Thank you Rachel Bloom for this cringe-worthy, plague-ridden parody of the Disney princess franchise!
And thanks to @AJP_lighthouse for sending it in!
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Cross-posted at VitaminW.
In 2006, The Walt Disney Company bought the computer-animated feature film powerhouse Pixar. This makes the lead of their most recent movie, Brave (2012), not just a princess, but a Disney Princess. Merida is having a royal coronation at the Magic Kingdom this morning.
For her coronation, the princess has gotten a good ol’ Disney makeover. On the left is the new Merida (“after”) and on the right is the old Merida (“before”). Notice any differences?
Here are the ones that I see:
We’ll add the new Merida to our always-growing collection of toys and logos that have received sexy make-overs. You’ll love this Pinterest page, featuring a surprising set of newly sexy characters, including Care Bears, Polly Pockets, Holly Hobbie, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite, Cabbage Patch Kids, Dora the Explorer, and the Trollz.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Sitting through Disney’s Tangled again, I saw new layers of gender in there. They’ve moved beyond the old-fashioned problem of passive princesses and active princes, so Rapunzel has plenty of action sequences. And it’s not all about falling in love (at least at first). Fine.
But how about sexual dimorphism? In bathroom icons the tendency to differentiate male and female bodies is obvious. In anthropomorphized animal stories its a convenient fiction. But in social science it’s a hazardous concept that reduces social processes to an imagined biological essence.
In Tangled, the hero and heroine are apparently the more human characters, whose love story unfolds amidst a cast of exaggerated cartoons, including many giant ghoulish men (the billed cast includes the voices of 12 men and three women).
Making the main characters more normally-human looking (normal in the statistical sense) is a nice way of encouraging children to imagine themselves surrounded by a magical wonderland, which has a long tradition in children’s literature: from Alice in Wonderland to Where the Wild Things Are.
That’s what I was thinking. But then they went in for the lovey-dovey closeup toward the end, and I had to pause the video:
Their total relative size is pretty normal, with him a few inches taller. But look at their eyes: Hers are at least twice as big. And look at their hands and arms: his are more than twice as wide. Look closer at their hands:
Now she is a tiny child and he is a gentle giant. In fact, his wrist appears to be almost as wide as her waist (although it is a little closer to the viewer).
In short, what looks like normal humanity – anchoring fantasy in a cocoon of reality – contains its own fantastical exaggeration.
The patriarchal norm of bigger, stronger men paired up with smaller, weaker women, is a staple of royalty myth-making – which is its own modern fantasy-within-reality creation. (Diana was actually taller than Charles, at least when she wore heels .)
In this, Tangled is subtler than the old Disney, but it seems no less powerful.
Philip N. Cohen is a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and writes the blog Family Inequality. You can follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
Last week I posted about the stereotype that Black people love watermelons, explaining that it originated with efforts to justify slavery. Black people were simple, slavery proponents argued, so a delicious watermelon was enough to make them happy.
This stereotype, long past its strategic usefulness, nonetheless persists. Barack Obama’s election to the U.S. presidency, for example, inspired a rash of watermelon-themed commentary, including this one:
(source)
In light of this history, as well as the ongoing racism, the product below — a Valentine’s Day candy that pairs two Disney princesses — is rather, let’s say, insensitive. The White Cinderella Aurora character decorates the vanilla flavored side; the Black Tiana character decorates the watermelon flavored side. Just… wow.
Thanks to Caroline H. for forwarding this along.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Cross-posted at Love Isn’t Enough.
This six-minute video, uploaded to youtube by Sanjay Newton, does a wonderful job of explaining and illustrating the portrayal of masculinity in Disney movies. It’s pretty troubling when laid out so simply.
Via Dr. Danielle Dirk’s blog for her Contemporary Sociological Theory class.
More on Disney: pickaninny slaves in Fantasia? yes, the happiest place on earth?, the working poor at Disney world, how Disney came to Times Square, media consolidation and Tinkerbell, the real Johnny Appleseed, fallen princesses, modernizing the fairy tale, racist Disney characters, infantilizing adult women, advice for young girls from the little mermaid, gendered Disney t-shirts for kids, deconstructing Disney princesses, Disney makes over Minnie Mouse, are the new Disney princesses feminist?, making light of sex slavery at Disneyland, Disney diet food for kids, race and gender in Princess and the Frog, socializing girls into marriage, and…
…did you know that the very first political tv commercial was made by Disney? I like Ike!
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Ria sent along an example of something simultaneously routine and jarring. Disney princess grapes:
Thinking out loud here: By now, in the U.S., we’re used to thinking about food being branded with mascots, movie/tv show characters, and even corporate entities. When I posted about Cars– and Disney princess-themed diet snack packs, for example, it wasn’t the branding of food that interested me. But there is something unfamiliar to me about the associating of grapes with Disney. I think it has to do with the idea of processed versus “fresh” foods. In this case, Disney is marking a (genetically-modified) natural product in its natural state. This feels different than marking a brightly-colored, largely synthetic, already highly-branded foodstuff. Can Disney really claim grapes? Celery? Red peppers? To me, these are the last things in the grocery store that actually feel as if they come straight from the farmer. Now they’re taking a detour through the happiest place on earth?
Ria links the new development in branding to the obesity panic and the push for kids to eat healthier food. And she’s suspicious of the linking of corporate interests to health.
What do think? Are you as weirded out as I am? Is Ria onto something? What does it mean!? What’s next? Republican Party chicken breasts? South Park brand brown rice?
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Disneyland markets itself as “The Happiest Place on Earth” and goes to great pains to create a visual experience that defies our everyday realities, but these photos by Arin Fishkin, of bored kids waiting in line, contrasts starkly with Disney’s claims. I’ve always thought it was really interesting how companies that sell “fun” (theme parks, obviously, but also places like casinos and dance clubs) do so by downright insisting “this is what fun looks like!” “There are flashing lights! Fun! There are bright colors! Fun! There is happy music! Fun! This is what fun looks like and you are having it!!!” Anyway, just because Disneyland says it’s fun, doesn’t mean it is.
Via BoingBoing.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
In the 22-minute short film below, titled MouseTrapped 2010, employees of Florida’s Walt Disney World plead with Disney to negotiate a fair contract with their Union. The film is interesting on two accounts. First, is a good example of the low wages in many service industries. Sociologists refer to the “working poor” to describe people who work full-time and yet still cannot make ends meet. Some of the employees in this video take second jobs, live with their parents or siblings, routinely take food from church food banks, or receive food stamps.
Second, it is an example of a new bargaining tactic: widespread public pressure. This tactic is possible only because of developments in the last decade: the affordability and accessibility of the technology required to put together a short video like this and the medium of youtube that allows the employees to reach potentially millions of viewers for free. It’s working too; Jordan G. spotted this video at Boing Boing, one of the most widely read sites on the web.
Part I of II:
Part II of II:
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
