The magic bullet perspective is only
intensified through cultivated research which is another highly discussed issue
in the film. Disney is a huge part of
children’s lives and with the massive monopoly over children, many will be very
deeply connected to these animated films and take many lessons away from what
they see. Dr. Justin Lewis shows how
widespread Disney is and explains that these stories will be the stories that
form a child’s imaginary world. Disney
has immense power all over the world and this shows how critical it is to
understand the impact these stories are causing. Dr. Alvin Poussaint furthered these claims by
explaining how children were raised on Disney for many generations and is
becoming part of American culture in terms of identity. The film interviewed college students and
showedg the influence Disney stories have had on them. First Marc Nowak recited an entire Disney song
that he loved as a child, Meaghan Sinclair talked about all the fond memories
she has, and Nicole Gagerges claimed that the first Disney film she ever saw
was before she could talk. These
examples show how often these films are presented to the youth of America and
have impacted them for the rest of their live.
Marc Nowak would have had to have seen “The Little Mermaid” countless
times to be able to sing the entire scene from memory. Singing a Disney song may not be harmful but
when connected to the other themes that play a crucial part of these animated
films, one can easily see how detrimental it could be for children to be
exposed to these motifs time and time again.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Online Assignment 3_Rykoskey
The “Mickey Mouse Monopoly” goes
into great detail about the impact Disney films have on our youth. One of the major themes presented was the
Magic Bullet Perspective. Dr. Gail Dines
expresses concern about the role woman play in Disney films mainly because of the
“highly sexualized female bodies” with common traits of a “tiny waste, big
breasts and fluttering eyelashes.” These films she concludes are “constructing
notions about what femininity is.” Dr.
Diane Levin furthers this theme by showing how children fail to think about how
the representations don’t look like people in real life. They don’t make comparisons and this shapes kid’s
image about how they are going to look. Examples are shown through a scene from
“Aladdin” where Jasmin becomes a seductress to distract the bad guy and through
“Tarazan” where the girl needs to be rescued by a male. It shows how females are taught at a young
age that they need to use their bodies in a fashion not always appropriate in
real life in addition to the fact that females lack the ability to save their
own lives. This translates to real life
as shown in a clip from “The Mirror Project” where a young girl is acting out
the seductress role presented in many of the Disney films she has likely
indulged in many times.
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The portrayal of women in Disney movies really stood out to me as well. It is kind of depressing analyzing all of these movies I grew up watching and just ripping them open to see how subtly awful they are. The magic bullet effect really does have a huge effect--luckily I think us students are more immune to it (we are lucky to be able to learn about this). But it is definitely a huge problem for the youth of the nation. Their minds are shaped so easily, so it is very important to make sure they are somewhat literate with the media they consume. It is probably beneficial that we are living in a society that is more and more tolerant of equality for all races and genders, but even with that being said, Disney still has a responsibility to make sure they are creating pure content.
ReplyDeleteGreat job on your analysis. The quote from Dr. Justin Lewis also drew my attention. I thought it was interesting yet incredibly true to know the influence that Disney has on the imagination of children all over the world. When their movies are shown in countries all over the world, the audience they are molding is massive. That's such a huge influence on the beliefs that children grow up with. The other thing that also stood out to me was the scenes from the "Mirror Project." The way that young girl was imitating the female singer used in a Disney film was disturbing knowing that the things she was imitating are adult themed yet they are clearly being marketed to children. The whole sexualization of children in Disney movies is shocking as it is so blatantly obvious once it is pointed out to us, but as a kid who grew up with these films, I did not realize until now.
ReplyDeleteI can agree with both of the above comments that your analysis of the representation of women by Disney in terms of the magic bullet theory is done well. In fact as female growing up watching these films, I can even identify with the girls portrayed in the "Mirror Project". Growing up, every single one of my friends and I had our favorite Disney princesses we would imitate when "playing house" and in each scenario we were pretending to find our own prince to "save us". As I grew up these fantasies grew less and less realistic and appealing to my friends and I, but the fact remains that we saw these princesses as role models and people whom we wanted to be. It's scary and almost insulting to me now that Disney would portray a role model for young women as so week and sexualized.
ReplyDeleteThe magic bullet perspective was an integral part of the “Mickey Mouse Monopoly”. Media has large direct impacts on viewers. I agree that the youth are more susceptible to media influence because they lack the ability to compare media messages to the real world. As mentioned in the documentary, the perceptions of the youth are often shaped and skewed by media such as Disney films and often create altered world views. I like the example you used from Dr. Diane Levin about the model of femininity that is portrayed in most Disney media. The stigmatized roles females play in essentially all Disney films are limited to the seductress and the damsel in distress; all the while illustrating the grossly disproportionate body structure of a “tiny waist, big breasts and fluttering eyelashes”. We need to be more aware of these types of gender representations that are exposed to the youth. These demented perceptions of women and men ultimately put pressure on young children to aspire to attain a certain image which can lead to perception and health issues as the children grow up. The effects of Disney are longer lasting than I personally believed prior to this documentary. As you cited the documentary interviews college students and questions them about the effects of Disney which are quite substantial. It is interesting to see the effects of Disney on people at the age we can directly relate to. Your connection to the magic bullet perspective had ample support and provided a smooth argument.
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