October Blog Post

    After watching the documentary on Disney movies I felt really confused. I understood all of the harmful stereotypes in those childhood classics. At the same time though as child I never recognized it to be that way. I would watch the animals on movie and never associate them to someone of color. Now that I am older I do see that that was what was being done. It makes me feel uncomfortable to know that as child I had no idea how disturbing and backwards the movies I idolized were. I personally, when watching the films were so mesmerized by the art though. I never realized that the animators of these movies were using their talents to create hurtful stereotypes of people of color and women.
    Being a white girl I cannot relate to the difficulties of not being represented in the media, and feel unsuit to talk about that. I can though relate to the problems of body image and women in these movies. I know growing up that I often did not feel like I could connect with this idea of what beauty was. I never felt beautiful growing up and I still don't feel beautiful as a young women. I don't know if this idea started from me thinking that in order to be beautiful I had to look like a Disney princess with a thin waist, big hips and bust, tiny nose, big eyes and lips, long lashes, shiny hair, and perfect teeth. The list could go on about how I was told I need to look in order to be pretty. These ideas have been indoctrinated into the way I see myself and think of others. Instead of looking at the differences in each others and seeing them as being just a part of who we are. We view these differences as a something to be ashamed of.

    Fortunately now we are seeing a wider representation in movies. We have had The Princess and The Frog with a black female lead, we have a had Frozen where the girls save each other not the guys, and lastly the newest movie Moana which portrays a female protagonist. Whose body looks likes a "normal" girls. I believe that old disney movies are not meant to be harmful for the future. Instead, I believe that we can look to them as a lesson of the past.  We should create discussions with those close to us, on how we need to stay clear of harmful stereotypes and accept differences of those around us.