Discrediting and Devaluing Parenthood in Disney Products

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The next harmful topic, which is very actively promoted by Disney, is the discrediting and devaluation of parenting. Disney's actual attitude towards parents and parent-child relationships differs greatly from the company's superficial positioning as "family-oriented."

Let's take a look at how the parenting theme is carried out in a randomly selected but approximately equally well-known 27 products of the company.

Unambiguously positive images of parents:

(+) cartoon "Sleeping Beauty". 1959There is a positive image of the parental couple, though practically not participating in the story. Also in the positions of the maternal figures are three fairy godparents: they selflessly take care of the princess, until the curse is finally removed from her. Thanks to their parental care, a happy ending is achieved.

(+) cartoon "101 Dalmatians". 1961The Dalmatian couple spouses represent a very positive image of the parent couple. The heroes give birth to 15 puppies, and over the course of history they become even more parents with many children - they save 84 Dalmatian puppies from death and adopt. Parent heroes behave caringly and selflessly towards all child heroes. (+) cartoon "Hercules". 1997The main character of Hercules in history has two pairs of parents - an earthly couple and natural parents - the gods Zeus and Hera. All parents are alive from the beginning to the end of the story. Hercules has a pronounced respect for both his earthly parents and divine ones.

(+) cartoon "Mulan". 1998There are a lot of positive parental images: both parents of the protagonist, grandmother, and ancestor spirits who take care of their descendants and protect their well-being. The theme of respect for parents appears as the plot of the story: the main character takes the initiative to go to war in order to relieve her elderly father, who has already gone through one war, from this responsibility.

(+) cartoon "Puzzle". 2015There is a positive image of a parent couple caring for their daughter. From the beginning to the end of the story, the high value of the family and the care of family members for each other is portrayed.

Mixed images of parenting, with both good and bad tendencies:

(- / +) cartoon "Cinderella". 1950 The main character, Cinderella, is an orphan. The prince's father is a stupid-looking, erratic man with poor control of his anger. However, his concern for his son and his family arrangement is very emphasized. The prince's father fervently dreams of grandchildren and the end of the royal family loneliness. The prince's mother is not mentioned.

(+/-) cartoon "Peter Pan". 1953 Mothers: there is a positive motherly image - the mother of the main character, but she is on the screen for only a few minutes at the beginning and a few minutes at the end. The main character loves her mother very much and goes to the country of Neverland to become the mother of lost boys and take care of them. In history, a song is performed in honor of the mother, the closest and dearest person. Fathers: There is a negative paternal image. The father is portrayed as eccentric, stupid, his worldview is criticized, including by the m / f plot itself: he does not believe in the existence of Peter Pan, who appears in the life of his children and radically changes it.

(- / +) cartoon "The Lion King". 1994 Mothers: The image of the mother is positive: the mother of the protagonist Simba is a noble, responsible and caring lioness. She is alive from the beginning to the end of the story. Fathers: Simba's father dies tragically. At the end of the story, Simba and his wife become parents.

(- / +) cartoon "Tarzan". 1999 The parents of the protagonist die in the first 5 minutes of the story. The boy is adopted by a gorilla. The image of the gorilla mother is conveyed very deeply and touchingly. Perhaps this is the most stunning and most striking maternal image of all those mentioned in this article. It is interesting and important to note here that over the years, Disney has had an excellent opportunity to shape and release on screens all over the world identical stunning images of motherhood through human heroes, which the company has never done. And, of course, this is not an accident. The image of the adoptive father-gorilla in Tarzan is associated with a conflict - his rejection of his human son - which is resolved only at the end of the story. The adoptive father dies, transferring the functions of the leader of the pack to Tarzan.

(- / +) cartoon "Finding Nemo". 2003 The mother of the fish Nemo dies tragically in the 3rd minute of history. The general message of the story is not positive: the correction of Nemo's father, Marlin, not just for the sake of his son, but also with his submission. The motive of the father dependent on the will of the son is a reference to juvenile justice, which promotes a breakdown of the natural parent-child hierarchy. The ideology of Yu. the actions and will of the child are fundamentally placed OVER the parental ones, and the child with his limited resources in awareness, intelligence, etc. - gains power over his parent. However, in the movie "Finding Nemo" the general harmful morality is softened: 1) the fact that Nemo also has to work very seriously on himself in a dangerous situation created by him, which makes him change his father for his sake; 2) a very convincing final image of improved relationships of happy, reunited son and father.

Negative images of parenting:

(-) cartoon "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". 1937 There are no fathers in history. In the position of the mother figure, there is an evil queen who wants to kill the main character out of envy of her beauty. The queen dies.

(-) cartoon "The Little Mermaid". 1989 Mothers: absent. Fathers: The prince has no father. The main character is in conflict with her father, denial of his will and prohibitions leads to happiness.

