Culture Industry And Disney: The Issues Like Race, Gender, And A Child’S Innocence
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s, “The Culture Industry; Enlightenment as Mass Deception, ” indicates that forms of popular culture and media are “geared to the larger demands of the capitalist economy” while Walter Benjamin’s, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, ” discusses the production of art and its ability to be reproducible along with how “the mode of human sense perception changes with humanity’s entire mode of existence”. This can be applied to the way Disney incorporates issues of gender, race, and their ability to disguise problematic issues under the umbrella of the false promise of innocence, into its films, media, and stories.
As humanity’s identity had changed to be more critical of issues like race, gender, and a child’s innocence, the production of Disney themed entertainment has come under scrutiny for its portrayal of these themes. In a world where the innocence of children seems to be diminishing at a more rapid rate, the desire to maintain innocence in a child’s life is becoming increasingly important. Sheltering children through restrictions in social media use, movies, television, books, magazines, and other forms of media consumption has become the norm. However, one consistent source of childhood innocence remains. This source is Disney. Disney culture, movies, television shows, and stories are still formally accepted as types of entertainment that maintain a sense of childlike wonder and innocence. However, as proven in “The Mouse that Roared, ” by Henry A. Giroux and Grace Pollock and “Understanding Disney, ” by James Wasko, this concept of innocence in Disney is far more complicated than it seems and provides messages that are more corrupt to children than a Disney consumer would believe. While Disney attempts to maintain a sense of innocence, their products, stories, movies, and narratives remain gendered and give young impressionable children; the idea that women and girls are in constant need of saving and boys/men are the ones who are supposed to rescue them.
One example of Disney’s production of innocence and perpetuated gender stereotypes is through stories. Disney stories are often filled with good versus bad, tales of heroic rescues, and triumph over evil. In “Understanding Disney, ” Wasko explains this writing, “Classic Disney is emphatic in its depiction of good triumphing over evil”. This can be seen in nearly every Disney movie, especially in those that include princesses. Giroux and Pollock reiterate this point as they discuss Aladdin; “Jasmine, the princess he falls in love with, appears as an object of his desire as well as a social stepping-stone. Jasmine’s life is almost completely defined by men, and, in the end, her happiness is ensured by Aladdin, who is finally given permission to marry her”. In this example, there is nothing Jasmine can gain from marrying Aladdin because he is poor, not from the same class, and therefore, her family does not initially approve of him. While Aladdin eventually gained approval from Jasmine’s father to marry her, he had to prove that he could care for her. This perpetuates the idea that a woman cannot care for herself, needs a man to save her, and is not complete on her own. Through this narrative, Aladdin “wins” Jasmine and beats Jafar, as good triumphs over evil again. This engages issued of sexism and gender because through this analysis, the message Aladdin sends to its young audience is; Jasmine is comparable to a prize and is an object rather than a human who’s value and worth should not be defined by men. Disney’s survival is dependent upon capitalism and the capitalist economy. Through Disney, this is accomplished in a manner that requires the perception of innocence of children and a sense of child-like wonder; however, the way this is accomplished makes it so Disney is not as innocent as they seem. This seems to make more sense once Adorno and Horkheimer discuss “the work of art” in their article as they explain “planes. ” In the words of Adorno and Horkheimer; “Works of art are received and valued on two different planes. Two polar types stand out: with one, the accent is on the cult value; with the other, on the exhibition value of the work”.
While Disney’s “works of art” can be valued on both of these planes, the way they use the capitalist economy to maintain their reputation by relying on cult value. Disney has a following that relies on innocence and childhood. For children, it is an attempt to keep them innocent and to provide a childhood in which they are sheltered from the negative aspects of everyday adult life. For adults, Disney is a space where they are transported back to a more nostalgic time or where they can experience a sense of childlike wonder again, allowing them the opportunity to forget their daily lives. In “Understanding Disney, ” this is explained further by Wasko; “We have a natural inclination to seek pleasure and escape…The Disney brand of fantasy is a ready-made, highly promoted, and powerfully seductive option, often assumed to be one of the few “acceptable” options available”.
