Essay On Mickey Mouse Monopoly
Current Social Issues, Mickey Mouse Monopoly We are in a constant interaction with the media as it appears in our daily lives; it introduces us to different forms of culture and provides a conglomerate of experiences for members of the society. The influence that it has in our lives is unmeasurable; there is a lot of cognitive process involved in the interaction with the media, from our early ages we are exposed to information provided by the mass media. As part of the mass media directed towards kids, Disney throughout the years, has shaped the imagination of millions of kids all over the globe. The characters of their stories become the models in which kids rely to learn about values and attitudes. One of their movies called “Aladdin” tells the story of a petty thief living in Agrabah who fell in love
…show more content…
with a princess called Jasmine; Aladdin liberates a genie and with his help, he fights the Grand Vizier in order to save the princess and the city of Agrabah.
As in other Disney movies there is issues concerning race and gender portray in Aladdin, the plot of this film will be analyzed using the “Cooley’s looking glass self” and the “Goffman’s dramaturgy” theories in order to understand what is the vision of the Middle East that Disney is providing to us and specially to children.
Many of the information found in Disney films and TV shows shape children’s vision of the exterior world and their imagination, it also contributes to the build of criteria to determine what is considered to be correct and incorrect. “Aladdin” shows models of behavior and attitudes very drastic and contrasted, we see a thief who steals for the poor and a member of the government who want to obtain absolute power. The model of behavior comes later in the story as the thief; Aladdin becomes a false prince and collaborates in the fight against the grand vizier, Jaffar, who want to get the control of Agrabah; in this sense, the story explores the value of equality and fairness. The critics about this movie are based in the cultural mechanisms portrayed in Aladdin, many of them had
been considered racist and denigrator as it exposes measurements and characteristics that contrast with the ideology of the Arab culture. “The members of the Arab American Community consider the theme song of the movie racist: I come from a land… where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face… It’s barbaric, but hey it’s home.” (Picker 2002)The song describes the city of Agrabah, the people and their traditions. The values of the Arab society are diminished as the song states that Arab people are barbaric and aggressive, it suggest that Arab people live in constant confrontation; and this generalization of the Arab characteristics and values are completely opposed to the reality. Further in the movie, we see a lot of severity and brutality expressed towards the powerless; for example we see the guards chasing Aladdin with swords, as if he was an armed criminal or we see a merchant trying to chop Jasmine hand after she takes an apple from a merchant. The message they send states that the social environment of Aladdin is violent and there is no room for dialogue; when Aladdin and Jasmin are caught, they are not given the right to explain their acts. A child can easily conclude that people coming from this social environment, the Middle East, have violent natures and that are dangerous. Another issue with the representation of Arabic people concerns the appearance and manners of the heroes and the villains. In this case the way the hero Aladdin and the villain Jafar are portrayed. The movie portrays Aladdin as a hero who lives in the city of Agrabah but he is very light-skinned and talks with an American Midwest accent. Meanwhile the grand vizier, Jafar is very dark-skinned and has a distinct Middle Eastern accent. This again emphasizes the view that the Arabic world is evil, barbaric and aggressive. The features are over exaggerated in Jafar: His hooked nose, his big feminine eyes, and elongated neck, all of them are features that are seen more often in Arab people. The rest of the characters do not have any exaggerated feature, they don’t look from the same background. Poverty is a reality in many countries, but it is exaggerated in the movie; we see that most of the people are not wearing shoes, except for the royalty. The poverty that Disney portrays in other movies is relative, expressed only in the lack of luxury. According to Mead’s theory of the self, “there are two core components of the self: The I, who is the acting self and the me, who is the socialized self.” The information we get from Aladdin influence our “Me”, this part of our self keeps our expectations of society and so, since Aladdin describes the social norms and expectations of Arab society being barbaric and violent, the “Me” defines Arab culture as to be incorrect. The stereotypes and racial differences exposed in Aladdin create a wrong idea of the “Generalized other” that children develop from ages from six to nine. In our daily behavior we apply our concept of the generalized other to behave and act in society, as it defines “the attitudes, viewpoints and expectations of society” (Witt and Hermiston 2013) the perspective that children have about the Arab society based on Aladdin is then, a contrast of the expectations of non-violence and fair society. This contrast will influence them to act differently towards people from Arab society, as they have a wrong concept of who they are and about their values and attitudes. The issue of portray of gender in Disney