Disney text

I don't know about the rest of the world, but my childhood was literally spent parked in front of the television, watching Disney films. Mougli was my best friend until I was 8 (when he neglected to return my frantic waving at "Disney on Ice", thus breaking my heart and sending me into a pit of darkest despair), and I named all of my toys after Disney princesses. Suffice to say, I memorized the words to all of songs and dreamed of a prince on a white charger who would come galloping out of the woods one day and take me to Disney World, where I could meet up with Belle, Ariel, and Cinderella and have wonderful adventures. As a result, Disney music is the soundtrack to all of my memories of my childhood, and I was thrilled when I heard we would be singing Disney songs for this year's Talent Expo. But this lead to me listening to all of the old Disney cd's that were stashed under my bed, and I realized something: Disney music was not entirely meant for little kids. I mean, sure the whole idea of Snow White singing as she's being dressed by birds is innocent, but what's not so innocent is the Evil Queen's song of murder. Or Ursela's tale about how she steals people's souls if they don't obey, rather like a mob boss with the bottom half of a massive octopus. When I was younger, I never grasped the fact that some of the songs might be racist ("Song of the South", anyone?) or that the films themselves are sexist due to their depiction of the ever-helpless damsel in distress who must be rescued from her fate by a big, strong man on a lovely horse. Because six year olds don't think like that. However, as a 16 year old who partakes in discussions about racism and sexism pretty much everyday in history class, this realization was rather shocking. And frankly, I was deeply troubled by the fact that I spent the first decade of my life watching these films and having their message ingrained in my brain. Was that the reason why I was such a hopeless romantic? But as I continued to ponder the message within the Disney films and songs, I realized that my original conclusion was not right at all; I had been thinking like someone from the 21st century, and failed to take into account the attitude of the time period that these films were made in. Sure, some of the songs were a bit degrading to women, with lines like, " Some day when spring is here/ we'll find our love anew/And the birds will sing/And wedding bells will ring/Some day when my dreams come true". From one perspective, an annoyed feminist could argue that the lyrics suggest that the best thing that can happen to a woman is marriage, and that she shouldn't hope for anything beyond that. But, thinking back to the time period, we have to realize that during the 1930's, women were just starting to work outside of the home, and that this song simply floated along with the practices of the time. So, in conclusion, I think that before we perform our music in public, we should all learn a little something about what was going on in history during the time the song was composed, just to enter the point of view of the people who originally sang it.