Body Image Series - Disney
It's a bit of a running joke in my house at uni that I had a deprived childhood as it seems I watched a lot less Disney than other people. I never felt hard done by.. I just watched other shows, spent a lot of time reading or playing in the mud in the garden.
My sense of humour and personality for those of you who don't know me is somewhat dry, sarcastic and pretty blunt. I say what other people are thinking and can't go an hour without a sarcastic comment. I believe a lot of that has to do with my childhood and my parent's personalities - in fact my whole family are a fairly sarcastic bunch! I am also the kind of person that never looks on the positive side and expects the worst in every situation, unlike my sarcasm, I'm not entirely sure where that trait came from?!
However, more recently I've been made aware of some of the stories and the way they're portrayed in Disney as not being something I agree with, Personally I feel that as the films are often shown to young children they should tell stories that show good values and don't allow children to only ever see rainbows and ponies. In real life there's not very often a 'happy ending' and the way it comes about in Disney films are just unrealistic.
I know it's not the case that the films you watch as a child determine the person you'll be as an adult but I do believe they do impact children in bigger way than we think. When you are still so young your brain absorbs an awful lot..even things that aren't part of the story line - like those teeny tiny figures both the princesses and even a lot of the men have. Yes, I know they're cartoons but how can we expect children to have realistic views of being a healthy weight when that is what we are promoting to them? Body image is a very important thing to develop early on in the life of a child, but with these cartoons being such big parts of their lives and wanting to be like the princesses how can this happen?
In a lot of the films the 'token fat person' is the bad character, does this not attach a stigma to size? Even the fat people in Disney have tiny waist sizes in comparison to the rest of their body which is ridiculous and to me almost ridicules a larger frame.
Another thing that upsets me about Disney is the fact that there are a lot of issue that aren't addressed..I know that's not their job but I feel when they are such a large platform for young children why would they not use this to promote things that in some cases are still not deemed as acceptable?
*I know Disney are not the only company who do this but I just feel they do it on such a massive scale*
My sense of humour and personality for those of you who don't know me is somewhat dry, sarcastic and pretty blunt. I say what other people are thinking and can't go an hour without a sarcastic comment. I believe a lot of that has to do with my childhood and my parent's personalities - in fact my whole family are a fairly sarcastic bunch! I am also the kind of person that never looks on the positive side and expects the worst in every situation, unlike my sarcasm, I'm not entirely sure where that trait came from?!
However, more recently I've been made aware of some of the stories and the way they're portrayed in Disney as not being something I agree with, Personally I feel that as the films are often shown to young children they should tell stories that show good values and don't allow children to only ever see rainbows and ponies. In real life there's not very often a 'happy ending' and the way it comes about in Disney films are just unrealistic.
I know it's not the case that the films you watch as a child determine the person you'll be as an adult but I do believe they do impact children in bigger way than we think. When you are still so young your brain absorbs an awful lot..even things that aren't part of the story line - like those teeny tiny figures both the princesses and even a lot of the men have. Yes, I know they're cartoons but how can we expect children to have realistic views of being a healthy weight when that is what we are promoting to them? Body image is a very important thing to develop early on in the life of a child, but with these cartoons being such big parts of their lives and wanting to be like the princesses how can this happen?
In a lot of the films the 'token fat person' is the bad character, does this not attach a stigma to size? Even the fat people in Disney have tiny waist sizes in comparison to the rest of their body which is ridiculous and to me almost ridicules a larger frame.
Another thing that upsets me about Disney is the fact that there are a lot of issue that aren't addressed..I know that's not their job but I feel when they are such a large platform for young children why would they not use this to promote things that in some cases are still not deemed as acceptable?
*I know Disney are not the only company who do this but I just feel they do it on such a massive scale*
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