What Does Disney Teach Children?

Disney plays a huge part in a child's life. There are so many Disney movies out there but which ones are actually teaching children the right thing? Why do we think something is wrong with some Disney movies? Children don't see anything wrong with Disney movies, but why would they? Children are too young when watching these Disney movies to realize Disney so called "motives". Even I never noticed how Disney could teach children what is okay and what is not by watching them now. It never occurred to me that The Beauty and The Beast could teach children that domestic violence is okay. In that movie, Bell is held prisoner by the "beast" who eventually turns into an attractive human being. He smacks Bell during the movie as well. In the end of this movie it becomes the typical "happily ever after ending". Then she is able to show him happiness, and the fact that a person would be willing to risk their life with someone like that and try to show them happiness baffles me.

 I feel like this is why so many people say "Oh I can change him". This shows children that even though someone hurts you, it's okay and you will be happy in the end. This obviously is not true at all. Although, it is understandable that one would argue children don't think about these movies in that context, but then again, how do we know that they don't take in what they are seeing and carry it with them throughout their lives? I know that when I was a child none of this information that I have learned about Disney movies was thought about while I watched them. I remember during the classes we had talked about Disney movies, most people said that they don't see much wrong with children watching these movies because of the fact that they don't think about how these movies could cause domestic violence, or dependence on another individual. Children are taught, girls especially, to be dependent on someone else and they will be forever happy. In reality, we know that is not the case. Luckily, we have seen more and more women become more independent. My parents used to tell me to marry a rich man if I wanted to be rich. Whether they were joking or not, it fit in with the idea that you had to depend on someone else for your own happiness. Now that certain events have happened in my life and throughout society, my mom now says never depend on someone else, do everything for your benefit and if you want to be rich, then you make yourself that way, no one else will. My dad on the other hand has several opinions. Sometimes he will say you better marry someone rich when you are older since you want so many things or he will say well if you do become a vet, you will be able to have the things you want. Two very different opinions, but where did the one about marrying someone rich come in to play? Who thought up that idea? When I think back to all of the Disney movies, especially the princess movies, in the end the couples always become rich and live happy lives. In a way, I believe that Disney has helped shape the idea of dependence on another individual for your own happiness and of course going way back into history to the traditional roles that men and women played. Women are always seen as the "damsel in distress" during these Disney movies who are saved by their "true loves". This teaches young girls that a guy will swipe you off your feet whenever you are in trouble. No. We need to create movies that show people being dependent on themselves and having to earn someone's trust in more than a day unlike all of the Disney movies. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love Disney movies and my favorite is The Lion King, but there are some things I don't agree with why they put certain events in their movies.

Advertisements Towards Children

Of course, children don't realize the object of the game for the marketers. Their goal is to make the children want their product, whether it creates a disruption throughout the media or not. Marketers gear a lot of food products and obviously toys toward children. They use numerous amounts of techniques in order to gain the children's attention and gain them as a consumer. One of the many tests they complete on children is a "blink test" where they observe how much the children blink during each advert. They choose the advert that the children blinked less during. As I think back to how the commercials and advertisements were during when I was a child, I realize now how they were able to achieve their goals of making the children and parents consumers.

This photo shows how the media has basically consumed children.

Children don't have the right brain mentality to decide whether the product is actually better because it is The Little Mermaid fruit snacks or whether the fruit snacks are the same but said to be better just because the adverts tell us that.  Children listen to everyone and everything. They copy everyone and everything. They usually do whatever they are told to do if it has something to do with benefitting them, like most people would. Now, thinking about how the parents feel towards these advertisments geared towards children, I can't imagine they are too pleased. Arguing with a 5 year old in a grocery store over whether Princess fruit snacks are better than regular fruit snacks is a lost cause. Whether batman bandaids are better than regular bandaids just because they have a character from their favorite show/movie on it makes the child think that it just tastes that much better. A prime example of this is a child named Abby whom my mother used to nanny. She is 4 years old. She has everything you can imagine with a logo of all of the Disney Princesses. She has a jacket, a blanket, a chair, a sleeping bag, and she was Ariel, the little mermaid, for Halloween this year. Without knowing it of course, she acts like a princess and thinks as though she should be treated like one. Thinking back, she watches a lot of TV, her day im sure mostly consists of watching TV other than when she is at school. In a way, I feel that TV and the media has shaped her view of everything (well what a 4 year old can handle in their brain) even though she is 4 years old. Yes, she is so young but she is so educated on things that she thinks she needs. I have watched her while she was watching TV before bed and almost every commercial, that was geared to a young girl, she said "I want that". These advertisements don't help the parents at all in these situations. Especially, because some parents just can't say "No".
Going off on how today's generation is with products being more enhanced, children in the next generation are probably going to be having iPhones at the age of 4. 2 year olds nowadays even know how to use an iPhone; they know that you have to swipe the screen and click on the screen in order to work it. Sometimes I wonder if they know what they are doing, because most of the time it sure looks like it. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I wouldn't be surprised. I can honestly say that I'm kind of disappointed in today's generation. I'm so sick of hearing children, usually ages 10-18, saying how much they want something and why they have to have it. My sister recently had two phones, now she just recieved the iPhone 5 from my Dad. I never understood why he bought her a new phone. I remember though, when I was her age, 15, I still had the Razer as my cell phone. These days children are so much more selfish and unthankful of what they have. I believe most of this is due to the media. The media tells us what to like, who to like, what is cool, what is not cool, what is necessary, and what is the product that "we need to have". The media tells the children of today's society what to like and they carry that with them throughout their lives, which is what the marketers aim for. They want to be able to grab children's attention and maintain it as they grow into adults. Why can't the media market products without choosing children to conform into consumerism? Well, the most obvious reason is, they just don't want to. They want to empower themselves by choosing a group that doesn't fully understand their reasons for marketing these products and that will tell their parents to buy them something just because they were told it was "cool" or "necessary for you to have".

