism were unexamined, and often still are.
Early Films and Racism
In most of the early films, there is little to no racial diversity. All of the characters are white (or are animals).– Snow White– Cinderella– Sleeping Beauty– Pinocchio
Early Films and Racism
Nevertheless, race is subtly represented. – The characters who are evil
• Have darker skin tones• Have darker hair• Have accents
– This is also true of the characters who represent the serving class.
Early Films and Racism
When racial diversity is present, people of color are represented according to stereotypes held by the dominant culture.– African-American circus workers in Dumbo– Crows in Dumbo– Native Americans in Peter Pan– WWII context gives the ringmaster in Dumbo a
German accent. • (This is the guy who whips and imprisons Dumbo’s mother.)
Early Films and Sexism
In all of these films, gender stereotypes, particularly those concerning women, are affirmed.– Snow White– Cinderella– Pinocchio– Dumbo– Peter Pan
Early Films and Sexism
These stereotypes about women include:– Passivity– Lack of intelligence– Concern for their looks as a high priority– The quest for marriage– Focus on cleaning– Pettiness and competitiveness among one
another
Early Films and Sexism
The good women in these films are:– Young– Pretty– Easily led– Motherless
Early Films and Sexism
The bad women in these films are:– Older– Unattractive– Seeking power for themselves– Not the mother
Early Films and Classism
Nearly all of the films represent the upper class as the heroine or hero’s family of origin.
The exceptions are the puppet Pinocchio and the elephant Dumbo.
The struggle in the princess films is about the girl’s ability to assume her rightful place.
Early Films and Classism
Representations of people who are NOT upper class– Focus on the goodness of those who
• Accept their place in the social system• Work hard
– The seven dwarves– Geppetto
– Focus on the evil nature of those who• Lust after riches that are not their lot in life to have• Try to become rich quickly
– Cinderella’s stepmother– Stromboli in Pinocchio– The cat and his compatriot in Pinocchio– The ringmaster in Dumbo
What about Today?
It could be argued that all of these films: – Represent fairy tales which date from feudal times– Were produced before the Civil Rights Movement and
the other social upheavals of the 1960’s.The problems of social stratification were not part of
public consciousness, the way they are today.Let’s examine a few of the later films to check this out!
Later Films and Racism
List of films considered:– Beauty and the Beast
• No racial diversity; darker color does not seem to indicate evil or subservience.
– Little Mermaid• No racial diversity; darker color is associated with the evil
character of Ursula.– Aladdin
• Should be no racial diversity; all characters are Arab. However, light-skinned Aladdin and Jasmine sound American, the light-skinned Sultan sounds British, and the evil Jafar is dark-skinned with an Arab accent.
Later Films and Racism
– Lion King• No racial diversity. All the characters are animals.
However, race coding is still present in accents and coloring. The good lions have golden manes. Scar, the bad lion, has a black mane. The wicked hyenas have either black, Latino, or unidentifiable accents.
– Pocahontas• Racial diversity is present. The characters are
Native American and white European. The sympathies lie with the Native American characters, and the evil characters are white.
Later Films and Sexism
– Beauty and the Beast • Belle is a different female heroine. She likes to
read and wants more than just this “simple life.” However, the story of her relationship to the violent Beast promotes acceptance of violent behavior for the hope of a positive outcome.
• The only other women in the story (who are portrayed in a sexualized manner) cannot understand why Belle is so choosey.
• The end result: Belle marries the prince.
Later Films and Sexism
– Little Mermaid• Ursula represents the same old wicked
witch: middle-aged, ugly, power-hungry, and evil.
• Ariel is sexualized in dress and with the idea (even though it is from Ursula) that women don’t need a voice to win a man’s love.
• The end result: Ariel marries the prince.
Later Films and Sexism
– Aladdin• Jasmine, like Belle, is an example of a woman of
the 90’s. She will only marry for love, and she spurns Aladdin’s attempts to take care of her. There are no other women in the story except for the market wives who portray homemakers.
• Jasmine is portrayed as sexually desirable.• The end result: Jasmine marries the prince.
Later Films and Sexim
Lion King– Simba’s mother is a victim of domestic
violence after her brother-in-law kills her husband.
– Nala is a fiesty little female lion cub who grows to be a brave lioness.
– None of the female animal characters are sexualized.
– End result: Nala marries the prince.
Later Films and Sexism
Pocahontas– Pocahontas is a self-determining woman.– She resists her father’s choice of marriage for
her.– She loves John Smith, but refuses to leave her
people for him.– She is portrayed in a very sexualized manner.– End result: Pocahontas does NOT marry the
prince.
Later Films and Classism
The economic situation of Beauty and the Beast is that the Beast is a prince who has behaved badly and is being disciplined by the only person with the power to do so: a witch.
Belle is from the working class and her reward for her goodness is to marry the prince (once he has reformed, of course.)
Later Films and Classism
In Little Mermaid, Ariel’s father is emperor under the sea.
The only contender for his power is the evil Ursula.
Ariel marries within her class, although not within her species!
Later Films and Classism
Aladdin’s context is an empire ruled by a sultan in which there is a wide range of lifestyles.
Aladdin begins in desperate poverty.He ends in luxurious wealth and power.He shows no sign of ameliorating the poverty of
the class from which he came, even though he now has the means to do so.
Later Films and Classism
The Lion King’s economic setting is tribal. The leader of the tribe, Mufasa, is overthrown and murdered by his brother Scar.
Scar gets his friends, the evil and violent hyenas from the elephant graveyard to enforce his rule.
When these thugs are allowed to rule, the land and the people starve.
Only when the rightful king returns does the land prosper again.
Later Films and Classism
– Pocahontas • She is from a position of power within the tribe, as the
daughter of the chief.• However, the Europeans are there with eventual intentions of
exploitation of the people. They bring superior weaponry, and, as we know, eventually rob and murder Native Americans to gain their resources.
• There are intimations of this in the story, but these issues of economics and class relations are unexplored.
• In this film, however, the folks with more access to resources are actually the bad guys.
