Reflection on Giroux Essay “The Disneyfication of Children’s Culture”

It hasn’t yet been three full weeks in my writing 101 course Decoding Disney – yet I am already starting to reshape my attitudes towards the Disney Corporation. This is not to say I have a revolutionized outlook of the enterprise, but I am beginning to see the need to critically approach Disney films and the importance of recognizing the global implications of the values and ideals that Disney conveys. These ideas were most profoundly communicated in Henry Giroux’s essay ‘Animating Youth: The Disneyfication of Children’s Culture’. Giroux’s essay presents a convincing argument on the need to avoid passively absorbing the content of Disney’s entertainment. Rather he calls us to associate the Disney enterprise within a context of specific values and ideology that must be critically assessed. Most importantly however, he justifies this thesis by exposing Disney as a media mogul whose influence on children’s culture is profound – ranging from the ideas of conservative views, distorted utopic facades, commercialism and its status as a cultural institution.

Giroux’s essay acutely recognizes the pervasive power and influence of the Disney Company on society and in particular children’s culture. To begin, Giroux notes the power of Disney to transcend ‘the boundaries of entertainment’ and operate as ‘teaching machines’. Disney’s unique representation of values make it difficult to critically analyse, however Giroux notes that ‘Disney films combine an ideology of enchantment and aura of innocence in narrating stories that help children understand who they are, what societies are about, and what it means to construct a world of play’. Giroux is able to articulate why Disney operates as such a unique brand and why it requires critical analysis. I agree that Disney mediums are able to usurp traditional sites of learning and inform its audience, particularly children, of a ‘dreamlike world of security, coherence and childhood innocence where kids find a place to situate themselves’. Giroux argues that given Disney’s power and ability to expose children to select conservative values and ideals, their diverse representations and messages must be critiqued. The irony of Disney is that while its mission is to portray a ‘world of enchantment… free from the dynamics of ideology, politics and power’, it readily imposes certain conservative values of race, gender and wealth. I have come to the same conclusion as Giroux, that classrooms, teachers and parents must understand the implications of children uncritically absorbing the Disney’s ideology.

I would also like to share my personal opinion on the piece and analyse Giroux’s writing technique – which after all is the objective of this course. Giroux has expelled many of the myths of persuasive writing, foremost the use of personal pronoun. Giroux uses the personal pronoun ‘I’ to great effect to communicate his voice throughout the piece and engage with both the material he is discussing and also to the audience. For example when Giroux writes, “I recognized that any attempt to take up Disney films critically rubs against the grain of American popular opinion”, Giroux not only reveals an underlying assumption held by the public but also recognizes his audience, signposting that the arguments he is about to discuss might conflict with popular opinion. Another facet of Giroux’s writing is his textual analysis and support for his arguments (something that was crucial missing in the Wasko article). Upon discussing commercialism and Disney’s ‘marketplace of culture’, Giroux discloses both statistical and monetary values to endorse and evidence his point – “Disney theme parks… made over $3.4 billion dollars in revenue in 1993”. Lastly, Giroux’s essay is persuasive and profound due its synthesizing conclusion that calls on direct measures to critically evaluate the cultural force of Disney. The tone is purposeful but not scathing and Giroux addresses specific psychological transformations that society must adopt in order to understand the cultural implications of Disney. On account of these points, I find Giroux’s essay valid and extremely thought provoking. This has been the perfect text to position me to approach further readings and adopt my own critical analysis in this course.