CONTENT UNIT: Disney Deconstruction Part One: Fairy Tales Mr. Ball Media Studies 120

Most children, at some point in their lives, come in contact with fairytales of some sort. Brainstorm a list with a group of your classmates of as many Fairy Tales as you can think of!

With your small group, pick one Fairy Tale that you know a lot about.

Look at the list of Common Elements of Fairy Tales and answer how each element applies to the tale you chose.

Common Elements of Fairy Tales  Do NOT need to include fairies.  Set in the past—usually significantly long ago. May be presented as a historical fact from the past.  Include fantasy, the supernatural or make-believe aspects.  Typically incorporate clearly defined good characters and evil characters.  Involves magic elements, which may be magical people, animals or objects. Magic may be positive or negative.  May include objects, people, or events in threes.  Focus the plot on a problem or conflict that needs to be solved.  Often have happy endings, based on the resolution of the conflict or problem.  Usually teach a lesson or demonstrate values important to the culture.

Your Fairy Tale  Share your results with the class.  Which of the Common Elements does your Fairy Tale have?  Which does it not have?

What is your favorite Disney Fairy Tale? Write it down on a blank sheet of paper. Explain why you like this particular choice.

Gender Roles  Culture is a social creation.  In other words, culture teaches us to play roles so we can easily relate to each other.  One type of role we play is gender roles, something we learn from birth.

Clip #1  We are going to watch a clip of several Disney movies. Every Story... Disney Every Story... DisneyEvery Story... DisneyEvery Story... Disney While watching this clip, make note of:  The characteristics of men  The characteristics of women  The characteristics of romantic love

Clip #2  Sex, Strength and Dominance in Disney Sex, Strength and Dominance in Disney Sex, Strength and Dominance in Disney Again, in this clip what are:  The characteristics of men  The characteristics of women  The characteristics of romantic love

Disney Roles: Discussion  What are the characteristics of men?  What are the characteristics of women?  How are men and women portrayed together?  What do we learn about romantic relationships?  What can we generalize to be the roles of women and men?

 By now you know that nothing you see and hear in the media is an accident. Every person, place, thing and action is deliberately placed within the confines of a frame, for the purpose of making a statement, selling a product or sending a message.

 Media both reflects and reinforces social norms. Your earliest views of accepted stereotypical behavior may have been taught to you by family members, but were reinforced largely by movies and television.  Keven M. Tavin and David Anderson stress that the manipulative mechanisms of G-rated films teach popular visual culture to youth. They claim that popular Disney films like, Cinderella or Snow White shape children’s perceptions on society, and in so doing, encourage them to construct preconceived notions on the world and how we “ought to” live in it.

 Consider some Disney films you know about (Such as: Snow White, Cinderella, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahontas.)

Brainstorm words that describe the following roles as they are portrayed in these films:  The Step Mother  The Prince  The Princess  Mothers  Fathers  The Hero  The Villain