In this blog posting, I want to show another type of hegemony in a different popular genre that everybody is familiar with. On YouTube, I found some interesting videos on how Disney films represent the “Other” and how the hidden hegemony has permeated in our lives since childhood. Not only in US, but also all over the world as Disney has a global market.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LibK0SCpIkk
This video shows how the “Other” is represented. They are always portrayed as exotic, primitive, erotic, sensual, mysterious, stupid, tribal (dancing and singing all day long), and sometimes evil. Towards the end, you’ll see how Disney films reinforces the ideas of the black slavery and classism and racism against African-American in US (or Black people around the world). If you read some of the comments, you may understand how powerful this hegemony is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg2T_t2UtlU&NR=1
While the first video shows the visual dimension in Disney films, the second focuses more on the sound and lyrics in Disney films. Everything (re)presented in Disney films is so subtle and influential that may have gradually shaped our worldview.
Think about some other examples of hegemony you had when you were growing up. Toys? Story books? Games?
This makes me reflect back on how I once saw Ursula in The Little Mermaid (one of my favorite Disney movies) as different. Ursula represents this mythical creature that is in opposition to the dreams of the "innocent" mermaid Ariel. The part that I noticed but at time could not give a name was the appearance of Ursula. She is an overweight intersection of an octupus and a human. She is an evil "coloured" character. Hmmm...Now, I see it and understand this to be a inaccurate representation of the "other." It may seem that my analysis of this film is far-fetched. However, it truly supports the ideas presented in Fisks's article about representation and who has the right to control one's reprensentation. Disney, a global market , represents a pure example of how difference is fixed and displayed only to appear as harmless entermainment for kids. The fact that Ursula is a dark creature that happens to be overweight is worthy of further discourse. I also remember how going in toy stores I could never find a Barbie doll that looks like me with African-American features. This is due to hegemony discreetly included by the makers of these toys and films in an attempt to devalue the existence of cultural groups that exist outside of dominant groups. While reading the comments below the video you posted, I saw how many people seem to think that racism did not exist in these films. I beg to differ. It is a harsh reality that has apparently shaped the world view of race. However, industrialization and assimilation play a key role in this commodification of difference that these commenters fail to see by saying that these films are not visual representations of discreet hegemony. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteAs a former Disney employee in 2008, I hate to say that this is part of Disney's history that they want to brush off and act like it never existed. I was bold enough while I was in Orlando to ask my managers if I could meet with those in higher positions so that I could express my concern with the history of racism in Disney movies. Of course I was shut down, but I did not give up, for I was extremely vocal about my disapproval of why they did not have an African-American leading female character (this was before The Princess and the Frog came out). However even in this movie, there are still examples of hegemonic texts and stereotypical portrayals of Southern Blacks.
ReplyDeleteIt is also an urban legend that Walt Disney was in fact racist and even supported the Nazi Party in Germany, but in addition, it is argued that Mickey and Minnie Mouse are supposed to be represented as being Black. Anyways, Walt Disney's whole mission for his company was to be what people would think of when they think about America. Therefore, it does not surprise me that all the main characters and "heroes" of his movies all have American accents while everyone else, including the villains, have that country's accent.
I agree with Precious that it was always hard for my parents to find an African-American Barbie doll that was the same skin tone as me, for a lot of the dolls that we supposed to represent Blacks were fair-skinned with light eyes (i.e. Vanessa Williams). What I did appreciate about The Princess and the Frog was that Tiana was not only Black, but she was not extremely fair-skinned, but browned-skinned. In this sense, hegemony is not only working with Black versus White, but Dark versus Light. All in all, Disney needs to own up to their racist past and along with The Princess and the Frog, start by making more movies that are not stereotypical of minorities, especially now since minorities are starting to outnumber the "majority". So if Disney is supposed to represent America, these stereotypical images/sounds are not necessary, right? Super fantastic blog by the way.
Some of these clips were overtly racist, but I guess one must consider the time that a lot of these movies were made. The most racist Disney thing that I have seen is "Commando Duck", a short anti-Japanese piece that was used as World War II propaganda. In it, Donald Duck is a United States army officer going "somewhere in the Pacific" as the video says. There he battles the Japanese who are portrayed as short monkey-like barbarians. Obviously this is going to be more offensively racist as it is propaganda intended to inspire a reaction towards efforts in a global war, but it is still offensive. John Fiske writes, "The power to represent the world is the power to represent us in it or it in us, for the final stage of representing merges the representor and represented into one." Aladdin is an example of a movie where Disney represented a section of the world, the Middle East, and where the represented and representor were merged into one. Also, besides "Commando Duck" I do not think that any of the clips shown allude to any sort of conspiracy propaganda by Walt Disney to spread racist messages, but are instead unfortunate representations of some of the social issues of the times. Part of the reason I say this is because the group of people that Walt Disney despised publicly was Jewish people, and I cannot think of any anti-Jewish representations or allegories in Disney movies.
ReplyDeleteI really never played with toys at a young age because I was interested in other things like sports. But my little sister and my cousing played with Barbie and Ken. This toy looked like the "American Dream" person. You can dress her in a doctor suit, homewife, and lawyer. It emphasized that young girls should thrive to be what the norm is already is. However, they came out with a Black Barbie called the Bratz. One of the Bratz portrayed African American girl. So they involve a toy that can relate to their color. Representation of 'other' can be commodified into growth of a product.
