Are Disney Movies Bad for Children?

[Ifreann]

What? No. I watched them and I'm turning out fine.

Too easy.

[America Resurgent]

Bad for girls, probably. Not all of them show weak female characters though. Mulan for one.

Mulan's message: "Hey girls if you want to make a difference you just have to be a boy". Not exactly empowering.

Is that the interpretation you're going to use?

Rather than, oh, "Girls can basically be boys anytime they want, and maybe if people don't support you it's difficult at first, but if your heart's in it, it's worth it"?

[Choronzon]

Depends on the movie.

[Charellia]

Well if children don't like Disney channel, there is either Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network if you have just basic cable. Take your pick?

This isn't about what children like. This is about how they are effected by the things they like.

[Geilinor]

Mulan's message: "Hey girls if you want to make a difference you just have to be a boy". Not exactly empowering.

Is that the interpretation you're going to use?

Rather than, oh, "Girls can basically be boys anytime they want, and maybe if people don't support you it's difficult at first, but if your heart's in it, it's worth it"?

Or the fact that, "The best way to weaken discrimination is to shatter it. When you reveal your true identity, people will understand that their prejudice was unfounded." Stories where girls dress up as boys to avert discrimination and then reveal their identities at the end, hence proving prejudice wrong, are quite common actually. Such stories don't tell girls to dress up as boys, they simply demonstrate why discrimination is stupid and pointless.

[Farnhamia]

Well if children don't like Disney channel, there is either Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network if you have just basic cable. Take your pick?

This isn't about what children like. This is about how they are effected by the things they like.

Exactly. Who pays attention to what children like? We'll tell them what they like and they'll be glad we did. *mutters* Seen and not heard. Next thing you know, there'll be loud commercials for towns and games and shit all over the television and huge stores devoted to what children like. In my day we played with rocks and sticks and were damned glad we had them.

[Individuality-ness]

Is that the interpretation you're going to use?

Rather than, oh, "Girls can basically be boys anytime they want, and maybe if people don't support you it's difficult at first, but if your heart's in it, it's worth it"?

Or the fact that, "The best way to weaken discrimination is to shatter it. When you reveal your true identity, people will understand that their prejudice was unfounded." Stories where girls dress up as boys to avert discrimination and then reveal their identities at the end, hence proving prejudice wrong, are quite common actually.

There's a converse to this though. Mulan might have been able to fight as a soldier to be successful, but I'm not thrilled at the fact that the ending implies that you have to return to your feminine roots and settle down with a man to be truly happy.

[Geilinor]

Common sense is accepting the fact tv affects kids. There are studies that show it does. I don't have an unfounded opinion. I am also not the stubborn one here. Also you do't know whats parenting is like. Kids will listen to tv more than to parents. You also have no basis tio say parents are irresponsible and shouldn't be raising kids.

Parents should be able to decide what they want their children to watch. That is the job of a good parent. Censoring everything is not the solution. It's simple for parents to set filters and such. http://www.thetvboss.org/ The fact that I know this, despite not being a parent, shows that the problem is partly due to parents who are not educated enough about child-rearing. That isn't all the fault of the parents, it's also society for not teaching all prospective parents to raise children.

[Bottle]

Common sense is accepting the fact tv affects kids. There are studies that show it does. I don't have an unfounded opinion. I am also not the stubborn one here. Also you do't know whats parenting is like. Kids will listen to tv more than to parents. You also have no basis tio say parents are irresponsible and shouldn't be raising kids.

Parents should be able to decide what they want their children to watch. That is the job of a good parent. Censoring everything is not the solution. It's simple for parents to set filters and such. http://www.thetvboss.org/ The fact that I know this, despite not being a parent, shows that the problem is partly due to parents who are not educated enough about child-rearing. That isn't all the fault of the parents, it's also society for not teaching all prospective parents to raise children.

Parents can, with filters and with simply not buying movies or allowing their kids to watch certain programs, select from the available media based on what they want their kid to see.

However, parents are limited by what is available, and I think that is more what the anti-Disney arguments get at.

For instance, if you have a non-white child and you think, "Hey, it'd be neat if my kid could watch quality movies or programming where the hero characters resemble them sometimes!" well, have fun, because odds are your kid is going to see people like them cast as villains or sidekicks at best. The first black Disney princess spends most of the movie transformed into a frog, for pity's sake.

Want your daughter to get to watch a well-produced children's movie in which the female characters aren't all love interests, mommies, or background token characters? Again, hope you don't mind repetition, because your options are pretty slim. Oh, you wanted to see a Pixar-quality movie that would be both entertaining for the kids and also cool for the parents, with gorgeous artwork? Well everyone knows movies like that won't make money because nobody wants to see them, so there's none out there.

There is no magical TV filter that will allow me to make more Disney-quality non-sexist and non-racist content available to kids, because it's not getting made.

That's the point in speaking up about it. A disproportionate number of the people in charge of producing children's media (as well as every other kind of media) are white dudes, so white dude taste is understandably over-represented. In order for this to change, we have to make it clear that there's a market for other kinds of stories.

[The Legion of War]

Compared to the shit coming out today... old Disney movies can't be all that bad. Entire generations grew up watching them, and I don't think a large majority have grown up to be anorexic or racist.

Hell, children don't even know what those are at a young age.

[The Marxist State]

Random thought: THIS is my favorite Disney creation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUSzQBaWq0Q

[Matta]

Compared to the shit coming out today... old Disney movies can't be all that bad. Entire generations grew up watching them, and I don't think a large majority have grown up to be anorexic or racist.

