Diversity in Disney Films by Cheu Johnson

Author:Cheu, Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2015-01-08T16:00:00+00:00

When Ursula suggestively tells Ariel to use “body language” to attract Prince Eric, Ursula’s overweight body and tentacles, her deep voice, and the excessive, sexualized shimmies are reminiscent of a drag queen on stage, overly made up and singing deeply, appearing both female and male simultaneously.

Some critics have argued that Ursula was always supposed to be transgendered; in fact, Pinsky notes Ursula “was modeled on the modern drag queen Divine, according to the film’s directing animator, Reuben Acquino.”30 Clearly with her white blond hair, overwhelming size, deepened voice, and accentuated eyebrows, the resemblance to Divine is uncanny.31 As well, many of her mannerisms and language choices also remind viewers of Divine. Complaining of her expulsion from King Triton’s kingdom, Ursula exposes fleshy, wiggling upper arms, large rounded breasts over an excessive stomach, along with her sagging jowels, then says, “And now look at me—wasted away to practically nothing—banished and exiled and practically starving.” The scene ends with her long black thick tentacles curling around the screen, until only her eyes are still apparent. Obviously this obese, overindulgent octopus is nowhere near malnourished, but the dramatic phrasing and movement coupled with her enormous size presents Ursula as overly theatrical and campy. Her exaggerated characteristics begin to read more and more like a flamboyant drag queen, than that of a real exile concerned with starvation.

In these ways, female villains become more and more separated from their dainty heroines, and their carefully-crafted creepiness depends on a distinct division from traditionally feminized characteristics (and the overtly heterosexual heroines mentioned earlier). As well, it’s understandable that Disney would want the villains to appear distinctly different—their audience members are as young as one or two years old, and Disney wants the youngsters to identify with the heroes and heroines, clamoring for Disney Princess products after seeing each film. They need them to understand easily who is good and who is not—and they do, as shown by my daughter’s comments and inclinations. But when Disney creates female villains primarily as transgendered characters—and transgendered characters as the primary evil characters in their storylines, then it crosses a line of attempting to show the polarity of good and evil to its youngsters, and becomes a disjointed misinformation telling young children that difference is not okay—in fact, that those who are transgendered are evil and to be avoided at all cost. These gross exaggerations and profiling create a disturbing message that is repeated ad nauseam to our youngest movie-watchers, who watch these films incessantly in our homes.

Similarly fascinating (and equally problematic) is the way in which Disney’s male villains are crafted to avoid heterosexual competition with the heroes. By feminizing the male villain, even bordering on overtly homosexual characterizations, The Lion King’s Scar, Aladdin’s Jafar, and Pocahontas’s Ratcliffe also become “mean ladies”—the stuff of which my daughter was wholly terrified. But while they may be evil, they definitely aren’t masculine.

While lion Scar looks only vaguely feminine in his appearance,32 his lack of physical prowess, his language choices, and the lack of a female mate mark his character as crossing into transgendered territory.

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