Diversify Disney - please support this campaign

[mitch_ems]

Hello

I recently walked passed the Disney store in London and saw a window full of Star wars dolls - all men. Spiderman was in the background - athlectic, versatile, strong and...male.

I asked the manager where the heroines were, and was directed to various pink shiney dresses and wings. I raged internally for weeks, ranted a bit and have finally set out to do a small something.

I'm utterly dismayed at the role Disney plays in our world, reinforcing stereotypes and biases, and failing to take the global leadership it could and should take in diversity.

Any support for the attached petition would therefore be appreciated, alongside other views, connections and ideas.

Thankyou!

Emma

Please join this campaign: http://www.change.org/petitions/robert-iger-and-the-board-of-disney-diversify-disney-ask-disney-to-take-diversity-seriously?recruiter=68533140&utm_campaign=mailto_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

[scareyt]

Signed. I often rage internally about all the sexism in CBeebies shows too and have been meaning to start a petition about that also - you have inspired me to get on with it! At least Disney have the excuse that they exist to make money and "it's what the market wants" - the BBC are supposed to be a public service and are also pedalling this crap for no reason other than lack of thought! It drives me mad.

[bluesuperted]

Signed and shared on A Mighty Girl (excellent) FB page...

[Peachpie]

I die a little inside every time my children get excited about Disney, particularly my daughter.

[oimissus]

I love watching Disney with my daughter! Watched Tangled today, it was great, Miss Oi liked the horse best (she's 4.5) and was cackling with laughter the whole way through. And we love Belle as she has brown hair and likes books like us, and is strong and brave and knows Gaston is a twat. If I thought Disney princesses would be the most enduringly important role models in her life then perhaps I would worry, but I don't. We read the (non-Disney) versions of the fairy tales and talk about the context and so on. And of course we watch lots of other stuff and she has lots of other figures that she plays with, making up her own, off-the-wall stories as she goes.

I'm far more concerned about 'heroines' like feeble, vapid Bella Swann, who will pitch up at a far more impressionable age than Belle, Aurora and the rest.

I work with a couple of younger women who were children during Disney's 2nd 'Golden Age' in the 90s; they watched the lot - doesn't seem to have stopped them starting out on the road to being successful career women. They were all big Harry Potter fans too, and you don't get much better than Hermione (who basically did all the brain work for Harry while he stomped around being angry all the time).

Before I started watching the films with Miss Oi I felt similarly to you, but having started to watch them I'm not bothered and have been impressed with quite a number of them.

[susyp]

agree with oimissus. my daughter loves the films and i can't see her growing up to be submissive! what they have done for her is introduce her to a world of films and drama which she is completely immersed in, and she's not restricted to just disney. She loves books equally and the two go hand in hand - her school report this year made a big play of how much she loves "stories". I used to feel the same way about Disney before i watched the films with my daughter as with oimissus, but seeing how they have given a whole new bent to her world has been lovely. I think she'll be one of those who always loves Disney in a nostalgic way, but it's not going to mean she's going to spend her life looking for her prince! Her favourite films are Tangled and Frozen as I think is no doubt the case with most children and they don't have insipid heroines.

Saying that having spent the last 6 months chasing down an elsa dress which i am sure is being deliberately held back by disney to create inflated demand i have no problem with someone taking on the might of disney marketing (even though I succumbed to it)!

susypx

[canela]

not a huge fan of modern Disney myself....but to be fair all they are doing is making films of fairy tales that already exist. cinderella, beauty and the beast, sleeping beauty....all these girls weren't doing a whole lot for positive female role models before they were turned into movies either!

[Otta]

Frozen was sold as a triumph of feminism. Let it go is a song about the girl growing up and breaking free.

Watch from just after 3:00 as she decides how to outfit herself, and check out the walk.

Feminist my arse.

Tangled is good though.

[Saffron]

A feminist can't wear heels and a sparkling dress? Hmm, you might be on thin ice with that.

[Otta]

You've put words in my mouth, a woman can wear what the hell she wants. That's not the point.

[StraferJack]

Not sure why you think Saffron is putting words in your mouth Otta - your post reads like "women can wear what the hell they want" but if they wear something you think is a certain way it can be dismissed as "feminism my arse"?

if you don't mean that, you can see why people are reading it that way?