Hell, children don't even know what those are at a young age.

No what I was saying is they changed the Princesses recently into being super skinny. I like the old movies there is nothing wrong with them. I also think that the new stuff is bad for kids. I'm saying they need to stop changing the stuff into giving a bad message.

[Uiiop]

Compared to the shit coming out today... old Disney movies can't be all that bad. Entire generations grew up watching them, and I don't think a large majority have grown up to be anorexic or racist.

Hell, children don't even know what those are at a young age.

No what I was saying is they changed the Princesses recently into being super skinny. I like the old movies there is nothing wrong with them. I also think that the new stuff is bad for kids. I'm saying they need to stop changing the stuff into giving a bad message.

Hmm...you seem to make the assumption that kids would give a damn about the aesthetics and that the aesthetics are the only things that can give a message. I think that normally Teenagers would have moved on to different media by the time they would care about that stuff. So just stop thinking that kids would give a damn about stuff that only usually is cared about in teenage years and stop thinking that you need only need to be concerned about aesthetics to decide stuff to be called bad.

[Saiwania]

This isn't about what children like. This is about how they are effected by the things they like.

Yeah, if parents think Disney is bad; I doubt Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network will be much better.

[Albul]

No what I was saying is they changed the Princesses recently into being super skinny. I like the old movies there is nothing wrong with them. I also think that the new stuff is bad for kids. I'm saying they need to stop changing the stuff into giving a bad message.

Hmm...you seem to make the assumption that kids would give a damn about the aesthetics and that the aesthetics are the only things that can give a message. I think that normally Teenagers would have moved on to different media by the time they would care about that stuff. So just stop thinking that kids would give a damn about stuff that only usually is cared about in teenage years and stop thinking that you need only need to be concerned about aesthetics to decide stuff to be called bad.

Your claim is invalid.

I am 16 and I watch the Disney Channel. (As well as my friends and family)

We don't take it seriously, though.

[Charellia]

Compared to the shit coming out today... old Disney movies can't be all that bad. Entire generations grew up watching them, and I don't think a large majority have grown up to be anorexic or racist.

Actually a huge number of girls have a negative body image.

Hell, children don't even know what those are at a young age.

Most children don't know what a homo sapien is either.

[Uiiop]

Hmm...you seem to make the assumption that kids would give a damn about the aesthetics and that the aesthetics are the only things that can give a message. I think that normally Teenagers would have moved on to different media by the time they would care about that stuff. So just stop thinking that kids would give a damn about stuff that only usually is cared about in teenage years and stop thinking that you need only need to be concerned about aesthetics to decide stuff to be called bad.

I am 16 and I watch the Disney Channel. (As well as my friends and family)

We don't take it seriously, though.

I mean move on to different stuff to take seriously in their messages. Or at least look at different places to learn from their aesthetics.

[Charellia]

Compared to the shit coming out today... old Disney movies can't be all that bad. Entire generations grew up watching them, and I don't think a large majority have grown up to be anorexic or racist.

Hell, children don't even know what those are at a young age.

No what I was saying is they changed the Princesses recently into being super skinny. I like the old movies there is nothing wrong with them. I also think that the new stuff is bad for kids. I'm saying they need to stop changing the stuff into giving a bad message.

They are just as thin in the old movies.

[Albul]

I am 16 and I watch the Disney Channel. (As well as my friends and family)

We don't take it seriously, though.

I mean move on to different stuff to take seriously in their messages.

Like what? I don't take any of their messages seriously. I take SpongeBob more seriously than the Disney Channel.

Also, what's wrong with the Lion King?

[TBA Field Marshal]

Some, but not all.

[Uiiop]

I mean move on to different stuff to take seriously in their messages.

Like what? I don't take any of their messages seriously. I take SpongeBob more seriously than the Disney Channel.

Also, what's wrong with the Lion King?

Read the edit..do take advice on how you look from Disney movies? if no then that's my point.

[Albul]

Some, but not all.

Please specify. This response could work on any quantitative questions.

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Like what? I don't take any of their messages seriously. I take SpongeBob more seriously than the Disney Channel.

Also, what's wrong with the Lion King?

Read the edit..do take advice on how you look from Disney movies? if no then that's my point.

No, but my younger female cousins used to want to look like the Disney princesses when they were 5 or 6. Fortunately, my younger female siblings didn't watch many Disney movies thanks to my apathetic parents!

[Uiiop]

Some, but not all.

Please specify. This response could work on any quantitative questions.

---

Read the edit..do take advice on how you look from Disney movies? if no then that's my point.

No, but my younger female cousins used to want to look like the Disney princesses when they were 5 or 6. Fortunately, my younger female siblings didn't watch many Disney movies thanks to my apathetic parents!

Alright but even then did they want to base their weight on them like Matta was implying?

[Awesomeness YoloSwag]

Wait...What "Bad" Disney Movies are you talking about? I grew up on Disney Movies as a Kid and absolutely loved them! Dumbo, Snow White, Bambi, The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Aladdin etc.... There were so many good disney movies and I have very fond memories of a lot of them.

[The Legion of War]

Compared to the shit coming out today... old Disney movies can't be all that bad. Entire generations grew up watching them, and I don't think a large majority have grown up to be anorexic or racist.

Actually a huge number of girls have a negative body image.

Hell, children don't even know what those are at a young age.

Most children don't know what a homo sapien is either.

Is that negative body image a direct result of watching Disney movies as children, or a result of them being force fed even more of these images when they are teenagers when they are actually self conscious about their body?