movies has been criticized for the diffusion of stereotypical notions about women’s position and expectations; in Aladdin the “women are sexualized and seductive” (Picker 2002) there is few but powerful examples of the poor gender representation of women in this movie. The notion of femininity is created by the social interaction we held with other people, "the expectations and attitudes that we attribute to certain genders varies among families, social settings, cultures and countries” (Witt and Hermiston 2013), the media as part of our social setting is a factor that helps construct a gender role. Femininity in Aladdin is determined by exoticism and seduction; we don’t get to see a lot of women other than Jasmin, but in the scene where Aladdin is trying to escape the guards, he ends up in a room full of woman dressed in revealing clothing. This portray of woman in revealing clothes that impress so much Aladdin, gives little girls gender models to rely when they begin to chose how they want to look, what is considered attractive, etc. According to Goffman, “people are seen as theatrical performers.” (Witt and Hermiston 2013) From an early age our behavior can be understood as scenes of a play, as the artists that we become we want to impress other people. In the movie, little girls had been shown that good impressions comes from wearing revealing clothes, therefore they are going to do it too. Another example of the representation of women being seductive and over- sexualized appears in the scene where Jafar holds the Princess and the Sultan as prisoners; Jasmine is chained and dressed in a revealing outfit. She becomes the slave of Jafar and in order lo liberates his father and herself she seduces Jafar, she uses her body to manipulate a man. Jasmin is an intelligent and rebellious princess, but in order to get what she wants she uses her femininity. The message is clear, you have to rely in your body to get what you want and the main audience exposed to this idea is children. This kind of information helps define the “socialization of children into masculine and feminine norms.” (Witt and Hermiston 2013) These norms of socialization are used to understand the expectations, attitudes and behavior that concern female and male. The portray of gender roles and race in the media influence a lot our vision and our position in the debate of who deserve the power and how equality should be applied. Being Disney a massive media influence to children, it should control the notions that are developed in their stories. The building of a society more fair and equalitarian will only be possible if we teach our kids that they are powerful regardless of their gender or their race. If the role models of their parents, teachers, media and the society in general give them the possibility to learn about equality and fairness, they are going to rely on his values in their future life.
References: Witt,J.,&Hermiston, A.(2013)Soc: A matter of perspective( Second Canadian ed.) McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Sun, C.-F., Picker, M., Fordham, M., Mizell, L., Berkower, R., Inouye, N., & Media Education Foundation. (2002). Mickey Mouse monopoly. Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation.
with a princess called Jasmine; Aladdin liberates a genie and with his help, he fights the Grand Vizier in order to save the princess and the city of Agrabah.
As in other Disney movies there is issues concerning race and gender portray in Aladdin, the plot of this film will be analyzed using the “Cooley’s looking glass self” and the “Goffman’s dramaturgy” theories in order to understand what is the vision of the Middle East that Disney is providing to us and specially to children.
Many of the information found in Disney films and TV shows shape children’s vision of the exterior world and their imagination, it also contributes to the build of criteria to determine what is considered to be correct and incorrect. “Aladdin” shows models of behavior and attitudes very drastic and contrasted, we see a thief who steals for the poor and a member of the government who want to obtain absolute power. The model of behavior comes later in the story as the thief; Aladdin becomes a false prince and collaborates in the fight against the grand vizier, Jaffar, who want to get the control of Agrabah; in this sense, the story explores the value of equality and fairness. The critics about this movie are based in the cultural mechanisms portrayed in Aladdin, many of them had
been considered racist and denigrator as it exposes measurements and characteristics that contrast with the ideology of the Arab culture. “The members of the Arab American Community consider the theme song of the movie racist: I come from a land… where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face… It’s barbaric, but hey it’s home.” (Picker 2002)The song describes the city of Agrabah, the people and their traditions. The values of the Arab society are diminished as the song states that Arab people are barbaric and aggressive, it suggest that Arab people live in constant confrontation; and this generalization of the Arab characteristics and values are completely opposed to the reality. Further in the movie, we see a lot of severity and brutality expressed towards the powerless; for example we see the guards chasing Aladdin with swords, as if he was an armed criminal or we see a merchant trying to chop Jasmine hand after she takes an apple from a merchant. The message they send states that the social environment of Aladdin is violent and there is no room for dialogue; when Aladdin and Jasmin