Disney Gender Roles

I was unable to attend the class period when we watched Mickey Mouse Monopoly. However, I was required to watch it for a previous psychology class and recently have discussed the documentary in my sociology of gender class this semester. Looking back on Mickey Mouse Monopoly I can’t help but relate one of the main themes regarding gender roles to a movie I watched with my little sister over Thanksgiving break; it was the 2007 Disney film Enchanted. Mickey Mouse Monopoly researchers explain the problematic damsel in distress theme, “However strong and powerful a female character may be she still needs to be rescued by a male. In the world of Disney, females not only get into trouble easily they also lack the ability to save their own lives.” (Mickey Mouse Monopoly). Enchanted depicts today’s stress on equality by allowing Giselle (the lead female character) to save Robert (the lead male character) from the transformed dragon version of Queen Narissa (the villain). As the characters climb a skyscraper during the climax Giselle appears with a sword ready to fight the dragon.

Queen Narissa as the dragon: Oh my, this is a twist in our story! It's the brave little princess coming to the rescue. I guess that makes you [looking at Robert] the damsel in distress, huh, handsome? Keep up with me dear it’s time to take our tale to new heights.

Here, the film breaks the barriers held by every princess story in Disney’s past. Even the villain openly admits a change of gender roles. Realistically, males cannot always flock to the rescue. Personally, I enjoyed Enchanted because it enables young girls, such as my 14 year old sister, to see a confident, determined woman triumph adversity and save the day without the help of a male. With the personal beliefs and teachings my parents used to raise my sister throughout her young childhood I firmly believe that she enters her time as an adolescent understanding that women do not have to rely on the competence or even the checkbook of a man in order to succeed in our current patriarchic culture. Unfortunately, living on a college campus it is clear that some parents have failed to teach their daughters this mind-set. Just the other day I saw on a friend’s dresser a small coin bank which read on the front, “I'm savin' up for a rich husband!” She then openly admitted to me that she is only attending Mizzou to receive her “Mrs.” degree. Obviously her parents failed somewhere.

Perception and Smell

I enjoy the smell of my own farts. Don’t cringe at me. To whoever is reading this you know you enjoy yours as well. Don’t lie, just admit it.

In social psychology class we learned that there is a necessary social construction of the senses that occurs. Our teacher stated that “We do not react automatically to physical sensations but define and interpret them.” Awful, repulsive and nauseating smells are actually not bad smells but they are described as such because they are socially constructed as bad smells. Someone may enjoy the smell of horse manure while their best friend gags at even the thought of it. The most common example, which I love, is gasoline. Someone may truly appreciate the smell of gasoline while their roommate dreads the fact of pumping gas into his car once a week. One of these roommates will continue telling people how the smell of gasoline arouses the inside of his nostrils (you get the idea) therefore, causing those who listen to believe that the scent of gasoline actually is enjoyable. The same process occurs with the other roommate. He will continue informing people about his disgust for the smell of gasoline therefore, instigating a sense of animosity for the smell by anyone who chooses to believe him. Classifications of desirable and horrendous smells are products of our language while at the same time help organize our sense of reality and facilitate social interaction.

Other odd smells I enjoy: permanent marker, leather, new car, white out, raw dough, raw meat, skunks, melting rubber, dog biscuits, the doctor’s office, play-doh, a mechanic shop and ski equipment…just to name a few. 

The Reproduction of Race Privilege

From my sophomore year to the end of my senior year in high school I worked at two different country clubs. First, I worked at Old Hickory Golf Course as a server for banquets and weddings. After realizing how much I hated dealing with food and working till 1:30am I decided to quit and then began working in the bag room at Whitmoor Country Club. Here, I cleaned and parked all of the golf carts, picked the golf balls from the range at night and washed the members clubs before storing them in the bag room. I soon found out there were also long hour shifts as well as similar snobby club members. However, I enjoyed working outside and the fact that it was a seasonal job so I decided to stay until I left for college. Once I came to college and found myself attending classes with a diverse range of students. This new type of environment helped me realize the lack of racial diversity which existed at both of my previous country club jobs. Looking back, not once do I remember working with a black male or female nor do I remember seeing one working in a higher held job such as an office position. In fact the only people I remember seeing at the staff meetings were white men and women, not a single minority. The all-white environments I witnessed at the country clubs reminded me of the primarily white employee environment which existed at Diamond Toys from Inside Toyland. Just as Diamond Toys was located in a higher-end of town so were both of these country clubs. Their customers were also mainly middle and upper class and mostly white. As Williams observed at Diamond Toys, I too could easily notice the constant reproduction of race privileges. The HR representatives who conducted interviews and hired the employees at both country clubs were aware of the racial make-up therefore the reps saw whiteness as the norm; it was the same light the club members saw whiteness as. So who were the HR reps going to hire to help serve the needs of the white members? White employees. Once again white privilege is reproduced.  Unfortunately, I live nearby Whitmoor and occasionally play tennis on their courts. Even after four years, I still have yet to see a black employee working on the country club property. Some things will never change I guess. 

Ole Miss and Social Class

Aries and Seider conclude that lower income students who attend private elite colleges face more class related challenges than lower income students who attend state colleges. However, I have found through my own experiences that these difficulties still occur on a frequent level at specific state universities. There may not be as big of a gap in social and cultural capital between the classes at the state universities but the gap itself and powerlessness is still as noticeable, through my own eyes at least. Recently, some friends and I traveled down to Ole Miss University (Oxford, MS) to watch them play the number one ranked football team in the nation, LSU. We tailgated in The Grove which is known for having the best tailgating atmosphere in the country. Though the campus had signs hanging on their street lights emphasizing the teaching of cultural diversity in their classrooms it was clear that there was only one culture on that campus: Upper-Middle to Upper class white culture. This was evident not only by the fact that every male and female on the campus during game day dressed in “country club attire”  but I did not see a single minority in The Grove or on their campus for the entire 48 hour span which I stayed there. During my stay I did notice a group of Ole Miss students who were not dressed up in expensive brand clothing nor were they drinking the classier alcohol which most of the other students were consuming. Ironically, this group’s tailgate was located along the marginal outside boundary of the grove. The group consisted of all males dressed in t-shirts socializing by themselves. In Oxford, MS I also noticed during my stay that most working class job positions (in restaurants that is) were held by blacks. I am forced to wonder if these class-related challenges and difficulties discussed in the article are more dependent on the region of the country which the college is located in rather than the actual school. This would be an interesting fact to research throughout only colleges in the South where class is especially directly related to race and intersectionality as a whole.