Pop culture can be described as a wide range of mediums that are deemed acceptable and popular by society. Films, namely Walt Disney films being a clear example of a pop culture outlet that has a positive influence on society. In Adorno and Horkheimer’s critique of pop culture and society, they state that mass produced entertainment serves to shelter their broad audience to the harsh realities of their lives. That the culture industry offers a deceitful escape and a freedom from thinking. They further argue that mass produced entertainment suffers because it aims to please a broad audience. The critique states, “Every detail is so firmly stamped with sameness that nothing can appear which is not marked at birth, or does not meet with approval …show more content…
In their analysis of pop culture, Adorno and Horkheimer conclude that mass produced entertainment to a certain degree has to be a safe bet. Cultured entertainment as they see it, succeeds because it safeguards audiences from the realities and controversies of the world. Walt Disney films however do not shy away from confronting social issues head on. A research article from University of Northern Iowa graduates on Disney films concluded on The Princess and The Frog, “The Princess and the Frog deserves credit for the creation of the black and beautiful Tiana, a strong-willed and talented heroine who is resourceful enough to participate in her own rescue.” (Van Wormer and Juby). Even though this may not seem issue in modern society, these ideas are still somewhat controversial. There is a portion of people in today’s world with a dissatisfaction of this film breaking the standard of Disney animated princess films, which prior only had portrayed two other ethnicities. Race unfortunately is still a controversial topic, Disney tackled this by introducing a strong heroine who is a minority and doesn’t fall within the damsel in distress cliché. Empowering a strong female lead that anyone can look up to is just one example on how Disney has successfully reintroduced a sensitive idea to the masses. Tackling social issues like these isn’t all that Disney films do, they …show more content…
Adorno and Horkheimer criticized entertainment because in their views it offeres an escape from thought, as a way to shut ones brain off while consuming it. Disney films dispel this because they excel at promoting the thought of prosocial behavior in a manner that is consistent with real life. In a study published by the academic peer-reviewed Journal of Communication, a research concludes that, “our findings suggest that Disney movies contain at least three times more prosocial behavior than regular children’s programming.” (Pandilla-Walker et al.). In that same study, the researchers found that not only did Disney films have prosocial cues at about one every minute, but that they were almost always not followed by any sort of aggressive behavior. This clear evidence of thought provoking, positive prosocial behavior contradicts Adorno and Horkheimer’s claim of the pop culture offering refuge from thought. Not only do Disney films challenge their audience to think, they push forward an agenda of social acceptance and friendship. This study goes through the entire Disney film catalogue and shows that this trend holds true throughout
Media is a powerful agent in entertaining children. It also influences and teaches the youth of society the suitable and appropriate gender roles that they inevitably try to make sense of. The power of media is very influential especially in the minds of the youth. Disney movies target the youth and plant certain ideas and concepts about social culture into the vulnerable minds of children. Media uses gender to its advantage, just like Disney productions. Humorous caricatures reveal some harsh realities about the portrayal of Disney Princesses in many movies made by the Walt Disney Company. Disney mixes innocence with the ultimate form of fantasy to capture an audience. Predominantly, Disney helps highlight the gender roles by showing the audience simply what they want to see. In the attempt to stick to the norm and portray stereotypical female characters, Disney created Princesses. Presented as damsels in distress and inferior beings to men, Disney Princesses give children an inaccurate portrayal of gender roles at a young age. Through Disney’s social success and intriguing films, such as The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast, Disney Princess movies portray stereotypical representation of gender roles through the denigration of the female image, targeting and ruining the perception of youth today.
When we typically think of racial tropes in popular culture, we often don’t look towards animated G-rated movies. The film The Princess and the Frog released by Walt Disney Animated Classics in 2009 created by John Musker, Ron Clements and Rob Edwards is a perfect contemporary example of a film that shows images of pre-constructed racial tropes. Though Disney has produced multiple films based on past fairy tales, The Princess and the Frog was the first animated Disney princess film that featured an African American woman in a leading role. Often times regarded as a turning point in Disney’s movie production career, the film’s representation of African Americans proves to be regressive of racist politics surrounding the 21st century. The design
A little girl sits on the floor with her gaze fixed on the television screen in front of her, watching magical images dance before her eyes and catchy songs flow through her ears. Even though she had seen it at least twenty times before, she still loved The Little Mermaid just as much as she did the first time she watched it. As she watched it, she longed to be a beautiful mermaid with a curvy body and wonderful singing voice like Ariel. She longed to be saved by the handsome Prince Eric, and fall in love and live happily ever-after like Ariel did. In today’s society, women strive to achieve equality between the sexes. Despite the tremendous steps that have been taken towards reaching gender equality, mainstream media contradicts these accomplishments with stereotypes of women present in Walt Disney movies. These unrealistic stereotypes may be detrimental to children because they grow up with a distorted view of how men and women interact. Disney animated films assign gender roles to characters, and young children should not be exposed to inequality between genders because its effect on their view of what is right and wrong in society is harmful to their future.
For several years now, Disney seems to be determined not to offend anyone in order to keep its audience; indeed we are confronted with animation films full of compromises; they are not as degrading for women as Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), but they are nonetheless still filled with clichés. Films such as The Princess and The Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Wreck-it Ralph (2012), have in common the sense of being progressive and however we can notice the resurgence of harmful gendered stereotypes on the subjects of the social scale, women’s role in society, or the status quo. Frozen comes in and turns out to be no exception. Though it includes several encouraging and gratifying elements, it contributes insidiously to spread numerous
Shakespeare is known for being a great writer, his play have been rewritten, re-adapted, and turned into films to keep their magic alive. However what many people do not know is that many of Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted into many Disney Films. More precisely “Hamlet” is one of the most used plays. Movies such as “Tarzan," “Aladdin," and “101 Dalmatians” used many scenes in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to inspire scenes in the films. The movie The Lion King by Disney, however, is one of the strongest and more closely related to “Hamlet” than any other Disney film, but how? More importantly what makes this movie more important and the focus of this essay?
