Racism in Animated Films
While Disney animated films are the ideal family movies, it is undisclosed to many that such racism is being portrayed. "Rarely do we ask about the origins and intentions of the messages we encounter through mass media; sometimes we forget that [producers] have origins or intentions at all" (Lipsitz 5). The social inequality found in such popular culture can be due to several reasons. According to David Croteau and William Hoynes in Racial Crossroads, media content can be the reflection of producers, audience preference, or society in general (Croteau and Hoynes 352). In their films or other such media, producers often reflect on personal experiences. In other words, they may "draw on their own family lives for story inspiration" (Croteau and Hoynes 352). With the majority of producers being White males, especially when films were first being made and even up to this day, films reflect how they view life. "The creators of popular culture
see themselves merely creating signs and symbols appropriate to their audiences and to themselves" (Lipsitz 13). Disney producers simply reflect their own views on life in some manner or the views of the majority which so happens to be the White race. The white supremacy we find in the media is not reality, nor is the portrayal of various races. For the bulk of Disney's animated films, if minorities are not the villains or those of lower class and perhaps less importance, there are none being represented in the movie at all.
It is classic for the hero to be a white male whereas other characters such as evil villains are of a minority race. In the happy ever after movies where the princess in distress is rescued by the handsome strong prince or male figure...
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... In so saying, it is very possible for animated films to contribute to the racism lingering still in the world today. The segregation of people is never going to end completely when film producers find it necessary to separate races instead of treating all as equals. When producers depict reality, the idea of White supremacy and race separation, I assume, will diminish greatly.
Works Cited
Cox, Starr. "Deconstructing the Mouse: Disney and Racism." . 19 November 2005.
Croteau, David, and William Hoynes. "Social Inequality and Media Representation."
Racial Crossroads. Ed. Yolanda Flores Niemann. Dubuque: Prentice Hall, 2005: 349-379.
Lipsitz, George. "Popular Culture: This Ain't No Sideshow." Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press: 3-20.
Maio, Kathy. "Women, Race & Culture in Disney's movies." The New Internationalist.
. 19 June 1999.
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Towbin. M. A. et al. (2008). Images of gender, race, age, and sexual orientation in Disney
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