Month: December 2019

According to recent articles from The Verge and Time, the new streaming service, Disney+, has started to include disclaimers about the scenes in movies that show racism. Some of Disney’s older movies are centered around cultural context in which racism is present. In the description box for certain movies, the phrase “This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions,” (Alexander, 2019). Movies such as Dumbo and Peter Pan show discrimination against certain races. The chairwoman of American studies at the University of Maryland at College Park, Williams-Forson, said the company “needs to follow through in making a more robust statement that this was wrong, and these depictions were wrong.”

Stereotypes have been around in Disney films for decades. In present day, there has been controversy around old Disney movies, and how they depict racial stereotypes because of the new streaming service, Disney+. One complaint of a stereotype in an old animated Disney film is a scene in the movie Dumbo. A stereotype is a belief about the personal qualities of a group of people that are usually inaccurate and overgeneralized. In this scene, a group of crows are singing about how Dumbo flies, and the main crow in the group was named Jim Crow. This was a mocking term used to insult black men since the real Jim Crow implemented controversial segregation laws.  The scene shows an example of stereotyping in the sense that the crow, Jim Crow, is verbally belittling Dumbo about his ability to fly. You can tell how times have changed due to how these stereotypes were allowed to be shown to the public back then and how there is so much controversy around the stereotypes in present day. Even though the scene is offensive, it is still being shown within the movie. 

Another movie, that is not well known to the public due to how racist it is, is the Song of the South.  Racism is when people are treated differently by others of a different race due to the assumptions made based off of their skin tone. This movie was set on a plantation in the 1940s in Georgia after the Civil War. The depictions of black people are so controversial that this movie has not been shown in years. Disney+, along with other streaming networks will not show this movie due to the racist nature.  The movie shows a plantation worker in a positive light, disregarding the horrible treatment that other workers faced.  Although the setting took place after the Civil War, a war over the use of slaves, the movie never defined the plantation worker as a slave.  However, Disney dances around the idea that he is a slave. The controversial showing glorifies being a slave which is wrong because racism pushed black people into slavery.  A reporter from Time further states that the Song of the South “…hasn’t been shown theatrically for decades, due to its racist representation of the plantation worker Uncle Remus and other characters.”(Anderson, 2019).  Racism along with stereotyping has been around for centuries in Disney movies. Not much was said back in the day when the song first came out, but currently everyone is noticing how racist these film makers were in the past.  

Alexander, Julia. “Disney Warns Viewers about Past Racism, but Not as Well as Warner Bros.” The Verge, The Verge, 13 Nov. 2019, https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/13/20963014/disney-plus-racism-cultural-disclaimer-dumbo-song-of-the-south-warner-bros-tom-jerry.

Anderson, Mae. “Disney Adds Content Warnings to Movies With Racist Tropes.” Time, Time, 16 Nov. 2019, https://time.com/5730892/disney-plus-content-warnings-racist-movies/.

Dominique Fornabaio

Disney animation movies that have predominantly caucasian main characters, don’t include characters of color in their movies. The director of the new upcoming Frozen II decided they needed a change. According to articles like Blackfilm and the Chicago Tribune, they are breaking the stereotype of having the same color of characters throughout the movie by adding an African American character named Lieutenant Mattias who is being voiced by Sterling K. Brown who has played roles in Black Panther, This is Us and Waves. A stereotype is the belief about someone’s personal attributes of a group of people. The stereotype for Disney animated movies is usually if the main character is white than the rest of the characters in the movie are also white. In Frozen II, the directors went against this by putting a character of a different race in a movie that has only white characters. Brown explains that for a long time black people had to wonder if they would ever be able to see a person of color as a superhero or a main character in an animated movie. He says, “I love that there’s a character of color in this world of Arendelle,” he said. “I think for such a long time black folks have had to wonder, ‘what would it be like to have someone like me in this show, what would it be like to be Superman or Batman.’ And then you get ‘Black Panther.’ Now, we have this character,Lieutenant Mattias, who I get the chance to vocalize, and I have a little action figures and Legos, and I’m like, ‘Ah, it’s really happening.’”(Brown, 2019) 

This movie is also going against the idea of racism. Racism is when a person has prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior towards people of a specific race. Because the directors included an African American in an all white character animated movie, they are going against racism. Having a character of color being added to an animated movie which usually doesn’t happen, opens up new opportunities and doors for other Disney movies to follow in their footsteps. This movie is giving people of color the opportunity to recognize that they also belong in a fairytale or myth. In an interview with Blackfilm.com, Brown says, “I love for people of color to be able to see someone who is ostensibly of color in this world, recognizing that they belong in myth and fairy tale as well.”(Brown, 2019) Everyone in the cast has been very welcoming to their new castmate and Brown couldn’t be more comfortable with a group of people. Not only does Brown love to be able to be part of the Frozen II cast but he also loves the message the movie is portraying. He says to the Chicago Tribune, “I’ve seen bits and pieces [of ‘Frozen II’], and it is every bit an action-adventure movie led by these two heroines that happen to be sisters, and they choose each other over and over again, they don’t need some dude to come save the day, they can save themselves,” he said. “I love being a part of that.” (Brown, 2019). He enjoys what he is doing and the fact that he is making his mark in Disney animation for African Americans make what he is doing and his experience that much better and inspirational.

By Kayla Lopes

Morales, W. (2019, November 14). Exclusive: Sterling K. Brown on ‘Waves’ & ‘Frozen II’. Retrieved from https://www.blackfilm.com/read/2019/11/exclusive-sterling-k-brown-on-waves-frozen-ii/.

