Evil Disney, Research Response to Henry Giroux Essay

There are plenty of hotbed issues on how the Disney corporations sociological and socio policy-making ideologies are embedded into their products and how they affect minorren, scarcely very few ask why Disney would place hidden ideologies in their movies/shows. What reasons would Disney nonplus to program kidren with outdated morality while interpreting desperately to uphold a model image of innocence? What practices has the disney corporation practiced that some would consider immoral or until now illegal?To answer these questions the following issues must be explored in more(prenominal) depth The history and actions of Disney from its inceptions to the present,Walts strict moral code along with the bequest he left behind, the policies of Disneyland along with the corporations political, judicial and economicalal power, Walts ties to the FBI and organise crime syndicates, and the revolving door politics in our government. Disneys powers have eachowed them unprecedented f reedoms associated with a private comp all and the pandoras box that is Evil Mickey. First,what is the Disney corporation and how did it come to be?It was created al around single handedly by Walter Elias Walt Disney. He was natural on December 5, 1901, one of five children. Walt had a love for drawing cartoons early on and even made money as a child by selling some of them to family and friends. When he was 16 he joined the Red Cross as an ambulance driver for WW1 after being denied service in the army for his young age. This patriotic fervor that would later shape his cartoons. When he returned home from the war he made a few failed attempts at functional in different animation companies until he and his brother, Roy, started the Disney Brothers Studio in 1923 after moving to California.The two of them prospered despite two major set prats becoming one of the most powerful media conglomerates today. Their first setback happened In the late 1920s. Disney learned that Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz, had basically stolen their entire enterprise when they stole the rights to Oswald, an early character for his antic-o-grams. Along with all but one agent employee, Iwerks, who refused to leave Disney, hopefully winning him employee of the year. (biography. com) Charles was unsatisfied with the production costs for earlier creations.When Oswald became highly successful, Mintz hired all of the former employees at that placeby natural endowment the rights to the later formed Universal pictures first creation. According to his biography, during this sequence Walts wife was pregnant with their first child and Walt went into a mystifying opinion claiming it on financial stress. (sito, ch5) There is a lot of speculation round this time in Walts life. Some say that the Mishpucka and the organized mob had an influence into this(babbit) the mob, who at the time were powerful in the freezone of Hollywood, controlling unions, local law, substantive estate, f ilm sets, etc.Time Magazine, Nov. 1, 1943, wrote, In the witness conduct in Manhattans Federal Court sat bland, Wily Willie Bioft (pronounced Buy-off), blackmailer, panderer, labor leader, and now star witness against eight ex-pals, who are charged with shaking mastered $1 million from the movie industry Question Was it true that Bioft once had a five-year plan for taking over 20% of Hollywoods profits-and at last 50% interest In the studios themselves? Bioff (wistfully) If wed lasted that long, we would have.Question Did you ever say you were boss of Hollywood and could grow producers do whatever you wanted? Bioff Yes-and I could make them dance to my tune. Although Bioff rolled over on his pals and ended up frustrateting car bombed later there is no proof that Walt ever realizeed with them or against them. The tho link between Walt and the Mishpucka/Mafia is Mafia associate, Henry Cohn. After the first setback with Mintz Walt was heavily in debt and needed some way to bou nce back his business after losing nearly everything but his mind. Henry offered to give Walt a loan.The thought of the mafia looming over his head is one of the reasons stated for his severe depression (Rasmussen&Sito) The theft of Oswald, was a blessing in disguise that lead to the creation of Mickey Mouse and later to create the universes first full length alert movie in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which won 8 Oscars and made 1. 5 million despite being in the midst of an economic meltdown. (biography. com) Opening up Disney to a whole new realm of marketing and showing Walt the popularity and power of his studios. The second setback was the strike of 1941.Which was instigated by the firing of former head of the Federation of cover version Cartoonists and later leader of the Screen Cartoonists Guild, Art Babbitt on May 28, which caused 200 animators to go on strike around immediately. (Sito&babbit) Walt early on had discovered that propaganda and public image were k ey to selling media, which is why he was so studious about keeping the interior of the workplace Christian. Walt had created the Federation of Screen artists to amend control his workers, which was a union that regularly met with him on issues such as wage increases, better hours, less footage quotas, and better work environments.Since Walt was notorious for being a bit cruel and demanding in the office. (rasmussen) Though as soon as Art learned this he created the Screen Cartoonists Guild whose recruiting patterns were not the nicest methods possible but it did get them all to join There were these tough union guys who said we couldnt enter