annaiswriting, Dorfman

            While reading “Introduction to Part II” the passage “pointing out that there are no fathers in the Donald Duck comics, Disney himself, in the authors’ view, emerges as a surrogate father, teaching proper (conservative) values through his figures, images, and stories. Relentlessly scrutinizing the world of Disney, the authors detect conservative values and messages saturating the seemingly harmless and innocent ‘entertainment’” introduces the ways in which Disney influences the values of children at a young age. Disney himself has the ability to become this father figure because similarly to how children look up to their parents, children look up to Disney. Like many people, Disney massively impacted my life growing up. My parents took me to Disney World quite often as a child and showed me many Disney movies, specifically Disney princess movies. I have always loved Disney movies and still do as a twenty-year-old because of their magic, music, and storytelling. Disney appeals to both children and adults so that the ideals that one learns from Disney in their childhood impacts their views in adulthood.

            Some of the main messages of Disney that have influenced me were the ideas of beauty standards, heteronormativity, and romance. The majority of Disney princess movies consist of a princess in danger who needs a prince to save her. For example, in one of the most iconic movies “Cinderella,” Cinderella lives her life cleaning up after her evil stepmother and stepsisters and cannot escape from this unjust treatment on her own. However, with the help from her fairy Godmother, she shows up at the ball in a beautiful dress to win the prince’s heart. Then, after the ball, he finds the glass slipper that Cinderella lost and searches the whole kingdom until he finds Cinderella. In the end, the prince marries Cinderella and therefore saves her from the mistreatment from her mother and stepsisters. This movie and all of the other movies had heterosexual couples, which influenced my view of love and romance growing up. Most of the media I consumed, mostly consisting of  Disney movies Disney channel shows, predominantly consisted of heterosexual couples, so throughout the majority of my childhood I never really knew that romantic love could exist between people of the same gender. “Cinderella” perpetuates beauty standards by the fairy godmother giving Cinderella a makeover in order for the prince to fall in love with her. Finally, it shows the idea that having a romantic partner is necessary and that falling in love is the happy ending. This idea significantly impacted me because I always felt that my life would be better if I had a boyfriend.  Disney’s marketing makes it inescapable and highly influential for children who are susceptible to the influences of the traditional messages, such as beauty standards and heteronormative romance, that Disney spreads. The dominance that Disney has on our culture through theme parks, music, movies, and products causes its messages to largely infiltrate society.