Growing up I watched a number of Disney movies and I loved the Disney princesses. I would dress up and of course ask "Santa" for something during Christmas that was Disney inspired. It was awesome and very harmless, according to my parents. Every child deserves to imagine and have a little fantasy right?
This is apparently what Cultural Critic Henry A. Giroux thought too and also that these movies produced "an aura of innocence." He thought this however, until he watched the movies for himself since his children would often watch them.
Up until about a year ago, I hadn't watched Pocahontas yet, a fairly popular Disney movie based on the life of "Pocahontas," a Native American girl who falls in love with supposedly one of her "allies" who was a British soldier. Pocahontas basically falls in love with people who have come to rob her people of their riches so that they can bring them back to England. What really bugs me is not the story line since history tells of a tale similar although I'm quite sure John Smith was an old man. However, what disturbs me is how Disney makes this romance the best thing that ever happened to Pocahontas. This gives her means to of course rebel against her father’s wishes to marry someone else and in the process she helps the British and Natives to work together.
Giroux mentions how important it is that, "given the influence Disney has, “parents and other parental figures be aware of how Disney shapes children’s' values. Colonization was not a wonderful thing that warranted any reason for reconciliation between parties, especially ones that are trying to steal from you and invade your land. In one of the songs
ultimately, in examining the lyrics of the songs sung throughout Pocahontas 1 & 2, It is very evident just how much of Disney’s' Ideology is embedded within.
The video embedded to me is the ultimate injustice. Pocahontas finds herself in England, away from the New World, and she is ultimately transformed from the outside. Perhaps because the way she dressed before was uncivilized? Or is it because she was less of a lady before, according to Mrs. Jenkins, the lady who dresses her in the video. Or maybe, given the title of the song, "Wait till he sees you,"she needs to transform for John to love her more. Giroux talks about this idea of women being "ultimately subordinate" to men in Disney movies, and yet again this ideology comes out.
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