Reading Arlene Davila's article about how racial minority reacts to mainstream media in focus groups, I almost immediately associated that with Disney. After all, what could be more mainstream and directly influential to young people than Disney? I found it really interesting that while Americans are so concerned about this notion of political correctness and that race becomes such a touchy topic to discuss, Disney continues to make movies that are based on these stereotypical images that Americans have. I looked online and found a short essay by Libby Brunette, Claudette Mattory and Shannon Wood. They gave a few examples of how Disney exploits racial stereotypes in many of their movies: bad Arabs in Aladdin speak with accent whereas Aladdin himself, who also happens to be a street beggar, speaks perfectly Americanized English; In Lion King, the hyenas talk in heavy inner city African American dialect. Not to mention Asians always have slanted eyes, darker skinned characters almost always portrayed negatively. (I found it particularly striking that the leader of the circus in Dumbo was not only black, but also named Jim Crow!) Although Disney, in recent years, has been actively trying to incorporate multiculturalism in their cartoons (such as placing Pocahontas and Mulan as two of the Disney princesses), there are these subliminal racial conventions that exist in Disney's pictures and possibly in their audience's mind. Interestingly, growing up watching so many Disney movies, I never thought of not being able to associate myself with the characters because of differences in races and ethnicities. Even as an Asian who was born and raised in Asia, I played with blonde Barbie dolls instead of Dolls that try way to hard to sell their Asian-ness. Several weeks ago, Charlie mentioned that Disneyland is the idealized America that never existed. There is obviously an extremely heavy sense of racial awareness in America. The question is Disney trying to create a world of fantasia that excludes non-white people? or are American being too sensitive towards racial issues? (because honestly, before coming to US, I never thought of race as a societal issue, even though I grew up in an ethnically diverse community)
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I was surprised with the reaction that some African Americans had to Princess and the Frog. Most media outlets praised it, of course, for its inclusion of African American leads. Yet the arguments against it was that the female lead was a frog for a majority of the film and not African American. There is no doubt that the film portrays African Americans in a much more positive light than Song of the South, a film that has never been released on video by Disney.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2009/1211/The-Princess-and-the-Frog-movie-Disney-s-progress-on-race
http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-11-24/film/disney-s-princess-and-the-frog-can-t-escape-the-ghetto/