the door unless we joined, so we did. Under protest I joined. Because of the new job classification my salary doubled overnight. So i cant complain about the union. (sito) This was a time when union laws were strong under Teddy Roosevelt, more often than not the law would favor the people over the corporation.This was in addition a time when many Mob bosses were often also Union bosses so it was a give and take situation. Unions were now viewed as less as a instrumental barrier between workers and the corporations to something evil, something, Communist. With the Red scare well under way and people were mixing socialist ideologies with communism. Though at this time the idea of communism was quite popular the way patsies were during the prohibition age. It was doing quite well in the underground of society. Even within Disney there was communism, Walt even thought communist agitators were the perpetrator to the 1941 strike. sito)This all of fall is the end result of years of oppressive rule under Walt along with strengthening unions demanding better pay and working conditions. Walt hated those whose ideas drifted more towards the left wing which would fit the image of the highly conservative man he was. In the office an employee could be fired on the spot for any kind of social infraction. If an employee cursed or m ade any sort of rude engagements with a woman they would be forced to leave and of course there was no drinking allowed in his office. Disney employees under Walt had to get a hall pass to go to the restroom or get up at all Of course walt was known for his rages, often times screaming at artists who had not met his quotas of 30 to sometimes 60 feet of film in one day.He was also known to be a heavy drinker in his officeYou could smell the gin on his breath everyday after lunch (Sito) Walt testified about the strike in the hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities about this and much more calling them Communist agitators, among other less decent things. sito) This of course started the well documented relationship between Walt and the FBI from 1940 till his death. He was promoted to full Special Agent in Charge Contact, which meant he had people under him conclusion communists and saboteurs, Ronald Reagan being one of his fellow operatives under T-10. He and Reagan Blacklisted many writers, actors and artists for having a differing political belief as that of the reigning government. The FBI also gained access to Disneyland to use as a platform for whatever they want.There is talk online on blogs that the FBI motionless use Disneyland to monitor foreign nationals entering the park since the threat of communism no longer applies. (Herbert&Sito&Babbit&Rasmussen) The relationship Walt had with the FBI and the ability to blacklist anybody he wanted may subscribe to Disneys amazing rise during this time as a media powerhouse(but thats solo speculation) This cozy relationship between Disney and the government has continued through the wonderful world of the revolving door politics. A sad modern relationship that is so normally seen between politics and private companies.Many who are in executives in Disney will enter into politics and gain high levels positions starting as anteroomists and hug their way into actual positions of power in the gove rnment. Marsha Macbride for caseful, worked as an FCC chief of staff to chairman powell for years before sometime in the late 1990s she started to lobby for Disney and was a major advisor in the clinton administration as well as during the merger of time warner and AOL, which Disney ended up winning and gaining rights along with funds settlements in 2003.The next year she is working as the Executive Vice President for Legal and Regulatory Affairs at the National Association of Broadcasters and still is. (gov relations 1-3) Another is Lisa Caputo who served citigroup, disney vp of communications and as a bill clinton staffer (gov relations 5)or Susan Fox who worked as an fcc advisor before going to work for disney as an advisor between the government on their divisions such as the Disney Interactive Media Group, Disney Channel, the Disney ABC Cable Networks, ABC and ESPN. (gov relations 4) Others include George mitchell who worked in on come along of Directors as well as a US sena tor.Eileen Oconnor was a news producer for ABC but is now working in a US embassy. Dennis Hightower a former Sr. executive officer transferred to Dep Secretary of commerce. (gov relations 3&5)There is even a department of Disney called Disney government relations that has a direct link to another department within the FCC. After calling a few times and getting different information I got this we work with our partners in government such as the AFA or the FCC to get better standards of broadcasting for the Disney corporation. Basically legally bribing politicians to dismay their standards and to take Disneys side in lawsuits and bodied takeovers. Now a days after Walts death Disney has expanded to epic proportions in the media industry.The public face of cuddly animals, childrens cigarette tales and building theme parks It also owns six motion picture studios, ABC television network and its 226 affiliated stations, multiple cable television networks, 227 tuner stations, four musi c companies, three cruise lines, theatrical production companies, publishing houses, multiple educational shorts, 15 magazine titles and five video game emergence studios. (gabler)It became the cultural pervader of a perfect world with everything that it put its name on. But there is a darker side to Disney that is up for debate. The side of Disney that is bigoted, American