Through the preservation of Disney stories in theme parks, books, TV, and other types of media; Disney’s ability to provide consistent streams of content that are wholesome and nostalgic allow consumers to keep buying into their products, gong to their parks, and funding their brand. The manner in which Disney creates narratives surrounding princesses and princes, heroes and heroines, and characters that are always in need of saving, fosters a false sense of reality in young viewers. The Little Mermaid is another example of a movie in which the message being sent to the young impressionable viewer is problematic but protected under the guise of innocence and the Disney name. The Little Mermaid is a tale of longing for human qualities and gaining the affection of a suitor. Ariel craves legs, a human life, and to be able to live on land. In order to be with Prince Eric, Ursula tells Ariel, that she needs to have legs because physical attractiveness is the way that she can “get” Prince Eric. However, to get legs, Ariel gives up her voice, which is what initially caught the prince’s attention. Wasko reiterates the point that there is a shift that occurs in women in Disney stories as they are trying to find their place and break out of a mold. They go from wanting independence and freedom to the love of a man. In Ariel’s case, she is willing to give up nearly everything she knows and holds dear. Wasko writes, “…the film still teaches us that we can achieve access and mobility in the white male system if we remain silent, and if we sacrifice our connection to ‘the feminine’”.
The idea that Ariel has to change anything about her in order to have the love and approval of a man, in this case, on land, is an extremely problematic message in general; however, it is especially to impressionable young girls who watch The Little Mermaid. In terms of protecting a child’s innocence, The Little Mermaid almost does the opposite. Depicting a story in which a female character has to give her voice up in order to gain the affection of a man may give the impression that in order to ‘get boys to like them’, girls have to be silent, pretty, and submissive. In “Do You Believe in Fairies? Peter Pan, Walt Disney, and Me, ” by, Elizabeth Bell, the concepts of the construction of gender and the difference in the messages relayed to boys versus girls does not match today’s cultural norm, especially in relation to the slow dismantling of gender roles and the patriarchal society in which they were initially created. Bell describes this sense of masculinity and femininity; “While Disney erases traces of sexuality, he boldly draws male privilege. Peter is very much the center of the world”. Peter is given the role of a small boy with little regard for those around him. Rather, he is given the freedom to be act like a child and be his age. Tinkerbell, on the other hand, is scrutinized for her vulgarity, sexuality, and gender. Bell writes, “Tink was a "vulgar little thing, " but not because of her bottom… Tinker Bell's sexuality is piled on with a vengeance, linked narratively to an American icon of sexuality and vulnerability”. While a child might not understand this particular analysis of Peter Pan; the gender roles and expectations that come along with the way these characters are portrayed do not align with the changing cultural and societal expectations of the coming generation. By beginning to suspend the ideas of what is acceptable for females versus what is acceptable for males, children today are living in an in-between era where a woman can be strong and men are not the center of the world.
The messages in Disney films and stories are considered problematic today because; the way that certain issues are accepted, tolerated, and discussed have changed since the stories were told, passed down, written, and turned into consumable media. The morals, messages, and hidden meanings in Disney films, television, and stories have not progressed with the way social justice, the feminist movement, and LGBTQ rights have advanced. Therefore, while they still seem child-friendly and age-appropriate, they send messages that no longer align with the messages parents want their children to be receiving today or that society deem acceptable.
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s, “The Culture Industry; Enlightenment as Mass Deception draws attention to the changing of culture and the way that the production of culture is just the reproduction of media and ideas that have come before it. This has changed the way children are socialized. The reproduction of Disney stories has become less acceptable because we are now living in a world where the portrayal of topics in Disney media are not acceptable and gender is becoming a perceived social construct. In a society that is changing as rapidly as it is, the stories that children are being told no longer match the cultural identities that have come to exist today.