(-) cartoon "Beauty and the Beast". 1991 Mother: The main character Belle has no mother. In the cartoon, in the spirit of the 25th frame, an image of an ugly mother with many children is presented in contrast to the beautiful Belle, and later the main character has a negative attitude towards the groom's proposal to give birth to many children. Fathers: Belle's father is depicted as a kind, but weak and pitiful man, whom people make fun of.

(-) cartoon "Aladdin". 1992 Mothers: no mothers. Fathers: The main character's father is pathetic, funny and manipulative. The heroine achieves success through the denial of her father's will regarding marriage. The main male character is an orphan.

(-) cartoon "Pocahontas". 1995 Mothers: It is mentioned that the mother of the protagonist has died. The mother's figure is replaced by a magic tree, hiddenly inciting the heroine to danger and betrayal. Fathers: the “happy end” of the heroine is achieved through the denial of the will of her father.

(-) cartoon "Atlantis: The Lost World". 2001 Mothers: The main character's mother dies in the first minutes of the story. Fathers: The heroine rejects the will of her father. He dies in the course of history. The main male character is an orphan.

(-) cartoon "Lilo and Stitch". 2001 It is mentioned that the mother and father of the main character died tragically, and her older sister is raising her on the verge of being denied parental rights. The elder sister, being a motherly figure, depends on her younger sister, since it depends on the response of the latter about her custody whether they will be separated (breaking the natural parent-child hierarchy).

(-) the film "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl". 2003 Mothers: absent and not mentioned. Fathers: The protagonist achieves a happy ending through the denial of her father's will to get married.

(-) cartoon "Ratatouille". 2007 Mothers: absent and not mentioned. Fathers: Shows a confrontation between a son and a father. The father of the protagonist, the rat Remy, does not understand his son's craving for culinary business. Remi achieves success through denying her father's opinion. The father looks less "advanced" than the son, and as a result adapts to the son's worldview. Remi has no mother. The main human hero, Linguini, is an orphan.

(-) the film "Alice in Wonderland". 2010 The protagonist's father dies at the beginning of the story. The main character is emphatically cold and disrespectful to her mother. The story follows the motive of denial of the mother - the adventure that happens to Alice confirms the correctness of her decision to abandon the marriage, which her mother insisted on. Denial of maternal will leads to a happy ending for the heroine.

(-) cartoon "Rapunzel". 2010 Mothers: The main villainous character, Mother Gothel pretends to be the mother of the main character and therefore behaves recognizably like a mother. The image of the mother in the cartoon is used as villainous, and the death of the mother figure is presented as an act of justice.

Fathers: There is no vivid father figure. A married couple of the parents of the main character, the king and queen, are used to carry out the idea in the spirit of juvenile justice that the child should have ideal conditions, ideal parents, which the child himself should strive for. Mother Gothel is a mother-figure rejected by a child, poorly performing her duties from the child's point of view. The main male character is an orphan.

(-) cartoon "Brave". 2012 Mothers: The main character Merida is in confrontation with her mother. Merida's mother turns into a bear and is in mortal danger due to her daughter's disobedience. Thus, the story depicts the dependence of the mother on her daughter: the problem daughter does not obey - and it is not the daughter, but the mother, that gets problems and the need to correct herself. The main moral of the story for the child is that if something is wrong in your relationship with the mother, then she must change, change her mind, adjust to you. The will of the child is placed OVER the will of the parent (= ideology of juvenile justice). Fathers: the father of the main character is generally depicted as a pleasant person, courageous, strong, with a sense of humor. However, when his wife turns into a bear, nothing is able to reason with his awakened hunting excitement, bordering on obsession, as a result of which he is close to killing his own wife.

(-) the film "Oz: the great and terrible". 2013 Mothers: the main characters have no mothers, it is not mentioned what happened to them. Fathers: The fathers of the main characters are mentioned to have died. One of the main character sisters killed her father for the sake of power. The main character Oscar Diggs does not want to be like his father, a simple toiler-farmer, on which the emphasis is placed. The hero achieves his triumph also through this worldview. (-) cartoon "Frozen". 2013 The father and mother of the main characters, sisters Elsa and Anna, are the cause of the main plot tragedy - they hide Elsa, who possesses destructive and creative magical powers, under lock and key, which ultimately leads to a natural disaster unintentionally caused by the girl in the kingdom. The father and mother, having created a problem for resolution, are immediately eliminated by the scenario: they die in a shipwreck. To come to a happy outcome, Elsa needs to realize the will, which is exactly the opposite of the will of her parents - to release her power. In fact, since Elsa's father and mother create the main problem of the plot, they are the main villains in the story. The cartoon undertones the idea of denying the traditional family (the death of Elsa and Anna's parents, the "untruth" of the union of Anna and Hans, Anna and Kristoff) and promotes "alternative" and homosexual families (the family of the Oaken merchant, the Troll community, the couple of Elsa and Anna as an allusion to same-sex the union of "true love").

