The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence

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Title:

The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence

Author:

Henry A. Giroux

Date published:

1999

Publisher:

Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield

ISBN: 0847691098 (cloth : alk. paper)

Description


In this work, the author shows that Disney is a powerful corporation whose ideology is largely predicated on getting the consumer to buy Disney products far from innocent. This book explores the diverse ways in which Disney, while hiding behind a cloak of innocence and entertainment, strives to dominate global media and shape the desires, needs, and futures of today’s children. The author tackles Disney’s theme parks, its recent forays into education and its movies in an attempt to expose how Uncle Walt’s legacy is eroding democracy and endangering our nation’s youth. He criticizes Disneyland and Disney World for whitewashing history and casting America’s past in a nostalgic light, excluding any mention of slavery, civil unrest, racial tension or war. In keeping with this practice of regulation and homogenization, employees are required to dress a certain way, to have their hair a certain length and to adhere to the “Disney philosophy.” Disney’s movies, argues the author, promote sexism and racism (“bad” characters speak with thick foreign accents, or in inner-city jive, female characters, however strong, depend on the men around them for identity) and encourage massive consumer spending while assuming the guise of innocuous family fun. But because children learn increasingly from popular culture, the author warns that it is dangerous to ignore the influence of a corporation whose private town, Celebration, dictates the color of its residents’ window shades and house paint.




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