October Blog Post

        While growing up, my childhood was filled with plenty of Disney movies and cartoons. It never occurred to me that these Disney movies could be political or even racist until we watched Mickey Mouse Monopoly, directed by Miguel Picker and written by Chyn Sun. As a child these movies were always pure entertainment for me and even at the age of twenty-one, I still saw it this way. After watching Mickey Mouse Monopoly I saw an entirely different view of Disney and their movies and how they teach children at a very young age about racism as well as gender roles. I believe that the reason children continue to watch these movies is because Disney masks these issues behind princes and princesses.
        In Mickey Mouse Monopoly they talk about the hyena characters in the Disney movie The Lion King. They point out how these hyenas have a "street, inner-city, African American dialect." These hyenas are portrayed as "bad guys" in the movie. By doing this, Disney is sending a message to children about real street, inner-city, African Americans and this message is telling them that these people are "bad guys". In the video a woman quotes "I have a girlfriend who, she's a white woman and her son is about three, and she came to me one day really disturbed and said that she had been coming back from shopping and that her son said, Mommy, mommy, the hyenas, the hyenas. She looked up and she said there was a group of black children." This proves that this child associates the hyenas with African American people and from what this child understands, the hyenas are bad. Another example of Disney showing racism is in the movie Lady and the Tramp. In this movie there are siamese cats who have a very distinct asian accent. On top of that, these cats have very stereotypical asian features as pointed out in the video. For example, they have slanted eyes and buck teeth. These cats are also shown as very cunning and manipulative. This is telling children that this is how the asian culture is. Although racism is seen in multiple Disney films, it is not the only issue discussed in Mickey Mouse Monopoly.
        In the film it talks about how Disney movies portray gender roles to children. Disney shows children that men should be the stereotypical man who is extremely muscular and saves the woman from danger. On the flip side, Disney shows little girls that woman should be the stereotypical woman who cleans and cooks and loves to wear dresses. It also shows that woman need a man to protect them. One moment that really stuck out to me in Mickey Mouse Monopoly was when they started to talk about the Disney film Beauty and the Beast. I personally have never seen this movie and was surprised to see how abusive the film actually is. A woman quotes while talking about Beauty and the Beast "the abuse is horrific". In the film, the character Beast screams at and imprisons Belle. Beast also tosses Belle's father out the door and takes her family away from her. One quote from the movie that shows abuse is "If she doesn't eat with me, then she doesn't eat at all!" The same woman who talked about how abusive the film really is also states "she reinterprets his rage and his abuse as temper. She reinterprets his personality as tender and vulnerable." This is teaching children that abuse is something to be brushed off and taken lightly because all you need to do is keep being nice to the abuser and they will change their ways. A couple children were asked what they would do if Belle was their friend and they responded by saying that they would be happy for her because she found someone she liked and that she should keep being nice to Beast because it will change him. This is teaching young girls that abuse is okay and that they can fix it but in reality it is not okay and I highly doubt anyone could fix it by being nice.