Disney's Family Model?
Back in April with the release of Meet the Robinsons I was asking about Disney surprising parents with foster/adoption plot lines with little to no warning and how adoptive/foster parents were preparing their kids or handling damage control. Well, around the same time another blogger and adoptee applied a social worker's perspective to several well known and well loved Disney favorites. How would a social worker describe Cinderella's living arrangement? Or Sleeping Beauty's?
For example:Tarzan, from a social worker's perspective, was orphaned and transracially adopted by a gorilla family.
- Peter Pan was an orphaned troublemaker and a gang leader of a group called the "Lost Boys."
- Dumbo was raised by a stigmatized, depressed single mother.
- Ariel, of the The Little Mermaid, was a rebellious teen who ran away to be with a man. Her mother was deceased.
I found this to be a funny and eye opening read and agree with the author, Jae Ran Kim, when she says, "Though not meant to be a rail against Disney per se; the Disney power of influence continues to affect millions of children around the world, and I thought it would be cheeky to take a closer look."
I l.o.v.e. Disney. So, this is not meant to be a slam on Disney, but a deeper look on media influences. Does the media influence how the world sees adoption and foster care? Does it affect how we see birth parents or blended families? Do we need to kill off, make parents incompetent, or abusive before a young protagonist can have an adventure or learn a life lesson in literature or film?
I remember when my stepmother packed her things in tears when she discovered a ripped up note in the trash with the words, "the evil stepmother" in reference to our dad's new wife. Meant to be an inside "thing" between my teen sister and friend, the words hurt our stepmother deeply. But how many of us picture the tea-swilling, cat petting, evil lady of Cinderella with the words, "stepmother?"
Check out this blog entry, A social worker’s perspective of Disney characters, by Jae Ran Kim and post your thoughts by clicking "comments" below.
So you are blaming Disney for characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, M. J. Barrie and Hans Christian Andersen (and the fact that the mermaid kills herself over a man)? Let’s not leave out the Skywalkers, one with an absent father, later raised in an institution, one raised by a step-uncle and one adopted by family friends, bad George Lucas. Oh and Frodo Baggins, adopted as an heir by his uncle Bilbo, Tolkien is obviously prejudiced. Classical heros, Moses, even Jesus are all from step or adoptive families.
Yeah it is a fairly common archetype for a Hero. Try reading Jospeh Campbell.
When I get responses such as this I have to stop and ask the question, “Did ya read the blog?”