What Disney has taught me about Life

I’m not going to say anything against Disney, I mean I grew up with it. I watched Cinderella every day of 1^st Grade (ask my mother, I really did!)

Sorry I lied, this is a Disney bashing post. I love the Disney-Pixar movies and watch every single one of them, sing along to their songs, hope that one day my Prince Charming will kiss me awake from my deep slumber with a little help from my fairy Godmother. But…the movies are filled with racial connotations, distorted portrayal of other cultures and stereotypical gender roles that typecast a man as strong and a woman as a weak and dependent on men. So....

What Disney has taught me about Life

A woman’s role in life is to be a housewife: 

• When Snow White is banished from her kingdom, she runs into the forest and cries and is completely helpless. Then she finds a dirty and disgusting house which she proceeds to clean from top to bottom, because that is, of course, the only role a woman can play. She meets the 7 dwarfs who continue to let her stay because they need a ‘mother’ (Who knows what other role she might have actually played in that house but due to adult content, I shall stick with their version of the story.) who will 'clean up' after them. She should have started a cleaning business, made great profits out of dirty dwarfs who work in mines and upstaged the evil Queen!

Who's next? ;)

A woman’s life does not begin until a man comes along: 

• Snow White did not wake from her poisoned-apple coma until her Prince kissed her. Sleeping Beauty was awoken with a kiss (and God knows what else!). None of these women could do anything to enhance their own life except be pretty and wait for a man to come and save them from their various miseries.
• Ariel was one of the worst: She abandons her voice and family for legs so she can be with the one she loves. Of course, Disney movies have to have happy endings so she regains her voice (one nice part: her family is supportive) but she still still leaves them behind all for a life with a man she barely knew. 

If you wait around long enough, the universe will hand things to you: 

• Now I’m not disagreeing that Cinderella’s life was a major buzzkill, but she just sat around scrubbing floors and waiting on her family miserably wishing to go to the ball. And would you believe it? Her fairy godmother saved the day. Can you see why most people are perfectly happy sitting on their bottoms waiting for something good to happen? Bippity-boppity-boo! (Read: Unemployment benefits! Edit: Sorry, this makes me sound really mean towards unemployed people and in today's economy, it's not these peoples' faults! Sorry...I was referring to the few lazy people who sit around reaping other people's hard earned money for their own benefits!)

A woman can change an abusive man: 

• While the fairytale was something quite different, the movie, Beauty and the Beast portrayed the Beast to be a cruel and downright frightening person, who although never physically hurt Belle, dealt with the insinuation that he might very well. Belle, with her loving and kind nature, changed him into a sweet prince, thus saying that a woman can change an abusive man. What a lesson for a girl to learn! If this were to happen in real life, Belle would be a battered woman.
• Side note: This is only the Disney version of the story. The original fairytale (from France) and it showed the Beast to be only frightening to look at but actually a kind and gentle soul. The message obviously was not to judge a book by its cover.

Racial bias:

• Jafar, the villain in Aladdin, has a typical Arabic look about him while Aladdin, the hero, looks like an American boy and even asks people to call him Al for short. (The movie was conceived in 1991 during the Gulf War, a conflict between Iraq and 34 countries in the UN when the American troops were sent to Kuwait to restore order. Make the connections yourself!)

• The Lion King, which is set in Africa, has the heroes (Simba and Mufasa) being voiced by actors speaking American English while the hyenas (villainous minions) speak non-standard English.

• Sebastian, the fun-loving Jamaican crab in The Little Mermaid, sings Under the Sea where:

Up on the shore, they work all day. Out in the sun they slave away. While we devotin', full time to floatin' Under the sea!

If you're still not convinced, look out: 1:56 for the Duke of Soul and 2:01 for the Blackfish!

 All villains are fat, ugly or old: 

• Jafar in Aladdin. Ursula in The Little Mermaid. Governor Ratcliffe in Pocahontas.

 

The ugly guy never gets the girl: 

• Poor Quasimodo (not only did he look deformed, he was named Quasimodo) in The Hunchback of Notre Dame: the moment he laid eyes on Esmerelda, he fell for her. He saved her from being burnt at the stake for spurning Frollo’s love. They become great friends and end up falling in love…No. Esmerelda falls in love with another guy, Captain Phoebus, who is the epitome of French handsome-ness. Sorry Quasi, you’re sweet and all but can’t mess with the gene pool.

Really? You thought you could compare to Blondie down there?

Order of approval: Captain Phoebus, The goat and Quasimodo

Me: Marshall, permission to say lawyered. 
Marshall: Granted. 
Me: LAWYERED!

If you read blogs and watch other peoples’ thoughts frequently, then you will realise that this is not a new idea but I promise that these thoughts are mine, even if influenced by others! Some evidence was googled because I couldn’t remember the details! J

Thanks for reading and hope you learnt something. PROMISE I actually do love all these movies but there’s something about thinking about them in realistic situations that makes you rethink all the times you imagined what life would be like as a child.