Disney - Pre Class Post

"Disney is the great supranational bridge across which all human beings may communicate with each other." (Ariel Dorfam and Mattelart 123) This is so true. I moved lots as a child and remember always loving to watch Disney movies, going to Disney World or having some kind of Disney toy - and all other kids no matter where I lived knew it too! So yes indeed I would have to agree Disney is huge, well known every where in the world and may let all humans being communicate with each other in some way, shape or form. To give Disney the Nobel Peace Prize may have gone a bit too far, though, I believe.

Disney is so well known and 'loved' around the world because it is a place where utopia lives. Disney, a juvenile literature, embodying purity, spontaneity, and natural virtue, while lacking in sex and violence, represents earthly paradise (Dorfman 126). No matter what Disney movie we watch it always has a happy ending. If you start out poor (Cinderella) you turn into a princess, if you are lonely (Snow White) you get swept off your feet by the man of your dreams, if you are a minority (Pocahontas) there's nothing to fear because the Caucasian man will fall in love with you and save you...and so on. Everyone child can relate to something in a Disney character and take away their worries, bring happiness and laughter to their hearts. At the same time Disney reinforces all ideologies that the rest of mass media does such as, the woman needing the man to be complete, the man being protective over the woman, the male being the strong and dominant gender, the female being lovely, caring and pretty...So from a very early age we know what our dreams should be - for me it was to be a princess and to find the man of my dreams. Maybe because that's what Disney told me when I was younger?!

It is interesting how Dorfman mentioned that it is the adults that produce these comics (126). I never really thought about that. It is the adult that want to escape into this world. But this salvation only offers him an imperfect escape; it can never be so pure as to block off all his real life problems (127).