My eldest daughter's favourite Disney movie - Mulan.
My youngest daughter's favourite Disney movie - Toy Story
My son's favourite Disney movie - The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He actually owned this exact doll that is shown in this picture.The lecture for Monday, March 9th, 2009 was extremely interesting. We talked about how Disney movies and other types of media affect young girls, and in particular girlhood/feminity. Some of the things we touched on were the fact that young girls often see themselves as the characters they view in these different types of media productions. Many little girls love pink, being the mom, having a husband etc. However, as many of us stated in the lecture does this truly reflect what we become as young adult women? I do not think it really does. I remember when I was a little girl just loving Cinderella. It didn't mean I was going to grow up to be like her. I think in retrospect, what these types of movies do for little girls (as I once was) is give them someone to look up to. More recently, there are all kinds of movies that little girls can watch and use as role models. I think as young girls we do learn some things from what we have seen in the Disney movies (etc.) and that does not mean that it is negative. I think as young children we need to be able to pretend, live in fantasy lands etc. when we play. Many of these movies make young girls (and boys too) have a means to draw from to initiate that play. I think we are getting too hung up on what is politically correct in what we view in the media. Why can't children just watch a good Disney movie for the sake of a good movie, and not get caught up in the fact that maybe the role models are not what we want our young children to be seeing. I know I have three children and I love the fact that they all loved Disney movies. My eldest daughter who is now 24 years old loved the Disney movie Mulan. Did if affect her as she was growing up? No, in fact I think the movie was an incredibly well done movie, addressing the issue of Natives of North America. Also, my youngest daughter used to love the Disney movie Toy Story, in particular "Woody" who was a toy cowboy doll, that a little boy played with in the movie. She owned her own Woody doll and played with it all the time. Did it make her want to grow up to be a cow boy? No, in fact it allowed her the most essential part of childhood - fantasy. Also, my son who is 17 years old loved the Disney movie "Hunchback of Notre Dame", it taught him a very valuable lesson in life - love thy neighbour, and the willingness to accept differences in people. To me Disney has done a wonderful job with their movies for children. Each one of my 3 children are an example of this.
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