(-) the film "Maleficent". 2014 Mothers: The heroine princess's mother dies. Fairy aunts who replace mother are unable to take care of their stepdaughter. The princess is "adopted" by a demonic character. Fathers: The princess's father is the main villain in the story. Dies in battle with the princess's demonic adoptive mother. At the same time, the princess helps the demonic mother to defeat her own father in battle. Also in the film, the subtext denies the traditional family (the destruction of the pair of Maleficent and Stephen, the death of the royal family, the untrueness of the union of Aurora and Prince Philip) and promotes the positivity of "alternative" homosexual families (the union of Maleficent and Aurora as 2-in-1: an allusion to adoption in atypical family + same-sex union of "true love").

(-) cartoon "City of Heroes". 2014 It is mentioned that the father and mother of the protagonist died when he was 3 years old. The guardian of the protagonist is not an authoritative parental figure, she gives a monologue that she does not understand anything about children and she herself needs to be brought up. The father of one of the characters is the main villain, who is eventually taken into custody.

(-) the film "Cinderella". 2015 Mothers: Cinderella's mother dies dramatically at the beginning of the story. It is mentioned that the prince's mother died. Fathers: Cinderella's father and prince's father die during the course of the story. The prince achieves happiness through the denial of the father's will. In the happy ending, the newlyweds are depicted standing in front of the funeral portraits of their parents.

Summary

From 27 randomly selected but well-known Disney products:

- 5 supporting parenting (the image of a complete family, the absence of deaths of parents, family mutual support, dedication of parents for the sake of children and children for the sake of parents, etc.)

- 5 intermediate ones, where positive tendencies are mixed with negative ones (one parental image is positive, the other is negative, the death of one of the parents, etc.)

- 17, discrediting and devaluing parenting in one way or another (depicting and mentioning the deaths of parents, depicting the hero's achievement of success through denying the will of the mother or father, breaking the natural hierarchy - parents depending on the will of children, parental figures in the role of villains, etc.)

The total number of Disney products that discredit parenting outweighs family-oriented products by more than 3 times. This ratio is eloquent and makes us think about the real quality of family information support from the supposedly “family-oriented” Disney company.

The intentionality of the company's anti-parenting policy most of all confirms the characteristic, repetitive and extremely harmful motive of the confrontation of the protagonist with the parent and the final success and happiness of the hero through the denial of the parent and his will, which is present in 14 products out of 27 presented (denial of the father's will: Pocahontas, Oz: The Great and Terrible "," Frozen ", film" Cinderella "," Atlantis: The Lost World "," Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl "," Aladdin "," Peter Pan "," Ratatouille "," In Search of Nemo "," The Little Mermaid "; denial of the will of the mother / mother figure:" Rapunzel: A Confused Story "," Brave ", film" Alice in Wonderland ").

WHY IT IS NECESSARY

Constantly perceiving such negative ideological codes on the topic of parents, the viewer gets used to the fact that parenting is not something valuable, important and authoritative. Parents of an impressive number of Disney main characters: 1. are mentioned as dead 2. die 3. are denied, and something interesting, meaningful, fascinating happens to the hero cut out of the parent-child relationship, which ends for him with triumph, true love, wealth and etc.

As a result, the systematic image of depreciated parenting and sublime, fascinating orphanhood, forms the viewer corresponding views of his own parents, himself as a potential parent and parenting as a phenomenon in general: without parents it is better, parents as a phenomenon are something unnecessary, unnecessary, something what should be deceased / die / denied - exactly in accordance with how it is promoted by Disney. It is also important that through the theme of devalued parenting, the idea is imposed that a person is not connected to anyone in a successive manner.

The popularization of the eliminated parents is in fact the semantic knocking out of the historical basis from under our feet. The viewer is invited to realize that being without parents is the norm. In the antecedents of the true, majestic hero - there is nobody and nothing. No parents, no inherited experience, no tradition, no past.

Discrediting parenting and parent-child ties is informational work to promote the atomized self-awareness of a person and weaken vertical family ties: you are on your own, no one behind you, no one after you. Antiparental propaganda educates people with the worldview of self-declared orphans, loners without predecessors and without descendants. This is a stage that prepares further manipulative work with the public - if a person does not carry any "worldview of traditions" tied to respect for the past, to carry the experience of his predecessors and transfer it further, to attention and care in relation to people, thanks to whom he appeared on light and live, then it is much easier for such a person, torn from family and clan, to offer something new, a kind of "adventure" without looking back (parents), as well as forward (own children).