Once upon a time, I used to think Disney had some serious mommy issues, after all – most of the moms in the Disney movies were dead. On the other hand, most of the early big Disney Fairy Tale movies were also based on popular German and European fairy tales, so chances are it wasn’t just about Disney having mommy issues, but the idea of a character losing it’s mother gives that character immediate sympathetic quality – because moms represent home, safety and unqualified love. Many modern Disney films have plenty of Moms in evidence – including The Lion King and Tarzan (yes, I know Kala was his adopted mommy, but a mom is a mom in my book).
So with this in mind, it’s surprising to me to see that researchers from Brigham Young University are now claiming that Disney might hate old people. Apparently, they believe that Disney films promote a negative image of seniors from Cruella deVil to the wicked stepmother in Cinderella. (The stepparent argument is a whole other ball of wax..) Why do these researchers think this? As it turns out they did a study of over a 100 characters that are over 55 in Disney films. (Okay, I’ll admit it, I can’t name a 100 over 55, but apparently these researchers can) and they found that:
- 25% were grumpy
- 12% were evil or sinister
- 8% were helpless
- 3% were senile or crazy
- 2% were the object of ridicule
They also found that senior characters were stereotyped by race or gender. More than two-thirds of the bad seniors were male (truthfully, most of the ‘evil’ seniors I can think of are all female except for Jafar and I don’t know that he was a senior, but a middle-aged guy) and that 83% of them were white. This study included the 7 Dwarfs because ‘Grumpy’ is such a popular image, I guess the other 6 who were pretty cheerful including Dopey, Doc, Sneezy, Sleepy and the last two that I can never remember.
Does Disney hate seniors?
I honestly don’t think so, but I think this falls firmly into the lap of parents to determine – if you think a Disney film promotes a bad stereotype (whether it regards moms, seniors, step-parents or other) then don’t let your kids watch it.
Personally, I don’t think Disney hates seniors anymore than he hates moms or small forest animals. What about you? Do you think Disney hates seniors?
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