I don't think anyone could properly deny the quality and magical nature of Disney films. The moral messages of each film enrich the lives of thousands of children each year, and they still enrich my life today. I mean, with the environmentalist message of Pocahontas and the message on inner beauty imparted by Beaurty and the Beast, who couldn't be enriched? However, I am beginning ot realize that I have also been negatively impacted by Disney- and not by a lack of quality, or a lack of morals, but by the visuals presented in the films. Pocahontas, Belle, Ariel, Cinderella, Snow White, all of these female characteres were drawn with figures that are hardly healthy goals fo young girls to have.
Recently, I was trying on a prom dress and I pulled the sash way too tight, as I generally do in an attempt to achieve a female figure that was ingrained in my mind since childhood. My childhood idol was Pocahontas, and I wanted her shape and long tresses, so that I, too, could be beautiful.
While I was struggling to breathe, I pondered things like social influences and pressure, and how my need ot be typically beautiful could very well be derived from things that seemed harmless when I was a child, like Disney movies and the ever-lovely Barbie. How much of my low self esteem could be blamed on the barrage of subliminal messages on how a woman's body should look?
You may have realized that this effect can hardly be liited to the Disney corporation. There are commercials and cartoons and other media that have the same effect. Which is why I motion that media begins to portray more accurate descriptions of people in real live, before another generation is poisoned by subconcious societal expectations regarding their bodies.
Judging by her TV show, Ugly Betty, Salma Hayek agrees with me. I want the number of women suffering from anorexia and bullemia to begin to dwindle. Not everyone can look like the Little Mermaid.
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