ReplyDeleteI thought I had seen or read about all of the questionable racial material from Disney movies, but I definitely do NOT remember that "roustabouts" song from Dumbo, which is beyond questionable. I'm surprised the clip didn't include the next line (I looked up the whole song), which was "we don't know when we get our pay, but when we do we throw our pay away." Obviously it's a product of another time (1941), as with Peter Pan and Fantasia. It's still very disheartening, however, that Disney didn't make the Princess and the Frog until now (haven't seen it so I can't make any judgments about it). One thing that I've noticed is that of all of the locations in which their movies have been based, the only one in Africa was about animals. The hegemonic representations over the years are too much for them to be side-stepping the issue.
ReplyDeleteAs Fiske discusses, the "other" "Is always a product of representation because meaning and boundaries are discursively constructed to inform the "normal/acceptable" and the "other." It is amazing to look back at our childhoods with a cultural studies lens and realize how much representation shaped our growing up. Disney movies always seem to provide that heart-warming story line, yet the hegemonic constructions embedded in them most likely affected us subconsciously more than we realize. Barbie dolls feed into defining "ideal beauty" and truly are powerful tools in creating a girl's body image of herself, and what boys see as "beautiful." When children are born, based on their sex, they are given a blue or pink blanket and are then expected to be cultured in their gender. The color blue, trucks, and sports are for boys; the color pink, dolls, and dance are for girls, or so "they" say. It's interesting to think how the raising of a child would be different using a gender-neutral approach, such as using the color yellow and not emphasizing gender differences much. When it comes to Disney, I agree it took them far too long to create a black character. There are Asian characters, as well. However, you can see hegemony in that most of the characters are hybrid figures upholding the dominance of whiteness in their appearance, language, etc. As the minorities become the majority in marketing, it will be interesting to see how Disney evolves.
ReplyDeleteYes, from what I understood, Mickey mouse was a caricature and offshoot of Blackface...hence the gloves. If you notice in my posting on African Americans and Africans and the communication breakdown because of mediated issues....you will see there is another clip there of racist cartoons. These cartoons were from Warner Brother. These Disney Cartoons are similar and documentary Mickey Mouse Monopoly covers these issues pretty well. Race, gender, nationality, sexuality, political ideology are all issues that are presented in these cartoons.
ReplyDeleteAs far as other racial hegemony, I am looking at the use of Darky iconography in Marketing campaigns especially to sell chocolate, black licorice and coffee...that these products are sold largely uncontested is pretty telling. But lets think of who is it still ok to make fun of with out being looked down upon...that is usually a good tester to see where we are. The post above about Ursula is an interesting perspective on this point.
That being said, even though racial discrimination is frowned upon doen't mean troublesome representations do not occur. Rather, they move from overt to inferential modes of representation. These are perhaps more dangerous because they are so subtle. The Fiske article shows us the relationships between power and production and media ownership. It is important that we continue to look at representation, media ownership, power relations, identity etc and continue to move forward.
After reading the blog and other students comments of their reflections of hegemony through the Disney films, I thought particularly back to Fiske's ideology that "one of the key representational strategies is 'othering.'"This ideology is striking. In order to properly represent ourselves in the context of society, we have to position ourselves in an "othering" way. With this ideology in mind, it makes perfect sense that Disney would use this strategy of representation to relate to children. Is it the only way we learn how to distinguish people from each other in our society?
ReplyDeleteLike knecast's comment, Disney movies mix the heart-warming messages with the hegemonic relations. YET power = the representation of the "other." How can you make people clearly different from each other WITHOUT establishing hegemonic ideologies?!
boy and girl
ReplyDeleteblack and white (and dark and light)
poor and rich
we see so many intersections of hegemonic value production, maybe in part because disney was such a succesful and constantly producing part of that era, like matt seems to imply.
but whether or not its a propoganda campaign with the same concious, proactive intentions as commando duck, the effects are FAR more powerful, longstanding and perhaps more DANGEROUS in their "organic" or "natural" seeming roots.....
As Fiske says, "Realism, as a mode of representation, is particularly characteristic of Western cultures, and therefore in the modern world of capitalism"--Disney allows the idea that neoliberal politics are REAL--so its only natural that we continue functioning in the images of disney, the Images of REALITY.
we still see women fixating themselves on the disney princess image, we see race-specific language and ideologies perpetuated bu the comments on these clips, and we can hear and see our assmuptions on poverty and personality relationships in the CHARACTERS, rich and poor, that we see in disney. cruel, but still wily, intelligent and often FUNNY are the rich (the cat from aristocats)....silly, grimy, and willfully ignorant are the poor (the beggars and darkly arabian thieves of Aladdin).
Oh my goodness.
ReplyDeleteI have always known that disney had a lot of racial and sexual things in their movies but seeing this youtube video was really interesting. All the comments are very interesting as well. In regards to Mattews comment I do think that it is important to look at the time these movies were being created. I think that they definitely represent a lot of what was going on back then.
I mean they JUST came out recently with that new disney movie, similar to its old cartoon ways, of the Princess and the Frog which I believe is said to be the first Disney movie with a black princess. Going back to everything we discussed last week about commodities and representing the other as a market strategy can be seen through this new disney movie and old disney movies as well.
I definitely agree with the above comment and to expand a bit, it reminds me of this week's readings and the way that homosexuals are now this new market that can be represented in a safe way for consumers. The same thing goes for corporations like Disney now presenting African American main characters in their movies because it's finally nonthreatening in the year of 2010. The boundaries still aren't being pushed and there still lies the concept of the other behind their images.
ReplyDeleteSeeing these clips I definitely was surprised and rally never realized how prevalent and obvious racism is in Disney films.. I do think that since we are children we are too distracted by other thing to actually focus on those aspects of the films but as conscious adults we can look at it and see the wrong in them and i now question as a parent would i want my children to see these films.
ReplyDelete