ARTE 480
Midterm Essay
In November 18, 1928, Mickey Mouse was presented to the world by Walt Disney, which eventually ruled the popular culture among the younger sector of the global society. In succeeding decades after its conception, the Walt Disney Company did not only create hundreds of cartoon characters, but also brought to the world a seemingly magical kingdom. The animations, characters, resorts, theme parks, and the merchandise owned by Disney have all became part of the popular culture and had become precious memories of every person’s childhood years. In this respect, this paper will discuss Disney as a popular culture, inclusive of which are its ideology, aesthetics and emotional appeals, the globalization of the company, as well as the problems that arose due to its aesthetic and marketing practices.
Popular Culture vs. High Culture
High culture means the artistic, intellectual and scholarly works which can lead to an experience of teaming, enlargement, and enrichment. Many scholars think of high culture to be the ‘best’ that has been produced in the world, and that ‘traditional’ culture is available to only the elites and upper-class people in the past (Williams, 2012, p. 171). Nonetheless, I do not think contrasts should be made between high culture and popular culture because during the process of making high culture in a real society, whether noticed or not, includes elements of popular culture. Examples of this are Shakespeare’s works, which used to be seen as popular culture which in the past is enjoyed by people from all classes. However, as time passed, his works have transitioned into being classic works of literary art, and are regarded now as high culture. The traditional and classic high culture in modern days is identical with the popular culture in the old society which survived over time due to either its aesthetic value or its mass audience appeal.
Popular culture may be defined as a culture that is developed by people and broadcasted by the media as a commodity (Williams, 2012, p. 174). Disney is one of the popular cultures in modern society since its products are mass produced and enjoy by a huge population base. However, in my opinion, the line between high culture and popular culture is blurred because high culture and popular culture builds upon each other during the production process. As such, Disney employs plenty of plots from the traditional folk culture defined by Storey while creating the modern popular culture, including the fairy tales by Brother Grimm. Many classic fairy tales have become sources for Disney’s inspiration (Storey, 2003, p. 14), such as Snow White, The Four Musicians of Bremen, and The Big Bad Wolf, which are all written by Brothers Grimm. Walt Disney Company as a global culture producer is a prime example of adopting the classic folk culture and transforming them into new popular culture.
The Aesthetics and Ideology
Aesthetics is a sensory lure that stimulates people’s perception which can exist in many forms: sublime, beauty, exotic, grotesque, sentimentality and others. The majesty of a palace, the beauty of the princess, the exotic of the forest, the horror of the villains, and the bond between humans and animals are all expressed through Disney’s aesthetics. More so, the androgynous nature of aesthetics, as mentioned by Duncum, is expressed in Disney’s fantasies—“the sublime was masculine, the beautiful, feminine” (Duncum, 2010, p. 17). The opposite sides of aesthetics are presented in Disney’s works-- the good and the bad, the positive and the negative and the happiness and sorrow are all showed in Disney’s works.
Since the very beginning of human society, aesthetics had usually served as a tool for other purposes, and as said by Duncum: “all visual imagery is a carrier of ideology” (Duncum, 2008, p. 126). Disney fantasy attracts its audience by creating empathy between the characters and its young audiences. Here, the young audiences can feel sympathy on the bad living condition of the princess, they can feel injustice when the protagonist achieves a temporary victory, and they feel the joy that the princess feels when in cases of happy endings. Unlike other soap operas and films where abundant visual stimuli including sexual elements are present, the elements of shock and horror are used to attract the audiences’ eyeballs (Duncum, 2005, p. 16). Disney, as a producer for children, provides a healthy image by avoiding such exaggerated images and carnivalesque elements. The visual stimuli are used within children’s tolerance since no visceral or bloody images are seen and the horror elements are very mild, if at all present. All the styles, emotional appeals and mild visual elements that Disney uses is aimed at creating affection from the consumers, both children and adults, in order to make sure that the company can survive in this capitalistic society.
