Disney is bad. I don’t need my daughters growing up thinking they need to marry a prince to be happy. In fact, they don’t even need to get married. They will be strong independent women capable of making themselves happy… right? Plus Walt Disney has been accused several times over of including racist pieces in his movies. You can Google it and check it out. But I don’t want this piece to be an analysis of Disney. It’s about how I have lost the battle of keeping Disney out of my house.
When my oldest was born, I did my hardest to stay away from Disney. I thought, ‘we don’t need advertisements in our home,’ and I was successful, for a while. But then it started with a pair of pajamas from Grandma… The Little Mermaid. . I saw the Little Mermaid in high school – even bought the soundtrack. Okay I thought. Then my husband bought the DVD Cinderella. I watched it. I don’t like that Cinderella gets married, but I like that DVD because it’s more about the mice and the cat than it is about Cindy. Plus, it’s so old that it’s done with an orchestra and I can handle listening to it. But why does Cinderella need a man to save her? Snow White? Sleeping Beauty? Ariel? Belle is the only one who falls in love for loves sake but she still ends up with a man. And need I mention that these princesses are all white?
Then, my downfall occurred. One day at the mall we were walking by the Disney store and they had indoor play tents on sale: Tinkerbelle Fairy tents. I don’t know what happened, but I wanted that tent. It was more about fairies than princesses, so I broke down. My first Disney purchase. And my daughter loved it. I began my tumble downhill and have been sliding ever since.
Our friends have dress up, we go to princess parties, and our cousins have Disney everything including pajamas and beach towels. But a couple of other events have happened that have made me stop and assess what I want to teach my girls. Playing dress up was fine, but then we were over to a friend’s house playing Cinderella. The girls lost the shoe at the end of the ball, but they were walking down the isle to get married. I looked at my friend and she said, “ I know, I know this is what we play.” And my daughter was having such a good time; that I couldn’t stop her from playing.
The second event happened at dinner a couple of nights ago. The oldest was talking about dressing up and playing princesses and she said, “I’m going to be a princes. I’m going to be a princess like you mommy and get maaaaaarrrrrried.” And she points up to our 8x10-wedding picture. Of course, Mommy was a princess and she wants to be like mommy. It was so sweet. I wonder to myself if Disney knows how powerful their marketing campaign actually is. They got my husband to buy DVDs because of tradition. They got me to buy because of the fairies (they’re not really Disney, right?) And well, now my daughter has bought into princesses & the institution of marriage.
I guess there will always be outside influences, but I need to constantly re-evaluate my beliefs about popular culture and what I want to teach my child about popular culture. And as a parent I always have to ask myself, “What is this really teaching my child? What are the underlying influences?” There are three traits I want my daughters to have: strength, confidence and independence. Because I want them growing up knowing that they are the sole providers of their happiness and they don’t need to marry a prince to get it. Guess I have a lot of work a head of me.
If you’d like to read some titillating articles about Disney and racism you can check out the links below.
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/boardarchives/2005/dec2005/racismdisney_1.html
A more balanced article: http://animatedfilms.suite101.com/article.cfm/floyd_norman_on_animation
http://www.mediaed.org/videos/CommercialismPoliticsAndMedia/MickeyMouseMonopoly/studyguide/html
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