The Walt Disney Company: How They Are Re-Writing Their Own Narratives

Disney Channel is just one of many highly successful and influential subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company. For decades, The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries have shaped the cultural landscape, creating concrete ideas about race, gender roles, class, sexuality and sexual orientation for people of all ages, offering a new company and its products (usually networks and their TV shows) to society at each age demographic stepping stone. The Walt Disney Company’s habit of maintaining its power and influence as well as its core ideas and values through this process of reinforcement at every possible turn had become an integral part of culture for the U.S. and countless nations around the world. Anywhere in the world that The Walt Disney Company can access, has undoubtedly been shaped by it, whether this is consciously recognized or not. This is not to say that The Walt Disney Company has been the sole influencer around the world of societal opinions, many pre-existing governmental, religious and familial assertions have also played a key role. However, of the handful of powerful media conglomerates who bear the greatest influence over the majority of the world, Disney is one of the most influential. This fact is of course nothing new, but the beliefs that the company disperses are.

For decades The Walt Disney Company peddled notions of housewives and assertive men, created preferences for whiteness and misconceptions of people of color, and skewed perceptions of class and wealth. Most of these ideas were created during the most impressionable learning period for human beings: their childhood.  Introduced through Disney Channel and Disney films and reinforced due to borderline excessive synergy, in later years on subsidiaries like ABC or ESPN, the ideas were solidly constructed. Below, are some of the most prevailing messages conveyed through Disney films (and often reinforced through The Walt Disney Company’s various TV networks), as ascertained through a journal published in 2004:

Five themes emerged related to what it means to be a boy/man: (a) Men primarily use physical means to express their emotions or show no emotions; (b) Men are not in control of their sexuality [following beautiful women mindlessly and women taking the blame for leading them astray from responsibility]; (c) Men are naturally strong and heroic; (d) Men have non-domestic jobs; and (e) Overweight men have negative characteristics.  

Four themes emerged related to what it means to be a girl/woman: (a) A woman’s appearance is valued more than her intellect; (b) Women are helpless and in need of protection; (c) Women are domestic and likely to marry; (d) Overweight women are ugly, unpleasant, and unmarried.

Five themes emerged related to race and culture: (a) negative representations of non-dominant cultures; (b) exaggerated class stereotypes; (c) only Western values and Christianity depicted; (d) characters who share similar values should stay/be together; and (e) characters who share different values can be friends and create community together.

No same-sex relationships are portrayed in any of the movies. Given the stereotype in United States culture that gay men and lesbian women have opposite gender behavior, such a theme was examined. Five movies depicted negative portrayals of men with traditionally feminine traits (Peter, Robin, Aladdin, Lion, and Pocahontas). In these movies, the “bad guys” or their sidekicks were shown as having feminine traits […]  In six movies (Pinocchio, Peter, Aladdin, Hunchback, Tarzan, and Emperor), however, men display what are traditionally thought to be feminine traits without having negative portrayals: Peter Pan is small and sprightly, Aladdin is not overly muscular, and although Tarzan fits into the traditional male appearance role, he has the ability to express his emotions and pursue self-examination. In these cases, men are not disparaged for having non-traditional male traits. In three movies (Beauty, Mulan, and Emperor), same-sex affection between men is considered disgusting and receives ridicule. (1)

Only rarely were there films in which these messages not conveyed, and out of these findings, only one (characters with different values sharing a community) bears any positive potential. For decades, this was the embodiment of Disney. However, in 2005 Robert Iger was appointed CEO of The Walt Disney Company, and positive changes across all networks began to start.

One of ABC’s most popular shows is Modern Family, which features a -albeit highly stereotypical- gay couple. Freeform (formerly ABC Family) has featured or does feature at least one LGBT storyline, and decent racial diversity in almost every show it currently has running. Disney Channel, the focus of this entire blog, has now begun introducing -first as small subplots on various shows- LGBT characters, introducing a gay teen to Andi Mack, a show that also tries to be racially inclusive, even if it’s not always perfect.  The show also tackles issues such as teen pregnancy and is one of Disney Channel’s most notable examples of its efforts to change the old narratives, making great effort to

[consult] with child development experts and [screen the character’s coming out episode] to organizations including GLAAD, PFLAG, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and Common Sense Media. (2)

Presumably, this level of precautionary advisement had become a new practice for Disney Channel and its sister companies, along with a new habit of exploring stories that never would have been created in the old days of The Walt Disney Company. John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios explained in 2015 -citing Moana- how “the studio is “trying to reach out and find origins of legends all over the world.” (3) However, it would hardly take a verbal statement for one to see this rising trend for themselves.

Both Disney and Pixar have also been on a kick of releasing movies with strong social messages lately; Inside Out was a spectacular approach to portraying mental health, while Zootopia was a clear and vital allegory about racism.(3)

The Walt Disney Company is also tackling the values they helped to disperse in the past through live action films such as Queen of Katwe, which

 [depicted] real life for a young Ugandan girl— [with] no white saviors and no tired African stereotypes, [and no shying] away from depicting the harsh realities of life in the slums. (3)

Overall, across their myriad of subsidiaries, The Walt Disney Company has striven, primarily due to the leadership of Robert Iger, to undo the damaging ideas and beliefs it had once dispersed about race, gender roles, class, sexuality and sexual orientation.  Across all the demographics it provides content for, it is actively trying to introduce new conceptions of old topics. They don’t always get it right, and there is plenty of evidence to prove it, but they are actively trying and in the end, that is the most important fact of them all.

Works Cited

1. Towbin, Mia Adessa, et al. “Images of Gender, Race, Age, and Sexual Orientation in Disney Feature-Length Animated Films, Journal of Feminist Family Therapy”, 15:4, 2004, pp. 28-34, (https://doi.org/10.1300/J086v15n04_02)

2. Evans, Greg, “‘Andi Mack’ Character To Come Out As Gay: A Disney Channel First

”, Deadline. 25 October, 2017. (http://deadline.com/2017/10/disney-channel-andi-mack-character-come-out-gay-1202194584/) Accessed December 10, 2017

3. Desta, Yohana, “The Year Disney Started to Take Diversity Seriously”, Vanity Fair.  23 November, 2016. (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/11/disney-films-inclusive) Accessed December 9, 2017