T

Disney Kids

So I watched tons of Disney movies as a kid, lived all the princess stuff, really a girly girl.. and now I’m just not sure about the messages in the movies, much less how the princess bodies look. For example, in Pocahontas it’s all about colonization.. which is seriously evil.. and then it’s subtly racist.. love the songs and the grandma willow tree just really wondering what my kid’s takeaway would be from these movies. I am interested in everyone’s opinion. All thoughts welcome 😁
Like
Share Mobile
Share
  • Share

Show your support

Yes some Disney movies might be messed up, but they are heavily altered for young children. The original stories are dark (thanks Grimm’s fairy tales). Young kids won’t know about the messed up parts. Remember in the end Pocahontas was able to get her people and the settlers to get along in the movie. Her true story is wayyyy more messed up. If your kid is old enough to have a discussion about the themes, then talk with them about it.

That movie is painfully inaccurate and sadly, colonization happen to just about everyone, everywhere. I say - just enjoy Disney 🙏🏽💛

They probably won’t understand until they are much older. I know I didn’t but I’m going to just teach my daughter the goodness behind each story and when she is older and figures out the bad she will then be old enough to handle me explaining the bad.

We see more than the kids can see because we fully understand the true concept of it but I believe that they dont see it as we do. I ask me 6 yr old what she thinks of it and she just see someone trying to be a hero and finding her way to save her people.

I think you can guide the convo when watching the movies with your little ones

Thanks wise ladies! Great thoughts♥️

I found out recently that every single Disney film was written by a male, except beauty and the beast. She was a feminist, and said she wanted for once a female to save the male. Thought that was pretty cool.

The little ones won’t read too much into it. The same as you didn’t as a little one! ❤️

I am not a girly girl, so I am not drawn to any of the princess stuff. I believe that there are plenty of obtains when it comes to gender neutral kids movies. Pixar’s are better than Disney’s, even though Pixar is now part of Disney, they are still different. Kids don’t usually get the subtle messages as much as we do. They are just in for the fun and the songs. The Sound of Music seem like a completely different movie every time I watch it. You see more as you grow up.

There’s lots of different movies now so you can avoid the original Disney ones, for example Nemo and frozen. I thought that had a good message at the end the true love of family not just men haha first time Disney did that for a princess movie

The newer movies I find are better. I hate the damsel in distress bullshit because all know women usually know what to do in any situation 😂 I’ll let my kids watch them, but mainly for the pop culture aspect and we will be having conversations after. Peter Pan really bothers me, Wendy says no and that she doesn’t want to go with Peter but he grabs her arm and takes her anyway! What kind of subtle message is that giving out? I do disagree that kids aren’t picking up on much, it’s all internalised and subconscious. That’s the issue, it’s rare anyone says blatant raciest or sexist statements, they’re usually clouded and coated. Sleeping beauty, why tf would he walk up to a “dead” woman in the woods and KISS her? Sleeping beauty - he just decides to kiss a sleeping woman. All of these things get engraved into children’s minds from so young that no one even thinks it’ll be internalized misogyny or rape culture because no one wants to admit it or think that children’s movies could do that - but they can.

2 replies

Very well said Emily.

Yes I agree. This is what I meant when I posted. Because yes kids might not be able to articulate what is going on, but if I am showing movies with racism sexism gender roles and on and on they are being exposed to those ideas wrapped up in a song or cartoon

Just think about when you were young and how you probably didn’t understand those themes and more so loved the music. And although sad some things are apart of history and I think Disney paints the governor in an evil light, so if they’ll at least have a general feeling of taking someone’s land and violence being bad. If you have a problem with the damsel in distress sort of princess then just stick to the stronger character ones like Pocahontas, Brave, Mulan, etc. I feel like those ones all have great traits for little girls to pick up on compared to Cinderella or Snow White.

1 reply

I think another thing too is body image. Even if the character has a strong personality she has a Barbie type body

Cartoons by studio Ghibli are pretty good.

5 replies

I 100% agree with this. We will definitely be showing ours those movies when he's older. Not only do I love the animation and music, but the messages are much better for kids.

There are many Disney movies that send positive messages for girls. Brave, Frozen, Coco, Tangled, etc. just stay away from Snow White and Cinderella and you’ll be ok!

I’m very much a tomboy but I love Disney and the songs my daughter doesn’t understand the meanings as she’s so young same as when I watched them as a child but it’s the funky music and rhymes and colours they love they don’t have to understand to just enjoy the music I think it’s great x

Try today for free
Scan the QR code and join the app
to connect with women at a similar stage in life.
Download Peanut to connect with women at a similar stage in life.

StarStarStarStarStar-Half

Trusted by 5M+ women

Logo
Try today for free
Scan the QR code and join the app
to connect with women at a similar stage in life.
Download Peanut to connect with women at a similar stage in life.

StarStarStarStarStar-Half

Trusted by 5M+ women

Logo

I think as long as you’re involved in telling her later on that those things are bad (like elementary school is gonna be crazy around Columbus Day) you should be fine letting her love her Disney!

I totally fail to see how it may be an issue to allow children to watch Disney movies. A lot of these stories we didn’t fully understand ourselves until adults - and let’s face it watching them didn’t do us any harm at all! Yes I do love the more modern ones where the girl is the hero (mulan,frozen,moana,tangled,brave) but I also love all the classics and see no issue with my daughters watching them. At 2 & 7 both are very strong - don’t need boys attitudes - there’s a lot of tv shows now that are all about gender neutral etc so I honestly don’t see anything wrong in letting them watch & fall in live with the classics like I did! But then my eldest has an old head on her shoulders always has questioned storylines she doesn’t agree with.

