Questions to ponder
What is your relationship to Disney and animated children's culture?
Disney's fairy tales and cartoons back then have always portrayed women, men, race, gender inequalities, and status in a negative way. If you truly take the time to dissect and analyze the old fair tales and cartoons, it does not represent all that has been overcome. However there is still more work to be done. Even though there has been some changes to how characters are depicted their is still more work to be done.
What roles did these texts play in your life as a child, if any?
In my life, I am uncertain how much it played a role, however, for other children I shared time with it might of had some impact on how they see themselves. At the point where they are unable to relate to a character who is not of their culture or race and they feel they need to make changes based on what is being depicted, that becomes problematic. For example the hair type straight vs curly. At one point my daughter wanted her hair to be straight and the idea could only stem from media. I myself did not embrace my hair texture and felt the need to straighten when ever possible. Today's society females our embracing their natural hair of any type and wearing it proudly. Text does play a role in a child's life. For myself, one thing that did stick out with one particular cartoon was Tom and Jerry. I could not understand in certain episodes when I was an preadolescence why Tom's owner, who was a black heavy set black female, was only depict showing only her lower body parts never her face. It was troublesome but after reading Christensen I have a better understanding the reason behind it.
How do your memories challenge or reflect Christensen's claims?
After reading Christensen and reflecting back to Disney fairy tales, my believes therefore is that Disney's children movies depicted characters for girls and women to strive to be and what is accepted in society. Disney movies portray stereotypes of male, female, Which does not encompass all the changes and movements that have been taking place in the world. One quote that stuck out was when Christensen refers to one of Dorfman's quote "Industrially produced fiction has become one of the primary shapers of our emotions and our intellect in the twentieth century" pg. 177.
How does Frozen meet or challenge memories of princess culture?
In Frozen, Elsa meets and challenges memories of princess cultures. In the beginning she follows the stereotypical princesses culture of being perfect, dressing appropriately covering all parts of the body showing little to no skin, being caring, pleasing behavior, and pleasing everyone. After all that pressure to be perfect during her crowning, which emphasizes her beauty and her femininity as if she was being rewarded for embodying all they expected of her. After one mishap takes place after removing her gloves during her crowning, she explodes. When everyone realize she has a flaw, she is no longer held up on this pedestal. This was the turning point. At that point, her layers begin to peel off. She no longer embodies the stereotypical princess instead she becomes this aggressive feminist. Elsa's layers begins to peel off layer by layer (takes off her gloves, lets her hair down, and removes her attire). Her transformation almost exhibit this sexy vixen who is no longer longing for approval.
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