How does it feel to think about Disney through the critical lenses posed by Christensen and my slides? How did these frameworks help you think about Moana?
Growing up, I never payed that much attention to how my childhood was being influenced by the media. When I was younger, I played with Bratz dolls, Barbie dolls here and there, and would play dress up and house with my sisters. But I loved, loved, loved to watch Disney movies.When I watched Cinderella, I would imagine myself as the princess waiting for a handsome prince to take me away and we would live happily ever after. However, after reading Linda Christensen’s, “Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us,” As a youth worker working with middle school youth, and as an aunt, I now am seeing Disney movies in a new light and that light isn't pretty. Christensen challenges her students to see beyond what Disney has displayed all throughout the years about gender roles, race, socioeconomic status, and etc. Christensen also questions the effects media has on children.
![Me, Myself, && My Kind: The Magical Fantastical World of ...](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglt9O_lwyHdvjtQ7JHG3NHKfdgJJsNX5f8_y4SShpgSW8rcgmIS7jdsm6lvbD1JOY7Tbm36UtlHi6CvDZHSD2qtmkWyhRzAcfjuI8sBbpuXoCq4aai4rcwsh5WkwzPPspxOOJQ_x_dOb0/s320/princes.jpg)
How Disney Depicts Women
![The Hidden Message Behind Disney Princesses – Women in the Media:](https://portrayalofwomeninthemedia.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/what-disney-princesses-teach-girls-4730-1274898673-601.jpg?w=536&h=445)
Disney's Moana
![Moana review: after 80 years of experiments, Disney has made the ...](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hyA560LW9lkdyANSqeLc3kK8oJw=/0x0:1920x800/1200x800/filters:focal(506x118:812x424)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/52005641/MoanaPortrait.0.jpeg)
![MOANA All Movie Clips (2016) - YouTube](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Mrh51SwS050/maxresdefault.jpg)
Watching Moana through a critical lens posed by Linda Christensen lowered my frustrations with Disney. After listening to Dr. Bogad's slide deck, I thought about Moana. I wondered what set this movie apart from the other princess movies. After watching this movie for very first time, I see why it has been used for critical analysis.
How does Moana stand apart from the "other" classic princess movies?
Moana is depicted as powerful and self-reliant female lead. Not only does Moana not need a man, she does what men, including her father and Maui, feared to do.
Unlike other Disney movies, romantic love is non-existent in Moana. Moana's love is for her island, her people and her family, not a man.
Moana has strong bonds with other women in her life, primarily her mother and grandmother. In other Disney movies, female characters are pitted against each other in the evil stepmother vs. good stepdaughter relationship. Here, it is the female relationships that allow Moana to do the forbidden and cross the reef to save her people. While Moana's father forbids her from going, her mother helps her pack and the spirit of her grandmother guides her safely across the reef and is there when Moana's self-doubt sets in later in the movie.
Moana is a more representative princess. While other Disney princess seems to have small waists and long legs and arms, Moana's body has more average proportions. Moana's heritage also means children of different races find Moana more to be more of a representative.
Moana is not just a princess, she is a leader. Not only will she become chief of her island one day, but she tries on more than one occasion to leave the island in order to save it, when others are afraid. Eventually, she returns her people to their original way of life as voyagers.
Hi Essence!
ReplyDeleteI agree that I didn't realize the influence of media on my childhood until much later on. I didn't even think about it when I was younger!
I think Moana is definitely a step in the right direction for Disney becoming more inclusive, but I think there is still work to be done. Her leadership and drive are admirable when compared to other princesses, but some of the hidden gender roles like that of Te Fiti and Maui's tattoos from battle are still strong. I like how Disney is moving towards positive change, I just don't think they are done yet!
I really like the analysis you pose here of Moana! I can not think of another disney movie that allows women to help each other in the way that they do here and this is significant!! (IN fact there is a "rule" in Disney animation that when princesses are in the same frame together across movies (in princess brand related images) they are not allowed to make eye contact with each other!!)
ReplyDelete