Oh, Disney, I may always have an issue with you

Growing up 3 hours from Disney World made Disney a clear and present entity in my life. I was shown all of the Disney movies as a child and was completely taken by feelings of not being enough to have my “happily ever after” for I felt more like a step sister (although not wicked) than the lead Cinderella. I was young and a victim of the narrative that is unspoken throughout the Disney themes growing up as a female in our culture. I remember having ridiculous expectations for young men I dated and never feeling satisfied in a relationship. Ultimately, I surmised that I would never be happy the way others were because I did not hold any of the overt messaging of the princess who got the prince.

This ideal unattainable image for myself left me with an unfillable whole that I hid from everyone including myself and ultimately caused heartbreak after heartbreak in my life. In my twenties I did end up picking up a more critical lens of how females and males are portrayed in Disney stories and our media culture overall. I developed a deep empathy for myself and other women who were suffering internally as I had. This extended to become a view that included all oppressed people and the entire SQUAAMP perspective we spoke about in class.

I now have two teenagers and have had many conversations with them and also with my middle school students to develop a critical and reflective lens when interacting in the world and with the media we consume. I agreed with everything Christiansen wrote about in Rethinking Popular Culture and Media as I lived them, I am honestly angry that no one showed me this when I was a young person and I am also grateful to have a resource to share with young people directly.

So given all of this, I reluctantly watched Moana for this assignment and took my notes in the note tracker provided. Using this opportunity to expand on some topics that were not offered and that I would like to examine more deeply, I noticed that the expendable “sidekicks” were animals and the coconuts seemed to be plentiful and used abundantly and yet a limited resource. I wonder what the impact is on our society that Disney has become more aware and sensitive to the way women and minorities have been portrayed in their films, but animals are still the punching bag of humor and cast as dim witted and useless. In our world there is an interconnectedness to all living things and somehow these animals are cast as less than humans in terms of respect and reverence they deserve overall. The grandmother’s character showed a connectedness to this fact, but most of the movie made jokes at their expense. I wonder if going to the grocery store and purchasing our food has disconnected us from the true circle of life we engage in as humans? The life that is lost so we may eat and the deep circle of truth that this flesh then becomes the very cells and fibers of what is sustaining and giving life and nourishment to our physical form seems sacred and not to be portrayed in anything I saw in this film.