Is it True Pornography Objectifies Women or Do Women Objectify Themselves?

A question we could ask ourselves is does pornography objectify women or do women objectify themselves? Many people would have different answers to this question because no woman wants to be told that they objectify themselves. Honestly though, the women in the porn industry are proud of what they do, they like being the object that people look at to give themselves pleasure. These women get pleasure out of other people desiring them. Of course, these women do not just come out and say that they objectify themselves but when you really look at everything within the porn industry that is what conclusion most people would get out of it. Take Jenna Jameson for example. She made a career out of being a porn star which is usually short lived, but she is a multimillionaire. She has her own products and is able to maintain her career. The video we watched that included her in it showed her with products that had been molded from her own body for other adults to use. In my opinion, I couldn't even imagine the thought of molding my body parts to make a product for other people to enjoy. It sounds disgusting and disturbing to me. Jenna Jameson loves her career and she loves that her "fans" use her products; she loves all of the attention she gets. Is this attention considered negative though? She only gets attention because others say that she is "hot" or "sexy". They only see her as a sex object. No one talks about her intelligence, for all we know she has no knowledge at all. An interview she had with Fox 411, she seemed like she was on drugs and she seemed like a complete ditz. I watched about 2 minutes and couldn't handle any more. Everything she said, she sounded so childish and unintelligent. Whether it was the drugs talking or not, I feel as though she has been so accustomed to the porn industry where they are meant to act in a childlike matter for the most part that it has come into her reality. This picture below is from an article on her about her accomplishments coming to an end. The article, Jenna Jameson Still Works in the Adult Entertainment Industry But Lies About It, talks about her wanting her new book "Sugar" to become an all time favorite, but every time she is on the air or on TV she seems to be intoxicated. She definitely sounds like it in her interviews. She has had her children taken away from her and she is being criticized so much for all of she appearances on television. She was maintaining a stable career unlike most in the porn industry but, from reading the article it sounds as though she tried to stop making videos. Obviously, that has not worked for her since she has been seen on a website on the internet that does not make much money. What does it take for women to realize that they could be doing better things in life? She could have her children and have a successful book if she just "grew up" and saw herself as being able to be knowledgeable and accomplish more than just things throughout the porn industry.
Men being interviewed at a porn event had said that "women are just there as sex objects, they're more like an object than a human being." Are women okay with being considered an object? Not even a living thing.
In pornography, women are submissive, they are basically the other partner's "bitch", and they seem to have no say in anything. This goes into the topic of women faking orgasms in porn videos. Why fake it? These women feel as though how they feel during sex doesn't matter, they are only there to pleasure the other person. This also goes along with the theory of women feeling as though they need to pleasure someone else and they get pleasure out of being desired by another person. This is probably the reason for porn stars. They enjoy being desired, they don't care about their feelings. At least, that is what it seems like. These women don't seem to care what other people think of them. Nor do they seem to care if they are happy with what they are doing because that is what today's culture is telling them. Today's culture doesn't even seem to have a female fantasy, nor does it show that women should be caring about how they use their bodies. A women should not feel comfortable selling her body to other people and being known as a sex object. In today's society, when you are seen as a sex object, that's all you become. Nothing more, just an object. Not a human being, just an object. Not a living organism, just an object. I see something very wrong with that.