I love me any and all disney, honestly i think i may even like them more then my kid does

So, it is rough but it is important to remember while a movie does have messages and your little ones will learn more from how you frame the story. I was a preschool teacher for a few years and after I had a “disney dance party” one of the boys came up and asked why the song was “make a man out of you” which started a whole conversation about gender equality. I had to explain that until recently women weren’t allowed to join the army and still a lot of people think women aren’t as strong or tough as men and this little 4 year old was pissed at society 😅 I had to tell dad at pick up and he was beyond proud of his son. It was one of the most awesome moments of teaching. So: Pocahontas (super simplified): About a girl who believes in communication and compassion rather than violence and is willing to tell her friends when they are wrong and stand up to bullies and tell them to be nice.

1 reply

Cannot love this comment enough!

Depends on the movie for sure. Frozen is banned for my kids because let’s face it Elsa is a B word pretty much the whole movie. Sorry Anna(Kristen Bell).

They probably won't even understand it because now that I'm older I noticed little things here and there that are inappropriate in them but as a kid they were the furthest from my mind just stop letting them watch it once you notice that they have started to mature or explain it to them and let them keep watching it the decision is yours at the end of the day

Moana on repeat 🙌🏼

2 replies

My problem with Disney movies is most start by the kid not having a parent. I would love to see movies where the person comes from a happy family, no one dies, and the kid still finds strength/adventure.

Here's ones that I can think of where both parents are alive for the whole movie: Moana - grandma dies, but it helps strengthen her for her journey Inside Out - no death at all, just the emotional goings on of a preteen Brave - focuses of the mother-daughter bond Mulan - girl power movie and both parents are alive Hercules - one of the non-Pixar movies that doesn't focus on a princess Up - main character is an old man, so parents aren't supposed to be alive at that point Tangled - her parents stay alive the whole movie and she's reunited with them in the end

Honestly I wouldn't worry about it I grew up with those movies and didn't think much of it and also most people watch those movies as kids and they're still good people.

What was your takeaway as a kid? I also watched all the Disney movies growing up and I feel like as a kid your pretty oblivious to all that stuff. But you could always just have a conversation with your kids once they're at that age.

It’s tough because the older movies do have messages that we don’t necessarily agree with but help emphasize the good qualities of the movies and point out the bad things and use it as a learning tool... “this is how it was in that time, and that was a pretty bad way to think and behave. We can learn a lot from the mistakes of that time.”

They are small, they don’t get much of everything we know now. You didn’t either when you were their age. It isn’t until your older that you realize what it truly is. But they’re not negative anyway. It’s Disney... better than them watching teen mom. 🤷🏻‍♀️ or the walking dead. Yes some parents actually allow their children to watch all that. I have a friend who lets his 3 year old daughter watch game of thrones 🤦🏻‍♀️

I love everything Disney. And it doesn’t help much that I own a travel agency and frequently go there... but before you get concerned and I DO see where you are coming from, know that the message conveyed is often bigger than what the princess looks like. My pet peeve is actually the historical inaccuracy (I’m a history teacher too).

It’s pretty much known that Walt Disney was racist, anti-Semitic, sexist . I mean his movie Song of the South is now banned. Although they have come a long way it’s what the institution was built on. As long as you can educate your children and engage them in dialogue about what they are watching, giving them the true history of events like colonization and racism and just let them know those movies were made in a different time where women and minorities were seen as less than or some sort of prize to be won you should be fine. With everything that is on television now days and the adult humor on a lot of kids shows it’s more important than ever to have those conversations but it doesn’t mean the magic has to be taken out of being a kid.

We enjoy movies and if we see something in them That makes our heads turn now we explain. Different time.... wasn’t thought of as wrong by as many. Ignoring what was won’t make us be better now but our children will learn history of how far we have come and how far we need to go

I didn’t understand that stuff in the terms that you put it when I was little. Quite frankly every Disney movie has some kind of mature content in it that’s all kinds effed up. Specifically with Pocahontas when I was little I was like.... “wow they don’t like those guys because they are different. But they just like nature, why don’t the guys on the boat like nature? They aren’t different, why are they fighting? Why are they so mad? That big guy is mean and ugly. John Smith is nice. Miko is funny”. ... maybe not those words specifically lol but you get it. Sense we’re here.. I think the scariest Disney villain is mother Gothel from Tangled. It disturbed me to no end that, first off, she was able to live a prolonged life with the flower and never gain any wisdom from said life; only vanity. Second, she kidnapped and raised a baby to believe falsehoods, pretended to be her mother, and isolated her for the entirety of her adolescence. Not to mention the psychological torture she put her through. Ugh.. yikes..

1 reply

But our babies won’t think about the Movies in these adult terms. What they’ll see is, Good guys being good. Bad guys being bad. Mean things being done. Nice things being said. Funny butt jokes. Happy ending. Bad got bites the dust

Try today for free
Scan the QR code and join the app
to connect with women at a similar stage in life.
Download Peanut to connect with women at a similar stage in life.

StarStarStarStarStar-Half

Trusted by 5M+ women

Logo
Try today for free
Scan the QR code and join the app
to connect with women at a similar stage in life.
Download Peanut to connect with women at a similar stage in life.

StarStarStarStarStar-Half

Trusted by 5M+ women

Logo

My son has had kidney issues since he was born he’s 6 now and still has them. Message me if you still have any questions. 😊

Read more on Peanut