How The Stereotypes Affecting Walt Disney's Perception Of The World

Recent research contradicts the educational value of television (The Solutions Research Group, 2008). Some studies have indicated that the use of television can cause detrimental effects regarding a child’s perception of the world and what they believe to be an accurate depiction of an idea, concept, person, setting or environment (Easten, 2013). The stereotypes evident within these productions can create a distorted sense of body image for young children, the aggression and violence seen within action shows could turn a fantasy heroic scene into a reality, and the one way communication with the television or other form of technology for example a computer or play station game could result in antisocial behaviours due to a lack of interaction
His ideas cater for the interests of the middle class and the baseline for my research surrounding how his ideology paved the way for negative classifications, subjectifications and stereotypes within the media conglomerate and the impact of this on children’s development (Giroux, 2006). He chose to produce ideas that reflected middle class America as this was the largest target audience, which inevitably produced the largest profit margin, and at the same time decreased the appearance of the not so large (Swindler, 1986). The themes and ideas portrayed throughout Disney productions revealed Walt’s conservative values and the traditional stereotypes created through males dominating over females (Giroux, 2006). Children cannot be classified as a whole without the acknowledgement of their backgrounds and different demographics. This process of socialisation was a strong part of this development, and is still evident today, especially for children (Croteau and Hoynes, 2003). For children to be able to fully develop their view of the world, societal institutions such as a child’s family, education, religion and government needs to allow children this opportunity by protecting them against anything restricting this
Ethnic actors and actresses if lucky, could see play a part in a film, but this part was usually limited in terms of importance, leaving them representing roles of servants and slaves between 1930 and 1945 as racial discrimination had not yet been addressed as well as same gender sexuality being prohibited until the 1950s (Wiersma, 2001). The representations of ethnic characters were often always portrayed in a negative lights, either as villians or unintelligent people. For example, throughout many Disney movies the connotations of racism are usually hidden from innocent eyes but an in depth analyse into many different Disney movies has allowed me to see these racist notions within many animals showing often African American connotations. Only showing ethnicities through the use of animals itself portrays this discrimination to a great extent and children with ethnic backgrounds again find it difficult to relate to anything but negativity which can be very harmful to the development of the child (Signorielli and Bacue,