Decoding Disney: Amelia Steinbach

It is no secret that President Donald Trump is pretty much obsessed with television. Well, the obsession continues... Caroline Sunshine is known for her role in the Disney show Shake It Up , acting alongside Zendaya and Bella Thorne, but will now also be serving as a White House press assistant. She previously served as a White House Intern, worked for Senator Kevin McCarthy, and been involved in other political groups. She was hired right as many people were leaving the White House, including Gary Cohn, HR McMaster, Rex Tillerson, and Hope Hicks. Sunshine is a member of a much smaller group of Hollywood actors and actresses who have expressed support for President Trump. Much of the industry is, instead, involved in advocating for Black Lives Matter, March For Our Lives, the Women's March, and other social justice movements that were largely initiated because of Trump's election.

In June 2016, Omar Mateen shook the United States (at least for a few weeks...) when he killed 49 people at Pulse Nightclub. Mateen was also killed that night after being shot several times by law enforcement, but not before he pledged allegiance to ISIS. On Wednesday, March 28th, prosecutors revealed the Pulse was not Mateen's original target. Rather, he was planning on hiding a gun in a stroller and then killing people in Disney World, specifically the House of Blues in Disney Springs. There is camera footage of Mateen walking around this area a few hours before he attacked Pulse, but he seemed to have been scared off by the police officers surrounding the area. This was all revealed in a trial for Mateen's wife, Noor Salman, who many believe helped her husband, at least to an extent, to conduct this mass shooting.

The Susan Jeffords piece on The Beauty and the Beast was fascinating - especially because it delved deeply into the differences between the original fairytale and the Disney version. I really enjoyed her discussion of Disney’s portrayal of the Beast as a somewhat helpless victim, despite the fact that the corporation changed his character to be at least partially deserving of the curse. This has also always frustrated me (at least as I have become re-familiarized with the film in the last couple years). I imagine being cursed and turned into an animal is not pleasant, but that does not mean that the Beast gets a free pass for his abuse, kidnapping, and aggressive anger. No matter what has happened to you, treating someone like that is unacceptable. However, it feels to me as though Disney tries to somewhat excuse or justify his behavior by providing an immediate backstory. In doing so, Disney romanticizes domestic abuse and encourages the audience to express sympathy for the perpetra

Similar to most of the movies that we have watched in this class, I had not seen Mulan in about a decade, with the exception of the “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” clip for other gender-related projects. While there were some things that frustrated me about the movie, I think that overall, I was far more pleased with and excited by this film than I have been for any of the others. However, I fully acknowledge that my knowledge of Ancient China is basically nonexistent and, while I am viewing the movie with primarily a lens of gender, I do believe that the film is certainly open to cultural criticism about the depiction of Chinese society. Personally, I absorbed far more satire in this film than I believed was ever evident in scenes like Ursula’s “Poor Unfortunate Souls” or parts of The Beauty and the Beast . To me, the message that the film’s producers was trying to get across was quite clear: it is problematic that women are not given the same opportunities as men, and the world

Belle was one of my favorite Disney princesses when I was younger; I loved that she liked to read, and I think a lot of people justify their love for this film with that one point. I think I always took the town making fun of her for this passion as the “bad message.” I also took much of Gaston’s behavior as undesirable - hence the fact that he was the villian. However, after rewatching the movie, I realized that there are actually far more bad messages than I realized. This likely means that, while I purposely rejected some of the most explicitly harmful messages, there were far more negative stereotypes and content that I subconsciously absorbed without even realizing it. The storyline is, overall, just problematic (as per usual, I suppose). After Belle is held captive by a literal animal, she ends up falling in love with him. Some think this is a portrayal of Stockholm Syndrome, and some do not. Either way, the plot is unacceptable; it absolutely romanticizes domestic violence

Four Seasons Resort Orlando has announced that it will partner with The Walt Disney Company to offer its hotel guests “Extra Magic Hours,” a privilege that was, until recently, only extended to guests at official Disney hotels. However, now guests at seven hotels in the local area will also gain this access. Extra Magic Hours at Disney mean that only specific people will be allowed into the park, and will consequently face shorter lines and significantly less crowds. I can understand why Disney would do this for financial reasons. However, it does seem to severely limit specific access to the park solely to people who can afford much more expensive hotels, and this seems problematic to me.

On Thursday, shareholders of the Walt Disney Company voted on a compensation plan for Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger. He would make “ up to $48.5 million a year over four years plus an equity grant worth about $100 million.” This plan was likely initiated by Disney’s recently closed deal that will give them tens of billions of dollars worth of Twenty-First Century Fox programs. This would be in comparison to his most recent salary in 2017 of about 36 million dollars. The shareholders rejected this plan, though the vote was close, with only 52% voting against, and 44% voting in favor (the other 4% of shareholders abstained from voting). This vote was non-binding, so it is possible that Iger will still get the raise. However, the chair of the board’s compensation committee noted that the board will take the shareholders’ votes “under advisement.”

My final essay for Writing 101 discusses how Disney has improved its portrayal of female characters over the last several decades, and the work they still have to do in order to produce empowering role models. There are certainly still problems with the princess movies of today, though I usually do not view them as worse than the originals. However, this article points out that there are actually several problematic aspects of these films - and some of them are new (as in, they are problems that were not evident in the First Wave films). In this reflection, I going to focus, in particular, on those more modern issues with Disney. First, in comparison to the original Disney princess films, female characters actually make up a lower percentage of the dialogue than they did seven decades ago. With the exception of Brave and Tangled , all of the Disney princess movies from 1989 to 2013 have somewhere in between 15% and 45% of the dialogue being held by women, with an average of around