6/25- Disney and Me

Question: What is your relationship to Disney and animated children’s culture?  What role did these texts play in your life as a child, if any? In that of any children you share time with? How do your memories challenge or reflect Christensen’s claims? How does Frozen meet or challenge your memories of princess culture

Growing up, I used to tell my pediatric doctor that my dream career was becoming Cinderella and living in her castle in Disneyland was my future home.... so Disney was kind of a big deal to me. As a child growing up, I loved watching Disney films, to the point that I watched at least one daily. I would dress up in princess costumes and imagine I was in the movies with my sisters. I relived each movie as if I was preparing for my future role as a princess. To match my dramatic play during the day, we also had the Disney story books ready to go for bedtime. Every night I would be read to sleep with a story about a princess being saved by a prince, or following her dream. Even though all the stories were fantasy, they gave me hope that one day great, magical things would come to me; as long as I acted like the princesses.

Now that I am older, I have younger cousins that I can relive my love of Disney with. Yes, sometimes they tell me that I'm too old to be a princess, but that's okay. My youngest cousin, Emma even had a Disney themed birthday party where all of her friends got to dress up as Disney characters. I participated too. It was my chance and I took it!

Looking back into my memories of being obsessive over Disney and all of the magic I believed it shared, I now reflect and see how it gave me a false sense of reality at times. Christensen highlights the idea of a "secret education" (p.175) and how the stories that Disney tells have hidden meanings embedded within the happily ever afters told. Now that I am older, some of the magic has faded and I can see some messages and details clearly as something that holds a negative take on societal norms. Once example that comes to mind is Ursula from The Little Mermaid. She is painted in dark colors and has a body image that is very much different than Ariel's dainty and "perfect" body. I remember thinking, when I was younger, that Ursula was so disgusting. Why did I think this? I believe now that it's because Disney painted someone that is formed and classified as curvy as an evil. Body image normalcies were painted and scrutinized through Disney films; giving evil characters "imperfections". This is one example of a "secret education" that Christensen mentions and believes.

While re-watching Frozen, I think that Frozen, in ways, challenges the expectation of Disney movies created in previous generations. The happily ever after in this film is Else stepping back onto the throne in Arendelle, without a man by her side. I think this breaks up any expectation that a woman needs a man to be happy. It also destroys the norm of a male character being the authority of power in a Disney film. To me, Elsa is the ultimate princess in many ways. Anna also is able to challenge my idea of what Disney was because she willingly ventures out on a quest to save her sister. Past Disney movies display quests taken by a brave male character, or the "knight in shining armor". Anna shows her bravery and her willingness, which also convinces me that this is how a woman should be portrayed. She also puts finding love on the backburner because she realizes that there are greater priorities to care about.

I know that I still love Disney movies as a part of my childhood. However, I feel that the newer movies, such as Frozen and Moana, are truly the movies that kids need to take in and think of as influencers. Messages of strong female characters are portrayed and I think this is something that young girls need to see and relate to as their identities are forming and adapting to their own world. The magic of Disney is still alive, but is evolving to display a new form of magic.