MS 190: Authorship is the course website for the Fall 2006 Media Studies senior seminar at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
Disney!
Submitted by ofcabbagesandkings on 2 December 2006 - 6:59am.
On the topic of children’s media, I still have never really had a good discussion on why there are no mothers in Disney movies and why the mother figures that do exist in these movies either die or are actually completely evil as in Snow White and Cinderella. When I think about it, I’m pretty sure the only kind, loving mother that does not get killed off before the end of the first half of a Disney movie is the dog in 101 Dalmatians, but hey, she’s a bitch so that really isn’t much better… :). This phenomenon is pretty weird when you think about it. The likelihood that ALL the mothers would not exist or only exist in a negative capacity solely by coincidence seems very slim. It has to be more systematic, (well, more like patriarchal bullshit really, but who’s counting.) The fathers, on the other hand are mostly loving, strong characters who care deeply for their children. King Triton, Cinderella’s father, Gepetto, the dad in Beauty and the Beast, Nemo’s dad, even Merlin the Wizard from the Sword in the Stone could be considered a positive, albeit crazy, father figure. So what gives? And is Disney getting any better as time goes on? Seemed like yes, perhaps in the Lion King, if only marginally, but then Finding Nemo came along and sort of ruined things for the ladies. Someone needs to give that company a talking to!
»
- ofcabbagesandkings's blog
- Login to post comments
baby mama drama
I'm a Disney freak, so I tried to think of mothers who were both nice and alive at the end of the movie. Included: Dumbo's mom (although her friends think she's crazy), Duchess from the Aristocats (although she's a single mom), the mom from Peter Pan, and the mom from Tarzan (who, granted, is a gorilla). In any case, it's strange that even when the mothers do survive, something is wrong with them, whether they are crazy or of another species, and most of them are single or have deranged husbands to deal with.
After some googling, I found what looks to be a blog entry about the topic, in which the author is trying to figure out what would possess Disney to kill off all the mothers. She then realizes that her kids are playing games together, prefaced by "let's pretend out parents are dead..."- and I remember doing this, too! On the one hand, I think I played this game because it was interesting to think about what I would actually do without my parents, how I would get by. Did anyone else do this? Is it just a part of growing up and realizing your independence as a child (or your dependence on your parents), or did we play these games because we were raised on movies which killed off the parents?
On a related note, why does it seem that Disney animators are obsessed with planting sexual innuendos in their movies?