Disney and Fairytale Culture

I was so excited to read the chapter for today. I love discussions surrounding fairytales, and how they have been used to push a certain narrative onto people. It was actually the seminar class I took here at RIC, which was based on analysis of fairytales, that solidified my decision to change from Math Ed. to English! Also, I always love reading work by Linda Christensen, so I was elated to find out she has a piece that covers one of my absolute favorite topics!

Since some of this was familiar to work I've done before, I felt as though what I was reading was definitely validating my views. Fairytales, cartoons, and Disney have used their platforms to create certain norms that are then used as a form of control. For instance, the constant theme of if you are nice, good at housework, and compliant, you will be happily married to your prince charming. But, if you dare to be anything different (or old, or not the 'ideal' size), you'll end up the villain of the story. With these tales, as quoted in Christensen's reading "we are taught more than anything else, how not to rebel" (Dorfman). 

I have always felt that just because you are critical of something, does not mean you need to hate it. In the slidedeck, the relationship between pleasure and critique is discussed, which is something that I try to approach logically in general. I think it is okay to enjoy something that you grew up with, but I think that it is also very important to be critical of these things. This is why the adaptations of these stories are important. A lot of people groan when they hear that Disney is doing another live-action remake, but with many of these adaptations, they work towards being a tad bit more inclusive than the original. Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of problematic aspects of these films (still follows the beautiful girl narrative), but with some of them we see some parts being adjusted. For instance, we get a new spin on the villain in the movie Maleficent, where the women in this movie are more empowered. It is not the prince that saves the day, but the almost mother-like bond between the characters that does. 

I felt that Maleficent did a great job working to change the narrative (although admittedly I have not seen it in several years and my opinion could be different now). I don't feel like other live action remakes lived up to the same potential though, as Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast didn't feel like they were drastically altered. Another good example of a live action being adapted in a way that provides more representation than just another white girl is The Little Mermaid, which received major backlash from

adults who couldn't get over a fictional creature (one that is originally green in the Hans Christian Anderson story and dies at the end) not being a white red-head. I saw a lot of people say things like "But Disney already had a black princess (Tiana)", as if there could only be ONE black character in Disney history. Also, while Tiana is a PoC, she spends the majority of the film as a frog, and as Christensen points out "upholds the class bias central to princess scripts" (180). Disney definitely still has a long way to go, but I suppose slow progress is better than no progress.

During my undergraduate career, I created a unit that critically analyzed fairytales, and I also got the chance to teach it during student teaching, and then again during my first year teaching. The end goal of my unit was for students to create an adaptation of a fairytale that was more inclusive than the popular version of the fairytale, which you can check out here and even use if you would like to! A part of me is hoping that I will have the chance to teach this unit again, especially now that I have even more knowledge on the topic from Christensen's piece and the slide deck!