1 00:00:00,430 --> 00:00:08,810 Encoded in media images are ideologies about how we think about the world, belief systems, constructions of reality. 2 00:00:09,449 --> 00:00:15,970 And we develop our notions of reality from the cultural mechanisms around us. 3 00:00:16,170 --> 00:00:20,609 And one of the most important cultural institutions that we have today is indeed the media. 4 00:00:21,030 --> 00:00:42,020 What's amazing when you look at Disney and Disney movies over the years is how little the image of females has really changed. 5 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:59,429 You still have the same highly sexualized female body with the big breasts, the tiny waists, the fluttering eyelashes, the coy expressions, the seductress. 6 00:01:09,569 --> 00:01:13,230 These images seem very similar over the years. 7 00:01:13,609 --> 00:01:19,109 And even when they're in animal form, you know, you've got this very seductive little female animal. 8 00:01:19,109 --> 00:01:43,319 this presents people with a kind of notion of what femininity is about this is not a mirror 9 00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:48,400 on society this is not reflecting who women really are or what females really are it is 10 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:54,400 basically constructing notions of what femininity is and these are not notions that necessarily 11 00:01:54,400 --> 00:02:00,379 disney invented but what they do do with these notions is they caricature them they wrap them 12 00:02:00,379 --> 00:02:05,060 up in this Magic Kingdom wrapper and they sell them to children and that's really the 13 00:02:05,060 --> 00:02:07,060 power of Disney. 14 00:02:07,060 --> 00:02:10,680 When they're young, they're trying to figure out what does it mean to be a woman? 15 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:12,620 What do I look like if I'm a girl? 16 00:02:12,620 --> 00:02:14,360 What should I look like? 17 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:18,379 And they'll focus on the most salient, dramatic images they can see. 18 00:02:18,379 --> 00:02:22,379 They don't necessarily think about, well, that doesn't look like the women I know in 19 00:02:22,379 --> 00:02:23,379 real life. 20 00:02:23,379 --> 00:02:27,960 They don't make those kinds of comparisons because that's kind of like making a movie, 21 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:34,520 a whole story together doing logical comparisons they think about one slide at a time this is how 22 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:41,479 it looks here gee that's interesting maybe i want to look like that jasmine in the aladdin film 23 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:49,719 in which uh there's a scene where she becomes a seductress to distract the person who's after 24 00:02:49,719 --> 00:03:04,900 Aladdin. I never realized how incredibly handsome you are. That's better. Now, Pussycat, tell me 25 00:03:04,900 --> 00:03:16,379 more about myself. Your beard is so twisted. This I find very dangerous because you have, 26 00:03:16,379 --> 00:03:19,180 again it gives young girls 27 00:03:19,180 --> 00:03:21,719 the idea that that is the way 28 00:03:21,719 --> 00:03:23,900 that you get what you want 29 00:03:23,900 --> 00:03:25,379 you use your body 30 00:03:25,379 --> 00:03:29,780 One of the themes seen repeatedly 31 00:03:29,780 --> 00:03:31,479 in Disney's movies is that 32 00:03:31,479 --> 00:03:33,479 however strong or powerful a female 33 00:03:33,479 --> 00:03:35,699 character may be, she still needs 34 00:03:35,699 --> 00:03:37,060 to be rescued by a male 35 00:03:37,060 --> 00:03:39,639 In the world of Disney, females 36 00:03:39,639 --> 00:03:41,259 not only get into trouble easily 37 00:03:41,259 --> 00:03:44,120 they also lack the ability to save their own lives 38 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:45,639 This is true even of 39 00:03:45,639 --> 00:03:57,719 disney's films of the eighties and nineties 40 00:03:57,719 --> 00:04:00,960 a great deal of my work in my professional life has to do with family 41 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:02,219 violence 42 00:04:02,219 --> 00:04:03,520 and when you look 43 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:06,360 at that movie with that 44 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:09,319 the abuses horrific 45 00:04:09,319 --> 00:04:16,000 no well listen to me i'm all i've lived my life 46 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:21,180 screams at her she imprisons her he throws her father's 47 00:04:21,180 --> 00:04:37,959 the door and rips her family away from her. His behavior is without question frankly and 48 00:04:37,959 --> 00:04:38,959 horrifically abusive. 49 00:04:51,180 --> 00:04:59,720 why i didn't see it there before and this is a movie that is saying to our children 50 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:08,279 overlook the abuse overlook the violence there's a tender prince lurking within and it's your job 51 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:14,360 to kiss that prince and bring it out or to kiss that beast and bring the prince out 52 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:16,819 That's a dangerous message. 53 00:05:18,399 --> 00:05:23,139 If that was my friend and I had seen her go through this whole thing, 54 00:05:23,379 --> 00:05:26,620 I would probably just say, keep on being nice and sweet like you are, 55 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:28,019 and that would probably change him. 56 00:05:28,439 --> 00:05:29,759 And in the movie, it does. 57 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:33,240 Well, I just can't believe my eyes. 58 00:05:33,519 --> 00:05:34,720 They ain't dead, is they? 59 00:05:35,019 --> 00:05:37,480 No, dead people don't snow. 60 00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:43,980 In Jungle Book, it's that same, you know, the jive and the hustle and the dance 61 00:05:43,980 --> 00:05:55,519 And, you know, there's these gorillas that sound like, and orangutans that sound like black people who want to be like men, but will never be men. 62 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:57,040 The buffoon. 