Pre-Class Dorfman 2/22

“Disney is the great supranational bridge across which all human beings may communicate with each others. And amidst so much sweetness and light, the registered trademark becomes invisible… and above all there is the implication that politics cannot enter into areas of ‘pure entertainment,’ especially those designed for children of tender years” (Dorfman, 124).

I think this quote hits on exactly what I have always found wrong with Disney and is a fact that should be recognized in public discourse and critique rather than ignored as something that is “reading in too deeply”. To begin, I think there exists a common belief that Disney should simply be appreciated for its fantastical beauty and the happiness (although quite temporary) it brings its audience, and that if one is to critique Disney, he is the “bad guy,”attempting to destroy this unadulterated joy and ruin it for everyone else by bringing to light what is merely fact. The fact of the matter is, that in reality, Disney is not what it tries to publically positions itself as to the masses: it is not reflection of a glorious American past, rather is a generated imitation of an “imagined” past that, for the most part, never actually took place. Almost all of Disney’s spectacles, from the rides to the street décor to the fantastic architectural structures, are historically incorrect. The history Disney recreates is the history made by the “Great Men” (them being the white, affluent men in power) and by only simulating their stories, Disney erases many of the great political and social movements made by those who were not in a position of privilege (them being the African Americans, the women, the impoverished). We, as visitors to this hyper-realistic imitation, are only warrant to the history that corporate Disney decided what was important and what was worth viewing, and because of this limited corporate view of history, what actually happened in America’s past is privatized as non-essential to our understanding if our nation’s historical narrative. A theme we discussed heavily in CMC100, through the privation of an object/commodity’s history, its audience (consumer!) is denied the realities of the situation and only sees the finished product rather than all that went into creating it, which is almost always not as refined, not as pretty, and not as politically corrected. Because of the difference that exists between historical realities and imagined fantasies, Disney functions to dull historical sensibility, and instead of enlightening an actual past, recreates an “improved” past that stops us from learning from mistakes made.

This is especially significant when speaking of children as Disney’s main consumers, for they are experiencing a Utopian view of the past and are learning from a very young age an American past that never actually existed or a past that has been so extremely rehashed that it only reflects generalizations and stereotypes that leave out much of the story. This is not only true of Disney’s theme parks but is overwhelmingly obvious in its movies, movies like Pocahontas that cast Adam Smith as the victim and Native Americans as savages, movies like Tarzan that equate African Americans with monkeys, movies like Aladdin that viciously minimalize the Islamic religion. These movies, just like the parks, are mere caricatures and need to be seen as such, not as factual truth, if we are to be what we should be: mindful consumers. And in the end, we must also remember that we are just that, consumers, and that corporate Disney’s sole objective is to make money, not treat our children to a lesson in history.