Did you ever sit down with some popcorn and flip on a classic Disney movie with your sibling, cousin, or small neighbor? Or maybe you were just all alone on a Friday night with a slightly slanted party hat on your head. Whichever it was, did you ever think, "Hey! That was pretty weird...that seems odd to be in a Disney movie." Well don't shake that feeling off because for once your right! There are plenty of Disney movies where they make you wonder about what the movie is really all about and it gets you to say "hmm...That's not right." Disney isn't as innocent and child-loving as you may think, my friend. it's actually quite a corrupt money-making corporation that throws propaganda wrapped in mouse ears towards your little loved ones. I've decided to narrow down Disney's brainwashing techniques towards little children into three categories that I feel are the clearest.
The first theme that influences children's views of themselves is beauty. All of the classic princesses are beautiful beyond compare and are very dolled up with fancy clothing and makeup. This sends the message to little girls everywhere that they must dress like this and look like this in order to find there prince charming. There is not only an issue of being not pretty enough, but also being too pretty. In Snow White, the princess was too pretty for her own good and was to be killed immediately. The evil villains in these movies are depicted as ugly and in several cases said to be witches. Now children have the intention that witches and their witchcraft are evil. In "The Little Mermaid" Ursula is displayed to be a witch and is also fat. Little children are now lead to believe that all fat people are evil. There is a lot more on this specific theme but I'll move on to the next which is sexism. The princesses have stereo typical girl roles and always find themselves being in trouble and needing to be rescued by a handsome prince, showing that all women are helpless and cannot do anything by themselves. They are projected as being very vain and doing all the housework. Ariel had to change from being a mermaid to a human for her prince Eric, but why couldn't prince Eric change for her? A main scene that sticks out in my head is in "Peter Pan" when Peter has like eight girlfriends. Tinker bell, Wendy, Tiger Lilly, and the five other mermaids. I mean come on! That's just not right. This is showing children that they should not be nice to each other but fight for there man and be jealous and catty towards each other. Tinker bell was so jealous of Wendy that she tried to kill her, which brings me to my next theme being violence. In all the classic Disney movies, there is some sort of battle against good and evil at the end. The movies don't show appropriate ways of dealing with conflict and kids under seven can't distinguish fantasy from reality which shows them that this is a good way they can solve there problems. In "Snow White" the evil queen gave Snow White a poison apple which is intended to kill Snow White. This causes little children to fear apples and deprive them of there necessary daily intake of nutrition a growing child so dearly needs.
In every Disney movie, it ends with everyone smiling and rejoicing and there is always a happily ever after. This isn't the case in the real world, as you all probably know, but children don't know this and these classic Disney flicks don't prepare children for the hardships of real life. There are plenty of other themes Disney uses to brainwash children, so the next time you're watching a Disney movie look a little bit closer, because you might see something you never thought was there.
Daggi Pulz is co-webmaster at http://www.links2see.com an online family directory. She can be contacted at Daggi@links2see.com
