Racial Discrimination In Disney Movies Essay

Walt Disney once said, “Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.” Natural resources are controlled by various people. Our children are controlled by Disney. However, I don’t think society realized who they were entrusting their child’s innocence and minds with. In 2016, the Walt Disney Corporation grossed a whopping $55.6 billion, which is a 6% increase from the previous year. The power of Disney over children has only grown since its creation in 1923. But one can’t help but ask who is Walt Disney? Was he racist? If so, was it because of when he grew up or in response to when the company began? Furthermore, is the Walt Disney Corporation still racist today? Or is this just one of those over-analytical, outrageous

Thus, the best thing that Disney could do to ramify their mistakes is remake some of their older films. In a sense, they have a social responsibility to uphold because films, such as Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Peter Pan are still very popular, even though they contain racist ideals. As a historically racist company their main goal should be about becoming more progressive. Although they are on a

Hollywood’s leading animation studio has had many instances of stereotyping and being racially insensitive. Two main examples of their racism towards Native American tribes have been Peter Pan and Pocahontas. In both instances, there have been controversial songs that have the Native Americans at the center. Both depict the stereotypes that are not necessarily true of the tribes.

Walter Elias Disney was an American animator, voice actor, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is known as a national cultural icon, and became famous around the world for the American animation industry. Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney quickly developed a love in art and drawing. He moved to Hollywood in the early 1920’s and set up the Disney Brothers studio with his brother Roy O. Disney. He made characters like Mickey Mouse, Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, and Bambi. In the 1950’s Disney opened up Disneyland, an amusement park that focuses on his creations. Disney was a heavy smoker throughout his lifetime and died of lung cancer in December 1966. However, there are two key facts about Walt Disney that stand out, the fact that people accuse him of being

When Disney introduces new princesses, the first observation made is one concerning beauty. Often times, when Disney designs princesses, the definition of beauty implies a slim waistline, big eyes, and a perfect

Influencing our youth and future world leaders, Disney can create a racist society. Disney’s films have the capability to create a racist culture in the near

Disney princesses are fun for all ages, but their target audience is young children and “as children grow and develop, they can be easily influenced by what they see and hear”. Therefore, what they see and hear in Disney movies leaves an impression on them. The first princess, Snow White, was created in a time where each gender and race had a specific role in society. Recently, many believe that Disney has come a long way in regards to gender and race since Snow White, as several multi-cultural protagonists have been introduced subsequently, and gender roles do not appear to be as stereotypical as they once were. However, many of the apparent innocent messages about race and gender in these movies, can be exposed as otherwise. Despite

For many parents, these Disney/Pixar movies are something nice they can show to their children, they grew up on many of them and they wish to share this joy with their kids as well. If one was to walk up and tell them “These movies are fairly racist, you should show them to your children lest they get the wrong idea!” in most cases, they will find them to be just a closet nutcase and ignore that like it never happened. Society and these movies have conditioned the people so much that people cannot even identify the racism present, because when they see it, those cases are not seen in there head as unnatural but the opposite so then it fades into the background and unless asked to focus they probably

It seems like the entertainment icon Walt Disney Company has been around since the beginning of time, entertaining the public with its lifelike and imaginative animations and characters. Nearly every parent and child that was born in the last century has experienced a Disney animated film at some point in their lifetime, which has left either a negative or positive impression on them. The experiences with Disney films leaves most viewers with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside or the feeling of happiness, because the films themselves take the viewer on a ride out of their reality into the World of imagination, fairytales, and fantasy. On the contrary some ethnic viewers leave Disney films feeling misrepresents, disrespected, and upset regarding the way that Disney choses to represent race and cultures other than Caucasian in their films. The Disney company discriminates against people of ethnic backgrounds, does not take into consideration the cultural differences between ethnic groups and deliberately stereotypes and homogenizes all racial groups and protagonist in their films.

if that is bad enough, Mulan’s unintelligent and socially awkward sidekicks serve as comedic function, which alters the authenticity of the film and offended many Chinese viewers. Disney’s production team really dropped the ball when they decided to have Mulan tote around a sidekick cricket for good luck, because crickets are not considered good luck in Chinese culture and therefor they once again negatively affected the authenticity of the film, which unknowingly offended many Chinese people (Amy, 53).

In Disney films, there is a lot of misogyny amongst female main characters. Many people in our society have noticed a significant difference in the speaking roles between male and female characters that Disney created, as men had way more lines than the women. Because these movies were mostly created in the mid-late 1900’s, this was the time that there was plenty of prejudice against females. Now, in the year 2017, females are getting a little more equality than before to the point where many females now have jobs that were only for males in the 1900’s. Most Disney movies for that matter involve some sort of misogyny, even the ones that recently came out such as ‘Brave’ and ‘Frozen’. Examples of various levels of misogyny can be noticed in Disney films such as Ariel in ‘The Little Mermaid’ (1989), directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. The movie is about a 16-year-old mermaid who wants to live on land with a human Prince named Eric but is only able to after making a dangerous wish with ‘Ursula the Sea Witch’ to be a human for three days. In this movie ‘Ariel The Mermaid’, prejudice can be seen in Ursula, by a female having too much authority, Ariel cannot speak, and Ariel uses her appearance to attract others.

Racism: discrimination which exemplifies stereotypical differences between the ethnic groups to which people belong. While Disney animated films are the ideal family movies, it is undisclosed to many that such racism is being portrayed. Disney’s movie Aladdin (1992), “was a high-profile release, the winner of two Academy Awards, and one of the most successful Disney films ever produced” (Giroux, 104); however, what is often disregarded is the obvious depiction of careless racism towards Arabs seen in the illustrations of the characters, the statuses into which they are placed and the lyrics of the opening song near beginning of the film. Furthermore, with the movie disguising itself as innocent and wholesome, children are exposed to these

For decades now, Disney Corporation has been providing us with countless films made to delight and amuse children and adults alike. But not all Disney films seem particularly appropriate for their target audience. Many of these films portray violence, gender inequality, and skewed views of leadership roles that seem altogether inappropriate for impressionable young children. Better and more contemporary heroines need to be added to Disney’s wall of princesses in order to counteract years of sexism.

Walt Disney Animation Studios is a large part in America’s entertainment industry. Reaching children and adults through their many platforms, Disney has been influencing people for over 90 years. These films have played a huge role in the society displays of gender roles. This is seen in the representation in their characters, more importantly females. Culture has been going through changes in the past couple of decades and Disney reflects the changes in society through its characters. Popular culture rises with each of Disney’s films and become well known with their recognizable roles. The Disney Princess line up has been a rising influence since 1937 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and continues to present with the current release of Moana, the most revolutionary Disney Princess as of yet.

A little girl sits on the floor with her gaze fixed on the television screen in front of her, watching magical images dance before her eyes and catchy songs flow through her ears. Even though she had seen it at least twenty times before, she still loved The Little Mermaid just as much as she did the first time she watched it. As she watched it, she longed to be a beautiful mermaid with a curvy body and wonderful singing voice like Ariel. She longed to be saved by the handsome Prince Eric, and fall in love and live happily ever-after like Ariel did. In today’s society, women strive to achieve equality between the sexes. Despite the tremendous steps that have been taken towards reaching gender equality, mainstream media contradicts these