Disney Movies
The negative influence of Disney movies on children Disney movies have a target audience of young impressionable children. Although Disney movies on first glance are entertaining and educational for the young mind it actually has many hidden messages that children do not realize are negative and believe that what they see is what is true. Disney movies contain a negative representations that are racist towards ethnic groups, sexism towards the behaviour and treatment of women, and construct false realities which are destructive to the human dignity.
Disney movies contain stereotypical ideologies related to ethnicity that construct a negative representation. In many different Disney movies different ethnic groups are represented in different shapes and forms, some positive, others very offensive. As young children watch these movies they are exposed to all it’s content and belive that what they see is true. Disney does not directly display the racism but make it so that it is infered. Specifically, in a Disney movie the black community is shown as hyennas.
The hyennas are represented as noisy, rude, and disruptive. For instance, when a boy was walking down the street with his mother a group of black children were playing in the park. The boy told his mother that the hyennas were behind them. The boy who watched the movie was made to believe that when he hears a noisy group it clicks in his mind that they are of the black community. The young boy does not know that it is wrong as he was exposed to the Disney movie that made him believe that racist stereotype.
By the same token, in another Disney movie the mexican community are represented as little chihuahuas with an accent and negative stereotypes. Likewise the asian community is represented in one movie as siamese cats with slender eyes. As a consequence children who watch Disney movies are exposed to many racist stereotypical ideologies that construct negative representations. Secondly, Disney movies contains negative ideologies related to norms of behaviour for genders and age. How Disney portrays gender in their movies is in one of the most negative ways.
Young boys and girls will watch the movies and will learn not only how to treat the other gender but also stereotypes on their own gender. Children will also learn that age is not just a number, it defines who you are as a person. Disney movies show older men as wise, smart know it alls which is all not that bad but not a truthful statement. It also shows that older women are mean, villeanous, evil, and rude which is also a false statement. Disney labels stereotypes on age groups that children believe and associate in real life.
Similarly, Disney labels portrays negative ideologies of the norms of behaviour of both men and women. In fact in a very famous Disney, “Beauty and the Beast” the stereotypes are very easily seen to an educated eye but to a childs eye it’s just new information. In “Beauty and the Beast” there are many ideologies presented, a very obvious one is how the Prince Adam the Beast treats Belle, how Belle believes she can change the Beast. In the movie Belle is treated with huge amount of disrespect, being locked in her room and told to starve, getting abused physically and verbally.
Belle also thinks that even though the Beast is mean and cold hearted she can change him in to a prince charming. When a child is exposed to how Belle is treated, how the Beast is such a powerful man, and how Belle still believes she can change him, the child will start to think like it is portrayed in the movie that women do not need to be treated properly, men are the dominant, strong and brave gender, and even though women are mistreated they will keep coming back in hope to change them.
As a result, Disney movies portray negative ideologies to children related to norms of genders and how they are treated and how age affects the intellectuallity and personality. Lastly, Disney movies construct a false reality of this generations culture. By implementing all the different ideologies of race, gender, age, and many others a young child is easily influenced into believing that what he sees in his/her favorite disney movie is a reality of every day life.
When a child learns negative ideologies such as stereotypes of ethnicity (like the boy who referred to a group of black children has hyennas as he remembered from a movie the laughing and noise they made) they start to believe that what happens in the film is also happens in reality. Young girls especially are the most influenced as in Disney women are portrayed as always cooking, cleaning, getting verbally, physcially and emotionally abused and just taking it.
Young girls start to believe that it is a reality and it is their job to do those chores and it is acceptable to be treated poorly. Disney through their movies construct a false reality of how today’s generation works and destructs the human dignity. In closing, Disney movies contain a negative representations that are racist towards ethnic groups, sexism towards the behaviour and treatment of women, and construct false realities which are destructive to the human dignity.
As a result of all the the negative stereotypes, young children who do not know any better than what they see in their favorite Disney are made to think that negative ideologies such as racism and sexism are acceptable in today’s reality. As a consequence children are given a propaganda by disney that they can not deconstruct since they are so young and construct a misrepresentation of society. In brief, Disney movies negatively influence children.
