Where Dreams Come True?

I have always been a big Disney fan. Whether it meant going to Disney World or watching Disney movies in the comfort of my own home, it has always been a large part of my childhood. Classics like Cinderella, Snow White and Beauty and the Beast, had never been challenged until I began CMC. Last class, we were discussing how hegemonic masculinity exists where men are taught to be violent. This among other issues such as the intelligence of women not being supported and the idea that a woman needs to be completed by a man are all reoccurring patterns that exist within the Disney culture. This teaches children at a young age to believe these ideas and turn them into norms. Apparently, Disney is not all that it is cracked up to be.

Dorfman and Mattelart bring new light to the problems with Disney in “Introduction: Instructions on How to Become a General in the Disneyland Club. They argue that anyone who negatively criticizes Disney is deemed indecent and a political agitator. I think that it is a big problem that no one is questioning Disney as it shows how comfortable everyone is with that type of society. It seems as though people are also afraid to disapprove of it because it is such a large part of society and because it is supposed to “make dreams come true”. The issues I previously discussed such as a woman needing to be completed by a man becomes conditioned into the lives of children thereby causing this notion that Dorfman and Mattelart call a “new reality”. Adults are imposing this “new reality” (126) on their children, believing it to be essential. At such a young age how are you supposed to know what fantasy is and what isn’t? As a result, the line between desire and reality becomes blurred. The other problem is that children learn how to handle certain situations by what the media (Disney) tells them. In a sense, this switches the authority figure from the parent to Disney.