Eyes Wide Open

Wow! The film we saw in class about Disney was shocking but also very eye-opening. I never noticed the sexist and racist nature of Disney's movies. When the film showed the clear evidence of the sexist nature and racist portrayal in Disney's work, it was amazing to think that I had never noticed these things before. This blog will discuss the sexist nature and then I'll write about racism in a future blog.
We have discussed in class previously the fact that Disney portrays almost all of their princess characters as caucasion. Until the release of the upcoming movie which apparently does have an African American woman, Disney has had no African American princesses. Even Pocahontas and Jasmine were sorry attempts at depicting different ethnicities. In other words, their features still looked white even though they were a tiny bit darker in complexion. However, I had never noticed just how sexualized the female characters are, and not just the princesses, but all of them. The females have big breasts, tiny waists, and ample hips. They also have large doe-like eyes and long eyelashes. It is bad enough that the women all look this way, but they also portray the females as being seductive and sexual. They walk in a seductive manner and often bat their long eyelashes at the males. The most shocking thing I saw on the expose film was the discussion of Jasmine trying to seduce the evil man, Jafar, in the movie "Aladdin." The film showed this scene in which Jasmine suddenly becomes very seductive in her body posture, actions, and words. She compliments Jafar and then tries to kiss him to take his attention off of Aladdin, who is trying to escape. This scene in a Disney movie makes it seem to young women and girls that it is okay to manipulate men with your sexuality. I might expect to see that in an R-rated movie or adult television, but it seems out of place in a Disney film, especially since they are marketed to children. Even the old cartoon clips from the 60's and 70's show very sexualized and seductive girls, fairies, and other female creatures. The film explained and gave proof that even the female animals in Disney movies bat their long eyelashes and act seductively toward the males. Maybe Walt Disney thought that if Hugh Hefner could have sexy bunnies, he could too!

Now that my eyes are open, I'm going to be watching out for this kind of sexist material, and have some discussions about Disney with my kids.