exceptionalist, sexist, racist, and a purveyor of pain and suffering. The propaganda machine that is Disney today. Propaganda has always been an important part in any government, from mummers playing the latest military conquest to Disneys subliminal messages of obedience in childrens movies.Producers construct fantasy societies that seem to run in perfect harmony where each worker and is happy to work their menial jobs and never aspire to try to raise themselves above their born level. This is seen in the workers of Antz, Sleeping Beauty and Oz. Always with an all powerful just ruler. These stories lead childre n into blindly following their leading down the yellow brick road to the great and powerful Oz. Workers are quite happy to serve the rich and privileged, never questioning their subordinate position. (giroux pg 102). Another example is the Chicken little movie in 1938, where the people are the chickens, the farmer the government and the fox being intellectuals (with his psychology book) Programming americans, along with all of the other(now banned) wartime disney movies that exudate out Walts own personal bigoted morals. Another example is the Thrifty Pigs which is trying to get people to buy war bonds to stop the big naughtily wolf, or Home Defense which makes fun of the French soldiers as being incompetent.All of these and countless others that were formed to get the people to promote in a war that we had no part in until Pearl Harbor. Or the worst one, The spirit of the 43 taxes to fight the axis Dont spend your money on things you dont need, give it to the government. Nothi ng like big brother Disney. But this side of Disney stops, at least blatantly, after Walts death in 1966 when it became a modern obdurate bureaucratic corporation. Yet hidden messages are still within modern movies, though with less obvious programming. vciolinguistic construction of social dominance and inferiority in which characters who use mainstream American English tend to be associated with strongly positive actions and motivations pg 102 of Giroux While the antagonist is often of another nationality such as the British flaccid Scar or any voice that isnt middle class Suburbia speech, as seen in Ursulas louisiana swamp artistic style. This pushes children to view those of the lower social class, dark skinned people or foreigners to be evil and become xenophobic and racist towards anything different than themselves.Disney goes a step further and makes a culture of consumerism, without tenements or poverty or urban class conflict Its a native white Protestant dream of a worl d without blacks or immigrants. , image of small towns characterized by cheerful commerce, with barbershop quartets and ice cream sundaes and glorious parades. (giroux pg 96) Everything media wise that Disney produces ends up becoming a cog in the Disney corporate machine with imaginers spewing out product after product to sell to children and increase profits.Children see a movie and want to emulate the role models perceived, then a commercial comes on after Mickey mouse club house for the newest enchanted Princess gown or Woodys costume and the kids ask their parents to get it. Children have not just copied the looks of the protagonists in Disney stories but have come to expect those fantasies to play out in real life, when the real world isnt such a happy place and has no room for such fantasy. People end up growing up focusing on material items and their personal lives instead of focusing on the fixable issues, calling it the American dream.This ideology of apathy is a big prob lem now with revolving door politics, politicians who promise the aforesaid(prenominal) things over and over and never fix them and blame the other side, failing infrastructure, falling public school standards and debt through the roof. Not saying that its all Disneys fault, of course not. Though almost every American child has seen at least one disney movie, its almost impossible not to be sucked into Disneys sway since they even show them often in public schools as educational videos never delving deeper.As a social manipulator Disney has taken the fight out of us. Programing us to follow American exceptionalism since the American was the hero is portrayed morally just whilst his/her enemy spoke in an exotic accent along with generating xenophobism of other cultures. Reinforcing children to follow the status quo and not to learn about the rest of the worlds culture outside their own narrow sphere of friends and family, enclosing ourselves in a media shell while proliferating Amer icans culture and moral values to other nations, who view disney as the true america.Disneyland it is the real country, all of real America -Jean Baudrillard pg 95 of giroux. To be fair, countless other childrens shows show non moral/family friendly broadcasting, especially now. Watching Spongebob as a child or the modern shows such as Adventure Time or the Regular Show and then seeing them as an adult. Explaining why my mother would laugh at certain parts of the shows that I didnt laugh at.I notice now the abundance of sexual jokes I missed as a kid and the references to drugs, crimes, war, and all the other stuff thats messed up with the world. So this kind of hidden messages has been deeply imbedded into all sorts media, they are adults working on childrens shows after all, so i doubt theyd be mature. What is evil about Disney is the corporation and those leading it, not the movies that they put their name on. This culture of consumerism that the corporation has exacerbated has evolved into a new network with companies working together to sell a common goal.