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4.2: Reading Disney - Classroom Activity

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    Reading Disney | Classroom Activity | 'Mouse Under The Microscope'

    Screenshot 2024-07-31 at 8.19.37 AM.png

    How To Use This Material [Instructor Note]

    • The opening slides provide context to the activity, speaking to Disney’s ideological influence writ large (Giroux & Pollock), as well as to the influence of the Disney princess in particular (Stover)
    • The subsequent slides provide a host of different case studies, offering a wide range of Disney content for students to interact with, critique, and ‘make real’ the arguments put forward by the suggested reading material (Stover’s ‘Damsels & Heroines’)
      • As Stover’s focus is on the Disney princess, the majority of the curated pieces speak to this genre, but there are some exceptions
    • The clips collected here can be interacted with in a variety of ways: as stations student(s) ‘gallery walk’ through, as a whole-class activity, as a group-based chat-and-share, etcetera
      • I’ve offered some guiding questions on Slide 5; these can certainly be more specified clip-to-clip
    • Slide 17 offers some more explicit representations of racism, sexism, and/or antisemitism within Disney works; while it is important that we bear witness to some of Disney’s most nefarious representations, I suggest caution to ensure student comfort and security
    • You are welcome to make a copy of this material and edit it as you wish; please be sure to follow the CC license mandates when doing so

    Professor Walt? | Introducing the Lessons of Disney

    • In The Mouse That Roared, scholars Henry A. Giroux and Grace Pollock define Disney as a “teaching machine” (xiv), arguing that the corporation’s many media offerings often serve as “the primary sites at which education takes place for the vast majority of young people and adults” (1)
    • In their view, the company has unprecedented capability to “not merely provide entertainment,” but likewise “shape the identities, desires, and subjectivities of millions of people across the globe” (xv)
    • Today’s activity looks to have us critically examine this perspective, thinking about the role Disney plays in shaping public opinion, in ‘teaching’ particular cultural lessons through their many media offerings

    "Damsels and Heroines" | Cassandra Stover | Review

    • Cassandra Stover takes up a similar position in the material assigned for today’s class, with a particular focus on Disney princesses: “The Walt Disney Corporation has enjoyed a lengthy reign in the realm of princess film production, helping to shape the ideals of femininity for millions of little girls both in America and around the world” (2).
    • Notably, too, the company has modified the traits and personhood of the princess to adapt to larger social/cultural/political trends: “most fascinating is Disney’s endless revamping of the princess to correspond with contemporary gender standards, to maintain relevance both in actions and characteristics” (2).
      • Early Disney princesses “drew on associations of traditional femininity, indicating the widespread encouragement of these traits within 1930’s American culture” (2), epitomized by characters such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora
        • Responding to larger socio-cultural trends, Stover argues Disney “underwent a shift towards a ‘New Wave’ of princess films, which transformed the damsel into a heroine of sorts, with both a voice and desire for adventure” (3), epitomized by characters such as Jasmine, Mulan, and Tiana
    • Despite these evolutions, Stover argues the Disney princess nevertheless remained mired in patriarchal politics: still about finding a man (“just because a princess is no longer ‘wishing for the one she loves to find her,’ as Snow White does, she is not necessarily now wishing for anything grander than finding him herself” (4)) and pleasing her father (5), to say nothing of the toy market (6)

    Introducing Today’s Activity

    • For today’s activity, we’re going to put some of these critical perspectives to work, examining a host of different Disney artifacts in hopes of coming to a better understanding of the ideologies, worldviews, and perspectives offer to viewers by The Walt Disney Company
      • What social/cultural/political ‘lessons’ are taught by Disney media?How do these lessons differ film to film, franchise to franchise, and across different historical periods?
      • What are the potential results of these influences?
      • In what ways, if any, can we spot these influences in our own lives?

    “True Love's First Kiss” | Snow White and the Seven Dwarves | dir. Hand et al (1937)


    “He’s A Tramp” | Lady and the Tramp | dir. Luske, Geronimi, & Jackson (1955)


    “An Unusual Prince/Once Upon a Dream” | Sleeping Beauty | dir. Geronimi, Reitherman, Larson, & Clark (1959)


    “Kiss The Girl” | The Little Mermaid | dir. Rob Marshall (2023) *Note the lyric changes from the original!


    “Make Me A Prince” | Aladdin | dir. Musker & Clements (1992)


    "I'll Make A Man Out Of You " | Mulan | dir. Cook & Bancroft (1998)


    “Scream” | High School Musical 3 | dir. Kenny Ortega (2008)


    “Mother Knows Best” | Tangled | dir. Greno & Howard (2010)


    “Let It Go” | Frozen | dir. Buck & Lee (2013)


    “We’re Doing A Sequel” | Muppets Most Wanted | dir. James Bobin (2014)


    “Gondola” | Zootopia | dir. Howard & Moore (2016)

    Works Cited

    Aladdin. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Walt Disney Pictures, 1992.

    Frozen. Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, Walt Disney Animation Studios, 2013.

    Giroux, Henry A., and Grace Pollock. The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence. 2nd ed., Pluto Press, 2001.

    High School Musical 3: Senior Year. Directed by Kenny Ortega, Walt Disney Pictures, 2008.

    Lady and the Tramp. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske, Walt Disney Productions, 1955.

    Mulan. Directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, Walt Disney Pictures, 1998.

    Muppets Most Wanted. Directed by James Bobin, Walt Disney Pictures, 2014.

    Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Directed by David Hand, Walt Disney Productions, 1937.

    Sleeping Beauty. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Walt Disney Productions, 1959.

    Stover, Cassandra. “Damsels and Heroines: The Conundrum of the Post-Feminist Disney Princess.” LUX, 2013.

    Tangled. Directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, Walt Disney Pictures, 2010.

    The Little Mermaid. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Walt Disney Pictures, 1989.

    Zootopia. Directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, Walt Disney Animation Studios, 2016.

    © J. F. Lindsay, CC BY-NC-SA

    This page titled 4.2: Reading Disney - Classroom Activity is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by J. F. Lindsay.