Nyren, E. (2019, November 12). Sterling K. Brown on the importance of seeing a person of color in ‘Frozen 2’s’ Arendelle. Retrieved from https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-ent-sterling-k-brown-frozen-2-diversity-20191112-zmulgxgevfcihklfc7vubghh4y-story.html.

Camp Flog Gnaw, a rap festival created by Tyler the Creator, was held this year and sparked some uproar with its attendees. According to articles written by Buzzfeed and USA Today, fans were informed that “the headliner spot was kept a surprise- the official lineup included ‘???’ in lieu of a name”; there were several speculations that the performer would be Frank Ocean (Yasharoff, 2019). Due to Frank’s very rare appearances in public, this caused many fans to be excited due to its mysterious reveal. Because of this, people expected him to perform at the festival. However, Frank Ocean did not come out; instead, Drake did. Drake is a professional rapper known globally for his music. Although he is a respected artist, the crowd was majorly upset. Drake was booed off the stage at Camp Flog Gnaw by the crowd in response to their frustration and disappointment for the absence of Frank Ocean.

The crowd surrounding Drake’s stage at the festival were angry and acted out on Drake because of displacement. Displacement is when anger is placed on someone or something else that is not the direct or actual cause of a problem. Because the fans were mad at the fact that Frank Ocean did not appear, they took their anger out on Drake and booed him. Instead of being mad at Frank, they decided to target Drake for the source of their frustration.

Because fans were angry that Frank was not there and took their anger out on Drake, in addition, they acted out in catharsis. Catharsis is the way in which people attempt to relieve their anger through action or thought. People booed Drake off the stage; even “after Drake left the stage, the crowd started chanting, ‘We want Frank!’” (LaConte, 2019). By booing, shouting and chanting, this provided the crowd to believe that they were relieving the anger and frustrations they had. However, though it seemed as if acting out would help their feelings of disappointment, it did not change their mentality or help them to feel better about the situation at hand.

Though it was disappointing that Frank Ocean was not the surprise headliner, it is incredibly rude and unfortunate that an artist was treated this way. Drake came out of his way to headline a festival and people were rude enough to boo and shout him off the stage. Though it is frustrating to expect one artist, it was never promised or confirmed. Because of this, it is awful to see that people were so ungrateful to be in the presence of another great artist.

References

LaConte, S. (2019, November 13). Drake Got Booed Off The Stage At A Concert And Now There’s Big Drama On Twitter. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephenlaconte/drake-booed-camp-flog-gnaw-frank-ocean-tyler-the-creator.

Yasharoff, H. (2019, November 11). Music festival curator Tyler, The Creator slams fans who booed Drake off the stage. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2019/11/11/drake-booed-off-camp-flog-gnaw-stage-surprise-headliner/2560244001/.

Britney Cantel

Through magazines on coffee tables, advertisement on billboards, or posts on your timeline, a variety of models are displayed everywhere for the public’s eye to see. Since mass media became one of society’s biggest influencers, we constantly find ourselves comparing and contrasting every perfection displayed to our own flaws and the repercussions have been detrimental. A resident of Tallahassee, Florida, Shoog McDaniel was one of many who suffered from this. As a nonbinary, trans using the pronoun “they”, Shoog found themselves in many difficult positions struggling with suicidal tendencies as a queer teenager. Not identifying with their peers and being the complete opposite of what everyone else defined beauty as. At the age of 18 years old, McDaniel found an escape for their mental illnesses through a pack of expired disposable cameras behind a pharmacy. This was the moment where their creativity was able to flourish into something that breaks the beauty standard beyond belief.

McDaniel’s has become one of the fewsubgroupingtrans people who dares to speak out against their stereotypeof being hidden from social media and living marginalized lifestyles. Shoog is a photographer of mainly nude, fat people posing in nature and enjoying life fully in order to embrace the human body. They explain that their message is to accentuate an idea where trans, overweight individuals should be valued just as much as any thin or straight person is through out a mass media basis. McDaniel says in her interview with Huffington Post“Most of the people that I photograph are queer and trans folks, because that is who is not represented in media but needs to be the most uplifted.”

Unfortunately, it is no secret that this is a controversial topic in the world, even Shoog addresses that they are continuouslydiscriminatedon many levels. When speaking on the stereotype threatthey elaborated on the hate mail they received which included death threat letters saying that promoting an unhealthy body should not be normalized and is harmful to the view of the public. McDaniel easily contradicts these claims by saying that they are simply trying to express the gracefulness of the bodies, “I feel like if I take a body and make a piece of art, it will be easier for some people to ingest and that it will eventually change what is limited as beautiful in the world.”

Shoog’s work is one of the few outlets that trans, let alone overweight trans people have been able to experience as positive. The backlash and hate that is targeting this community has been an ongoing issue for several years now and receives little to no encouraged attention. McDaniel says “You are able to connect so much more freely, without having eyes clocking you or telling you ‘Oh you shouldn’t be this way, or you’re acting in this way that might be wrong or weird. (In nature) There is nobody looking at you, only trees” they explain how nature is part of the coping process to dealing with the inequitable criticism of their style of living and in her work in particular, “It is a very liberating place; it is why I shoot nude. It’s really about freedom and a sense of wildness, returning back to nature.”

Sterling, Anna Lucente. “This Photographer Wants To Capture The Beauty Of Fat Bodies.” HuffPost, The Huffington Post, 21 Oct. 2019, www.huffpost.com/entry/photographer-fat-bodies-shoog-mcdaniel_n_5dadd484e4b0422422c99604.