Supplementary Post: My Mid-Semester Thoughts

I've spent half a semester so far thinking about Disney—both the positives and negatives.  This is a change for me.  Usually 100% of my thoughts related to Disney are magical, contemplating songs stuck in my head or movies I've recently seen or how long it will be before I step foot inside The Happiest Place of Earth once again.  I was worried at the beginning of the semester that this class would ruin Disney for me, and halfway through the class I'm starting to wonder.

I remember how strongly I argued against Giroux the first week or two of the course.  I still think his argument is entirely unrealistic and unjustified—but now I start to see where he's coming from.  The more we pick apart Disney movies, the more I start to see just where the company went wrong.  It has faults, too, after all.

But what if I sit and pick apart anything piece by piece?  I'm bound to have issue with some element of that thing.  This class has been so productive in teaching me how to analyze texts and form my own thoughts and opinions, even if they contradict the "innocent magic" image that Disney reinforces.  Yes, I've found things in Disney movies that have made me step back and think "wow, what were they thinking?"  I cringed through the Native American appropriation in Peter Pan even before I enrolled at Duke.

And yet I wouldn't go so far as to say Disney is ruined for me—it never will be.  Yes, I'm definitely a lot more skeptical towards Disney movies now.  I'll never watch a Disney movie the same way again, but is that necessarily a bad thing?

I'm just going to put it out there now: I don't think every tiny microscopic thing people take issue to in Disney movies is justified.  For example, do I think Disney is being sexist by making all of the princesses pretty and in dresses?  No.  Yes, there are issues in other aspects of the films (some of which have improved with the passage of time), but I refuse to believe that Disney has deliberate, malignant intentions.

I will always be a Disney fan, and I'll always be one of the first in theaters to see a new Disney movie.  I just hope I'll continue to see progress in films like I do now, because as long as they keep improving, I have hope that eventually they will mark the way for social change instead of reflecting on antiquated values.  I can already see some evidence of that happening, and I'm proud.