Disney...dun dun dun!

In Henry A. Giroux's article, Are Disney Movies Good For Your Kids?, he talks about the terrible corporation that is Disney. He talks about Disney's "golden image" on the outside, but also it's profit oriented inside that has made things like Celebration, what turned out to be a "community for largely privileged whites,"(167). Disney's movies, though Oscar winning and full of excellent music, are full of weak and anatomically unrealistic women, dominating male figures, and carelessly created racist caricatures. Giroux talks about how this needs to be addressed to both our children and ourselves. We need to be aware of the power of Disney and the messages it gives. These films need to be analyzed critically even though they are kids movies. Parents then need to talk to the kids and understand what they think about the movies. He also says that Disney can't be viewed as two different companies. It needs to be seen as one both corporate and entertaining, and we need to open to challenging it if needed.
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Not only does Disney market the toys for their individual movies, but they also find new ways to market them. They have all sorts new merchandise for the princesses, some of which are now older than seventy, yikes! I agree with Giroux that these princesses are a terrible representation of women. They listen to their dominating father or chase handsome princes. Even if they were perfect role models for behavior their appearance is ridiculous. It's like women can't succeed unless they're not only smart, but are gorgeous with an hourglass size zero waist to boot.

This wouldn't really upset me if I didn't see it's effects first hand at the kids shoe store I work at. Normally I would think that little girls are getting a mix of images with the combination of school, family, and media. That isn't the case with some families. At the kids shoe store I work at little girls come in who fit the princess image perfectly. They want fancy shoes and an Ariel sticker to match their Cinderella t-shirt. The parents couldn't care less. They're usually similarly too caught up in how they look to think anything is wrong. I think it's foolish to say that there's no harm done. Parents don't always think they need to be accountable for this. I think the least Disney could do is to put some of these aging princesses in the "Disney Vault" for good. Disney will do what it can to keep squeezing all the money from this established gold mine, but I think it would be a very responsible move to stop any new merchandise. Thus, ending the bombardment little girls get from these "Dream Journey" princesses.