Disney’s representations in the films are always stereotypical since a large portion of the audiences of Disney princess fantasies are white teenage girls. As such, in Disney’s princess fantasies which are loved by all the teenage girls, there is only one Asian princess, one Indian princess, one African American princess, and one native American princess, and the rest of all the princess are Caucasians. It is obviously not true that those ethnicities only form less than half of the population in the world, but Disney puts its focus on a certain ethnic group according to its sales pattern.
As stated by Duncum, unlike in the traditional art field, under capitalist ideology aesthetics usually exist in limited forms such as in desire, pleasure, beauty and ecstasy (Duncum, 2007, p. 128). Even white princesses in Disney stories share the same stereotypical characteristics, which are always slim, long-haired (mostly blonde) and big eyes. Moreover, the beautiful princesses are all kind-hearted and innocent while on contrary, the ugly sisters, queens, and step-mothers are always evil. In the same manner, the stereotypical appearance of the princess can be a reason for the extreme pursuit of slimness, an obsession of plastic surgeries, the intolerance of imperfection, and over-concern with one’s physical appearance. Some of the princesses lived a tragic life because they were born poor, although they end up being happy because they are married to a prince. Similar to the Build-A-Bear example mentioned in Duncum’s article (Duncum, 2007, p. 130), the Workshop developed materialism in children by giving them an idea that purchasing clothes for their bears equals to providing them love and warmth, the story of the princess also developed materialism to the children in their early life stages. These stories convey an idea that gaining money and fame is the only way to happiness and that being poor should always be disdained. Besides, it is not surprising to find that the Disney Princesses stories are all identical because the magnitude of revenues is determining what is going to be mass produced next, and become a popular culture.
According to Strinati in his article on postmodernism, in a media-saturated world nowadays, what appears on the media can shape people’s sense of reality (Strinati, 2004, p. 205). In this respect, Disney, as a popular culture, has the ability to form a preadolescent children’s understanding of the world. The problem now is whether the Disney princess fantasies are conveying morally-correct messages to the next generation.
Globalization
Conclusion
According to Duncum, if only art which is produced to express one’s free will is called art, then the popular visual culture today can only be seen as image. Duncum furthers this by arguing that modern mass popular art “represented a deterioration of standards and a cheapening of human sensibilities” (Duncum, 2014, p. 212). However, I believe that Disney, a modern icon of popular culture, is not just an image. Walt Disney has brought so much happiness to children all over the world by showing the friendship between humans and animals, and making girls’ dream come true. So, what does going to a Disney theme park means to most of the families? Reunion, family bonding, a child’s dream, and even an escape to the fantasy. Disney is not just a company that produces culture, but it has become our best friend during childhood, our mentor of creativity, our chance to learn about classic fairy tales, and our belief of a happy ending. As a popular culture producer, and itself a popular culture, Disney means so many things to its audience, and I think this is why it succeeded as a company.
References
Duncum, P. (2005). Visual culture and an aesthetics of embodiment. International Journal of Education Through Art, 1(1), 9-19
Duncum, P. (2007). Holding aesthetics and ideology in tension. Studies in Art Education, 49 (2), 122-135.
Duncum, P. (2010). The promiscuity of aesthetics. The Journal of Social Theory and Art Education, (30), 16-32.
Duncum, P. (2014). Revisioning premodern fine art as popular visual culture. Studies in Art Education, 55(3), 203-213.
Storey, J. (2003). Inventing popular culture: From folklore to globalization. Malden, MA: Blackwell. (pp. 1-31).
Strinati, D. (1996). An introduction to the theories of popular culture. London, UK: Routledge. (pp. 2-49).
Strinati D. (2004). An introduction to the theories of popular culture (2nd ed). London, UK: Routledge. (pp. 203-238).
Williams, R. (2012). On high and popular culture. In C. Rojek (Ed.), Popular culture (pp. 171-176).
