User:LGreg/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge (LG seminar)/Group1/Power/Power in Disney influence over society : cultural appropriation, gender roles

Power in Disney: How Disney used and uses cultural appropriaton in their movies, and how it builds Disney's influence.

Possible angles of research

- Gender studies: Power animation as a male-dominated industry in the 20th century (capitalism --> economics)

- Visual studies/ Film studies: How are cultures represented via animation movies (cliché features of cultures used by Western ppl) "outdated cultural depiction"

- Sociology: gender/race/ethnicity, use of racist images, why was it okay in the 20th century USA to use these images (general opinion and morals), how it increased the power of the US

- Psychology: What image of their own culture is reflected to them, Other bad effects of these depictions: Body image - influences on young girls

- History (especially American Studies): apologising/altering past, accepting past mistakes

- (Public relations?): To what extent is a ‘warning’ effective, what else needs to be done by Disney to reduce the impact of these images

(Possible intro: "That's the power of Magic", Disney Campaign)

What disciplines did Disney’s power shape?

• Disney’s power shaped Film Studies by imposing recurring themes in film studies: those of princesses, marriage, fidelity... (somehow Disney's power has made white Christian values the norm in children's cartoons) AND by making it normal and acceptable to use racist images in children’s movies
• Disney’s power shaped Gender Studies using its soft power (unconscious influence on people) to create predefined roles for men (straight, strong, insensitive, heroic) and women (straight, sensitive, thin, family-oriented) as "the dream"
  • Hence shaped Sociology because it helped constructing a gender image
• Disney’s power shaped History and International Studies being one of the largest companies in the United States, which sells and develops the most on the globe so as to become the image of the country and its ideas (white supremacy) since the 1930s
• Disney’s power shaped Economics by being the second biggest media company in the world (irrelevant to the subject?)

Plan:

1. Disney’s power shaped economics: first then second media company = a huge influence
2. Disney’s power shaped film studies: and created recurrent themes in animation (race and gender)
3. Disney’s power shaped gender studies (sociology): by using these recurrent themes to influence children mentalities on what they should aspire to become

Power of psychology and economics have shaped Disney's princesses over the years