It is amazing how a seemingly educated woman that has won Oscar awards for her documentaries, could possibly be so far off base in her review of the Disney movie “The Lion King”. Margaret Lazarus has taken a movie made for the entertainment of children and turned it into something that is racist, sexist and stereotypes gender roles. She uses many personal arguments to review the movie but offers few solutions. The author is well organized but she lacks alternate points of view and does not use adequate sources. Lazarus utilizes the statement at the end of her review that “the Disney Magic entranced her children, but they and millions of other children were given hidden messages that could only do them and us harm” (118). She makes her point by saying that “the Disney Magic reinforces and reproduces bigoted and stereotyped views of minorities and women in our society” (Lazarus 117). She makes comparisons such as elephant graveyards are like ghettos (Lazarus 118). Other lines of reasoning Lazarus gives us are about Whoopie Goldberg using inner city dialect, the villain Scar being gay, and only those born to privilege can bring about change (118).
Disney movies are indeed very well-liked by many people. Most of the films produced by Disney will surely attract many viewers that the movies become very successful. Sometimes, there's a moral message inserted in some of the stories from Disney movies. However, not all Disney movies provide education and moral values for the audience. There are several movies that give unrealistic expectations in life.
Walt Disney is unique in the sense that it has the practical monopoly on all of the media's fairy tales and stories for children. We were raised on Disney, and with excitement we introduce our own children to our childhood fantasies. The question to ask therefore, is if Disney controls the media and most of what our children are seeing, shouldn't we be aware of the messages they are trying to give over? Many people are indeed unaware of both the conscious and unconscious messages Disney is programming into the innocent minds of today's young. In idealizing an animated world for young viewers, Walt Disney has actually done these viewers a disservice by burying vulgar messages within pretty packaging. Disguised behind what appears to be innocent and enchanting stories, is actually a number of subliminal and destructive outright messages. Taking a closer look at some of the popular Disney films, one can conclude what the mission statement of Disney actually is.
The article Hop on Pop (2002) explains how culture is influenced especially by the tactics of mass media and popular culture. This aspect is one that Walt Disney and his company used and did so very well. This article opened me up to think about how the media is trying to influence
“Popular culture moves through our world at warp speed” (Aufses, Scanlon, Shea 707). For example, current events that take place by day are the main topics by night. Even videos posted on the internet can become the biggest trend overnight, but disappear just as quick. Without realizing it, everyday these trends of thought affect the way we dress, live and think. Whether we like it or not, these thoughts are manipulated by popular culture. It is undeniable that “we are creatures of outside influences; as a rule we do not think, we only imitate” (Source A). Pop culture influences us through many forms: movies, television, music, art, and peers are some examples. This affirmation is supported through essays from prominent figures, such as cartoonist Scott McCloud, movie-critic David Denby, satirist Mark Twain, and writer Teresa Wiltz.
Presently, Disney known for its mass media entertainment and amusement parks technically bring warm feelings to many children and some adults. Personally, Disney elicits magical fantasies that children enjoy and further encourages imagination and creativity. For decades Disney has exist as an unavoidable entity with its famous global sensation and reach. Furthermore, Disney is a multibillion dollar empire with an unlimited grasp on individuals and territories. An empire per se, since they own many media outlets, markets, shops, etc., you name it they got it. However, the film Mickey Mouse Monopoly presents an entirely new perspective on the presumed innocence projected in Disney films. This film exposes certain traits Disney employs and exclusively portrays through its media productions, specifically cartoons for directing and nurturing influence beginning with children. Mickey Mouse Monopoly points out camouflaged messages of class, race, and gender issues in Disney films that occur behind the scenes intended to sway viewers towards adopting Disney values.
Critics have warned the public audience about Disney programming’s affect on the “invasion and control of children’s imagination” (Ross 5). These movies express the typical gender roles “such as males being physically strong, assertive, and athletic, and females being prone to overt emotion, inc...
of influence in both the characters and gender roles of people in our society. The films have brought about the shaping of morals, behaviors and characters of not only children, but also adults in todays society, through engaging them in a constant series of unthinking consumption. In addition, most of the films in Disney bring out many different gender roles and people who grew up watching them have been influenced greatly by the content in the films (Blum 13). This paper will involve the various roles played by the characters in the films and how their roles have influenced the society at large.
Adorno and Horkheimer’s Culture Industry Argument is based around mass media and mass consumption. As the exchange value of objects increase consumers become obsessed with conforming to the ideal image and judging others if the fit into this mold. Impressions are taken from material possessions rather than personality traits. As capitalism takes control over people minds, the culture industry is turned into a commodity to be mass-produced and sold to masses. These causes can lead to many socio-psychological effects on society. People becoming internalized and not being able to form judgments for themselves as mass media is forcing opinions upon them by not giving the consumer time to reflect before reacting to information. The formation of mass media leads to consumers being manipulated and deceived by the media as information is standardized and a false sense of individualism created.
Pop culture is a reflection of social change, not a cause of social change” (John Podhoretz). It encompasses the advertisements we see on T.V, the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, and it’s the reason Leonardo DiCaprio has not won an Oscar yet. It defines and dictates the desires and fears of the mainstream members of society and it is so ingrained into our lives that it has become as natural as breathing. Moreover, adults never even bat an eyelash at all the pop culture and advertising that surrounds them since it has become just another part of everyday life. Pop culture is still somewhat seen as entertainment enjoyed by the lower class members of society but pop culture standards change over time.