[DaveR]

Mulan. Refuses to get married off, takes her Dad's sword, runs away to join the army, defeats the Huns, saves China. Never wears a big dress but does persuade three manly soldiers to dress up as geisha types (Disney not so hot on distinguishing East Asian countries/cultures). An excellent role model. As already pointed out, most of the really princessy stories are straight remakes of ancient fairy tales, and even the Disney versions are almost antiques.

[Jeremy]

I think the petition is a bit pointless. Vote with your feet and stop showing your daughters soppy rubbish about pink dresses and marrying princes. That's my plan, anyway.

[oimissus]

having given this some more thought (it's a slow day at work) I'm not sure what 'various' pink dresses the OP is referring to, as the only Disney princess in a pink dress is Aurora. I know Ariel has one but her costume is normally a mermaid one, isn't it? Even Tinker Bell isn't in pink.

There does seem to be a view that if you 'allow' your daughter to wear pink and like princesses she will automatically grow up to become a subservient airhead. Do people think that all boys will join the armed forces and become mindless killers if they wear too much navy or khaki and play with action man?

[mima08]

I am very sure that watching Disney movies and wearing pink dresses (or any other ones) will not turn any girl into a subservient airhead.

But I have sympathy for the OP's frustration: as a child of the 80s I remember being upset that there were so few strong females in movies - consequently adored Star Wars as it had Princess Leia... (and later, loved Buffy the vampire slayer - the series).

So it's a bit disappointing that the new Star Wars movies are very light on female leads, and taken together with the general "pinkification" (pink Kinder surprise, anyone?), there seems to be a need for more people speaking out against this stereotyping.

BTW, stereotyping goes both way, I really want more boys shoes/clothes that are not navy, khaki or have trucks/trains/planes on them!

[Otta]

StraferJack Wrote:

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> Not sure why you think Saffron is putting words in

> your mouth Otta - your post reads like "women can

> wear what the hell they want" but if they wear

> something you think is a certain way it can be

> dismissed as "feminism my arse"?

>

> if you don't mean that, you can see why people are

> reading it that way?

Okay so badly worded (plus the fact you love it and will follow me round the internet jumping on any anti Frozen comment I make). What my issue is is the sexualisation (is that a word?) of it. The arse wiggle and all that.

Rebekah Brooks in Brave is a feisty character.

[Otta]

Otta Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> What my issue is

> is the sexualisation (is that a word?) of it. The

> arse wiggle and all that.

And the fact Anna's whole reason for being seems to be to find a bloke.

[StraferJack]

Heh heh

[Saffron]

Feminists can't wiggle, or want to find a bloke?

[Stateeducation]

Is this thread for real? Seriously some people need to get a life, much more important things in the world than this nonsense

[Otta]

Saffron Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Feminists can't wiggle, or want to find a bloke?

Not the 5 year old ones.

[Jeremy]

Yeah it's a stereotype that young girls go for all this fairytale princess stuff, while boys like spaceships and laser guns and fighting. But there's clearly some truth to it. It's a nature vs nurture debate I suppose, and while plenty of people would claim it's a result of conditioning by society, I don't think it's that simple...

[Otta]

It's a bit of both I think. Whatever you do to avoid princesses and Barbie in the early years, once they're at school it's unavoidable.

[ladyruskin]

My son seems to be bucking the pinkification trend as he wants pink presents for his 3rd birthday tomorrow and a pink bike when he's older! This I put down to all the girls at nursery wanting everything to be pink, but I stand to be corrected.

He also loves spiderman, Ben 10, batman et al none of which he watches at home yet knows the theme tunes for. There's only so much influence we can have as parents and that's not going to change any time soon, especially with advertisers working hard to get our little ones to pester for their princess yoghurts and spiderman pasta!

When he told me yesterday that girls weren't allowed to come to his party as it's for boys only, I told him that would mean one of his good friends couldn't come and he soon changed his mind!

[VanessaPMR]

Done!

Good work Emma! It makes my blood boil too, on a good day, and my heart weep on a bad one.

I have very strong memories of being ashamed to be a girl, given their obvious lower class status, as a child. The ultimate insult for a boy is still: to be a girl. It doesnt work the other way 'round, its just illogical.

Our modern turbo charged sexualised 'feminist' disney heroines are an imperfect replacement to the one dimentional doormats of my youth.