No better precursor to Disney than fairytales. Dr. Henry Giroux has said it better than anyone, “Disney has made a spectacle of innocence”. And what better way to do this than commercialize fairy tales? From Beauty and the Beast to Cinderella to Snow White, Walt managed to completely commercialize fairy tales for children. And how does he show women working? Here is a little taste from my personal favourite movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Well doesn’t that look like fun?
Young girls grow up seeing this as female work? I know that role models like this won’t produce political leaders or CEO’s. Dr. Justin Lewis says about the media that a “certain environment of images that we grow up in and get used to…and after a while, these images begin to shape what we know and understand about the world.” By having young girls exposed to images of dainty women who do not work, or at least no work past housework, it is definitely shaping how they understand the world. Disney constructs notions of what it means to be a woman, and impressionable kids quickly absorb these ideals. So if there are not already enough problems with Disney films, we can now fully agree that there are absolutely no positive, working female role models in Disney films. So who does a girl look up to? I guess this is what we have to look forward to…
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