Giroux’s writing style in evolved
from this 1994 piece “The Disneyification of Children’s Culture” to his 2011
piece “How Disney Magic and the Corporate Media Shape Youth Identity in the Digital
Age”. The 1994 piece was far more palatable to read and much more tolerant of
Disney’s antics. Though I agree more with his first piece because it is much
more objective and relaxed about Disney’s power and responsibility, the second piece offers insight on the
shift in Giroux’s tone and main problems with Disney.
In addition to Giroux renown
worldwide, he incorporates logos into his argument to further strengthen his
ideas. In his 2011 piece, Giroux writes, “[Average] American spends more than
six hours a day of video-based entertainment…” and “children see about 40,000
ads a year on TV alone”. These informational sentences backup his ideas that
Disney has the responsibility of protecting our children, considering the amount
of TV and commercials they watch. I was surprised by the statistics; They
prompted me to think that Disney does have some
responsibility in relation to what our children are watching. Giroux
includes many money-based numbers to show the monetary power Disney has; Giroux
provides numbers in the millions and billions, “… $667.2 million in filmed entertainment,
$330 million in consumer products, and $538.6 million from its theme parks and resorts.”
(1994). The money Disney makes is ridiculous. Now knowing how much Disney made
in 1994 and continues to make now, it is disturbing that they market so heavily
to our children. Although I did not originally agree with many of his ideas, by
including these numbers (and references), it makes it much harder for me to refute
his ideas.
I like the element of surprise that
Giroux integrates into his essays. The odd juxtaposition of words fueled my
curiosity while reading. One that particularly stuck out to me is, “ … corporate
moguls and conservative evangelicals…” (1994), this comparison illustrated the expansive
types of people trying to turn our children into consumers; From business men
to radically religious people, we need to keep our children away from Disney because
they are trying to shape the youths malleable minds. Another intriguing juxtaposition was in the 2011
article, “… seductive symbolism of childhood innocence and wholesome family
fun.” I had to reread that sentence because of the complete opposite things
being grouped together to describe Disney. ‘Seductive’ innocence is a new concept to me;
However, I can see that Disney tries to sell the idea of innocence so parents
feel safe when they put their children in front of a Disney program or when
they buy them a new Disney toy.
The idea of technology is touched
upon in the first Giroux piece. He explains that movies with racism and sexism
in them can hurt our children’s growing minds. I agreed with the overall
concept because children’s subconscious could be affected; However, I disagreed
with some of his examples like “Sound of the South” because children do not
watch it anymore. I, also, disagreed with Giroux’s suggestions that Disney adds
tenements and poverty to its theme parks because that is not somewhere we need
to teach kids about the depressing parts of American History. In his 2011
piece, Giroux extensively examines technology’s affect on children. I agree
with his idea that Disney dominates much of the kid’s TV shows, advertisements,
and websites and with that kind of power comes responsibility. Giroux tries to convince
the reader that Disney essentially brainwashes our children to become “consumers
and commodities” (It makes me think Disney making our kids zombies to their
company). I believe that technology plays a large role in shaping our kids, but
parents also need to step in and take their kids away from the TV.
Overall, Giroux is extremely
intense of a writer. My ideas lined up better with his first piece, but I found
his second piece to be a much more interesting read.
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