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The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The Unfortunate Truth about Disney Movies

The Unfortunate Truth about Disney Movies

What has Disney done to our youth?

As an avid Disney fan, this column was heart-breaking to write, but true. The lessons exemplified in Disney films have skewed our every belief .

Let us examine the Disney princesses. The first Disney princess, debuted in 1937, was Snow White. The young princess is banished from her home by her jealous stepmother, runs away to the forest and finds refuge with seven vertically-challenged men, eats a poisoned apple from an old hag, dies, and is brought back to life by a prince’s kiss.

Lesson learned: Having an irrational fear of old, ugly people is understandable, and necrophilia is an acceptable way to show affection.

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The next Disney princess film, Cinderella, appeared in 1950, a time of post-war propagnda and rampid sexism. The story follows a young girl forced into white slavery, who must cook and clean to survive and prevent her own homelessness. In the end, she is saved by a rich prince.

Lesson learned: Make good sandwiches, and marry rich.

By the 1980s, Disney made its characters a little more rebellious, a theme that matched the political and social tensions of the period with Princess  Ariel, from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. The young ginger mermaid is unsatisfied with her comfortable palace under the sea and decides to sell all of her good qualities in order to stalk a boy she met once. She disobeys her father’s orders and runs away to frolic around on the beach.

Lesson learned:  Rebel against your parents and use your good looks to get ahead in life. Also, sacrifice your most sacred qualities, like your voice, to get a boyfriend.

Now we reach the 1990s, one of Disney’s gold eras of featured animated films. Belle from Beauty and the Beast, is shunned by French society for being smart and willingly becomes a prisoner to a bitter, yet somehow good-looking, beast-man.

Lesson learned: Bestiality is okay. Also, fighting mob mentality can lead to dangerous side effects, possibly death.

Even some of the unofficial dames of Disney movies exhibit some disturbing behavior. Tinkerbell, from Disney’s Peter Pan, is extremely possessive of Peter. When Wendy Darling comes into the picture, Tinkerbell directly tries to kill her. I would like to think murder is not an appropriate topic for children’s films. Aurora, from the movie Sleeping Beauty, is tricked into her 100-year slumber because the needle on the spinning-wheel was particularly shiny. What is she, a crow?

Furthermore, all the stark heroines of the films end up finding their true loves and getting married. You never see a Disney heroine becoming an independent woman who continues to break barriers in the male-dominated society. No Disney princess becomes rulers of their countries, or Presidents, or even single, unmarried, working women. Girls and boys alike grow up with these movies to have unrealistic, and slightly sexist, expectations of the world. We can’t all have handsome princes save us from evil witches. Even the character Mulan, official warrior of China, ends up marrying her dreamy captain and settling down. What ever happened to the value in independence?

So much for happily ever after.

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  • B

    Bob WoodwardOct 29, 2011 at 12:49 pm

    Ha ha ha: “What is she, a crow?” Aren’t all women spellbound by shiny objects??

    Reply
  • J

    Jess EvansOct 26, 2011 at 2:27 am

    Love IT 🙂

    Reply