Response to Giroux's "Children's Culture and Disney's Animated Films"

I absolutely hated this reading. Of course, growing up in the 90s, I, too, was a beloved fan if Disney movies- animated ones in particular. I have heard some of the theories mentioned in this chapter from Giroux’s The Mouse That Roared before, but have never considered any of them to be true. I do not believe that the Disney writers and producers intentionally created the stereotypes that Giroux scrutinized so harshly and even further, I feel like theories such as these could be made about many other children’s films or shows that are not affiliated with Disney when looking at them the way that he did. The characters created on the Disney films that were mentioned were created with their time-period and location in mind; for example, Mulan, Pocahontas, Aladdin, Hercules, etc. Also, Giroux focus largely on the films in which the main character was a woman (The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, etc…) saying that these women were “ultimately subordinate to males”. He neglects to realize that these women were all portrayed as strong, ambitious women who, yes, fell in love in the end, but how is that a bad thing? They found love because of their strength and determination and there is nothing wrong with that. What these movies actually show is that there is always hope for a better, happier future and to never let those who put you down stand in the way of your dreams.

One of the worst examples that I found in Giroux’s reading was on page 580 regarding Ariel from The Little Mermaid. He begins by calling her “a slightly anorexic Barbie doll”- Ariel lives under the sea and probably eats seaweed so, yeah, of course she’s skinny. And she does eat in the movie so I don’t believe that Disney is trying to influence children to develop eating disorders. Of course she is subordinate to a male because the main male figure in the movie is her father who is also a KING. She is not portrayed as being subordinate to Prince Eric; in fact, he is a gentleman to her and helps her throughout the movie as she learns the ways of the ‘land’. Giroux also talks about how Eric kisses Ariel before she gains back her voice as if it is a ungentlemanly action, but disregards the fact that he did not just randomly kiss her, he waited until he had been around her for a while and had gotten to know her and the way that she acted. How would that be any different if Ariel was permanently deaf?

The second example that I thought was completely ridiculous was on page 582 when Giroux criticized Mulan for being a cross dresser. She dressed as a male warrior in an attempt to save her father’s life. In those times, a woman would never have been allowed to fight but the men that were drafted were required to. Her father was much too old and weak to fight, so she went in on her own instead to save him.

Personally, I find Giroux’s claims completely foolish. I couldn’t stand reading it, but I found myself locked into it wondering what ridiculous thing he would say next. I just feel like he tore every piece of these movies apart when they were never intended to be seen in a negative light.