63 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:05,100 I want to be a man, man cup, and stroll right into town, and be just like the other men. 64 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:07,360 I'm tired of mucking around. 65 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:11,220 Oh, I want to be like you. 66 00:06:11,220 --> 00:06:15,480 I want to walk like you, talk like you 67 00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:24,199 Kids in Africa see it 68 00:06:24,199 --> 00:06:27,920 They see a white man in Africa who's severe, swinging from trees 69 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:29,579 And they see no Africans 70 00:06:29,579 --> 00:06:32,759 And they see gorillas being the ones they relate to 71 00:06:32,759 --> 00:06:36,040 What does that mean to an African child? 72 00:06:36,360 --> 00:06:41,079 Is it promoting white supremacy to these black African children 73 00:06:41,079 --> 00:06:44,699 Who watch Tarzan in a movie theater in Africa? 74 00:06:45,839 --> 00:06:46,819 Of course it will 75 00:06:46,819 --> 00:06:49,819 And it might be promoting it around the world. 76 00:06:49,819 --> 00:06:53,819 I've never seen any black people in Disney's movies. 77 00:06:53,819 --> 00:07:03,819 I can't think of any Disney movies that have black people that are good or bad. 78 00:07:03,819 --> 00:07:08,819 When you produce a discourse as public as that, and you have that kind of power, 79 00:07:08,819 --> 00:07:14,819 the kind of power that allows you to distribute those messages to thousands if not millions of children, 80 00:07:14,819 --> 00:07:16,819 then you have a responsibility. 81 00:07:16,819 --> 00:07:21,920 Oh, you must be hungry. Here you go. 82 00:07:22,620 --> 00:07:25,500 You'd better be able to pay for that. 83 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:26,480 Pay? 84 00:07:26,620 --> 00:07:29,220 No one steals from my cart. 85 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:32,060 Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I don't have any money. 86 00:07:32,300 --> 00:07:32,600 Save! 87 00:07:32,600 --> 00:07:36,680 Oh, please. If you let me go to the palace, I can get some from the sultan. 88 00:07:36,839 --> 00:07:39,480 Do you know what divinity is, Thorstein? 89 00:07:39,980 --> 00:07:41,339 No! No, please! 90 00:07:41,339 --> 00:07:45,160 The merchants are unfriendly. They're mischievous and brutal. 91 00:07:45,759 --> 00:07:50,939 One merchant tries to chop the hand of the princess because she takes an apple, 92 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:53,100 which goes against Islam. 93 00:07:53,100 --> 00:07:59,319 In Islam, you are obliged to feed someone if they are hungry over and over again. 94 00:08:00,100 --> 00:08:01,620 And that's what devout Muslims do. 95 00:08:02,100 --> 00:08:04,019 That's what devout good merchants do. 96 00:08:04,540 --> 00:08:07,920 And only in Saudi Arabia, if you are a thief, a real thief, 97 00:08:08,339 --> 00:08:14,019 and after three warnings and three convictions, if you steal something, is the hand removed. 98 00:08:14,019 --> 00:08:18,040 in one country, you know, with a population of a few million. 99 00:08:18,519 --> 00:08:20,500 And yet they opted to use that scene. 100 00:08:21,519 --> 00:08:25,899 It took us six months to get a meeting just to talk about the film. 101 00:08:26,639 --> 00:08:30,920 When Arab Americans protested against derogatory stereotypes in Aladdin, 102 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:33,460 their concerns were first met with silence. 103 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:38,179 Disney responded after the issue had received widespread negative press coverage. 104 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:42,759 So we go to the corporal office in Burbank. 105 00:08:42,759 --> 00:08:49,399 And we sit there, and maybe 15 minutes into the meeting, I won't mention the gentleman's name, 106 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:55,299 but he accused us, the three of us, of drumming up negative publicity against the film. 107 00:08:56,240 --> 00:09:00,299 And it was only months after that meeting that they changed part of the lyric. 108 00:09:01,159 --> 00:09:05,240 But Disney still kept the line, it's barbaric, but hey, it's home, 109 00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:11,340 which prompted the New York Times to write an op-ed piece saying, it's racist, but hey, it's Disney. 110 00:09:14,340 --> 00:09:18,779 When children see a movie and then try to replicate the script, 111 00:09:19,340 --> 00:09:21,659 and there are toys that help them do that, 112 00:09:21,700 --> 00:09:25,580 a whole line of toys that are exact replicas of what they've seen on the screen, 113 00:09:25,899 --> 00:09:27,379 the message they're getting is, 114 00:09:27,700 --> 00:09:30,500 kids, when you play, you're supposed to play the movie, 115 00:09:30,879 --> 00:09:32,820 and here are toys to help you do it. 116 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:35,740 And because children focus on the salient dramatic, 117 00:09:36,159 --> 00:09:39,460 the toy keeps them focused on that narrow plot. 118 00:09:39,460 --> 00:09:48,500 And when I hear a lot of my research has had been teachers describing clay all over the world looking exactly the same. 119 00:09:48,860 --> 00:09:53,860 And it can stay the same and fixated and not evolve and change. 120 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:59,559 When that happens, children learn the lessons they see in the media much more. 121 00:10:00,259 --> 00:10:02,720 We have no obligation to make history. 122 00:10:03,299 --> 00:10:05,240 We have no obligation to make art. 123 00:10:05,940 --> 00:10:08,080 We have no obligation to make a statement. 124 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,759 To make money is our only objective. 125 00:10:13,620 --> 00:10:15,639 Are they teachers or are they entertainers? 126 00:10:17,100 --> 00:10:20,720 If they have so much power, I think it's time for them to feel some responsibility 127 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:24,919 to educate children about the world they really live in. 128 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:33,940 I really believe that as an entertainer, you have a responsibility to be a teacher as well 129 00:10:33,940 --> 00:10:36,679 because you have someone's attention. 130 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:38,960 Thank you.