are caught, they are not given the right to explain their acts. A child can easily conclude that people coming from this social environment, the Middle East, have violent natures and that are dangerous. Another issue with the representation of Arabic people concerns the appearance and manners of the heroes and the villains. In this case the way the hero Aladdin and the villain Jafar are portrayed. The movie portrays Aladdin as a hero who lives in the city of Agrabah but he is very light-skinned and talks with an American Midwest accent. Meanwhile the grand vizier, Jafar is very dark-skinned and has a distinct Middle Eastern accent. This again emphasizes the view that the Arabic world is evil, barbaric and aggressive. The features are over exaggerated in Jafar: His hooked nose, his big feminine eyes, and elongated neck, all of them are features that are seen more often in Arab people. The rest of the characters do not have any exaggerated feature, they don’t look from the same background. Poverty is a reality in many countries, but it is exaggerated in the movie; we see that most of the people are not wearing shoes, except for the royalty. The poverty that Disney portrays in other movies is relative, expressed only in the lack of luxury. According to Mead’s theory of the self, “there are two core components of the self: The I, who is the acting self and the me, who is the socialized self.” The information we get from Aladdin influence our “Me”, this part of our self keeps our expectations of society and so, since Aladdin describes the social norms and expectations of Arab society being barbaric and violent, the “Me” defines Arab culture as to be incorrect. The stereotypes and racial differences exposed in Aladdin create a wrong idea of the “Generalized other” that children develop from ages from six to nine. In our daily behavior we apply our concept of the generalized other to behave and act in society, as it defines “the attitudes, viewpoints and expectations of society” (Witt and Hermiston 2013) the perspective that children have about the Arab society based on Aladdin is then, a contrast of the expectations of non-violence and fair society. This contrast will influence them to act differently towards people from Arab society, as they have a wrong concept of who they are and about their values and attitudes. The issue of portray of gender in Disney movies has been criticized for the diffusion of stereotypical notions about women’s position and expectations; in Aladdin the “women are sexualized and seductive” (Picker 2002) there is few but powerful examples of the poor gender representation of women in this movie. The notion of femininity is created by the social interaction we held with other people, "the expectations and attitudes that we attribute to certain genders varies among families, social settings, cultures and countries” (Witt and Hermiston 2013), the media as part of our social setting is a factor that helps construct a gender role. Femininity in Aladdin is determined by exoticism and seduction; we don’t get to see a lot of women other than Jasmin, but in the scene where Aladdin is trying to escape the guards, he ends up in a room full of woman dressed in revealing clothing. This portray of woman in revealing clothes that impress so much Aladdin, gives little girls gender models to rely when they begin to chose how they want to look, what is considered attractive, etc. According to Goffman, “people are seen as theatrical performers.” (Witt and Hermiston 2013) From an early age our behavior can be understood as scenes of a play, as the artists that we become we want to impress other people. In the movie, little girls had been shown that good impressions comes from wearing revealing clothes, therefore they are going to do it too. Another example of the representation of women being seductive and over- sexualized appears in the scene where Jafar holds the Princess and the Sultan as prisoners; Jasmine is chained and dressed in a revealing outfit. She becomes the slave of Jafar and in order lo liberates his father and herself she seduces Jafar, she uses her body to manipulate a man. Jasmin is an intelligent and rebellious princess, but in order to get what she wants she uses her femininity. The message is clear, you have to rely in your body to get what you want and the main audience exposed to this idea is children. This kind of information helps define the “socialization of children into masculine and feminine norms.” (Witt and Hermiston 2013) These norms of socialization are used to understand the expectations, attitudes and behavior that concern female and male. The portray of gender roles and race in the media influence a lot our vision and our position in the debate of who deserve the power and how equality should be applied. Being Disney a massive media influence to children, it should control the notions that are developed in their stories. The building of a society more fair and equalitarian will only be possible if we teach our kids that they are powerful regardless of their gender or their race. If the role models of their parents, teachers, media and the society in general give them the possibility to learn about equality and fairness, they are going to rely on his values in their future life.
References: Witt,J.,&Hermiston, A.(2013)Soc: A matter of perspective( Second Canadian ed.) McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Sun, C.-F., Picker, M., Fordham, M., Mizell, L., Berkower, R., Inouye, N., & Media Education Foundation. (2002). Mickey Mouse monopoly. Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation.