What we forget about Disney films

So yesterday, Mother’s Day, I settled in to watch a little 1953 “Peter Pan” with the boys. I don’t want to come off as some crazy PC person. But, wow, it was not as I remembered. From the “red man”/”Indians” to the ongoing theme of all women being jealous of each other, it was kind of hard to watch. And I’d forgotten the guns and violence of Peter Pan. But the depiction of girls was horrifying. I mean, I suppose I didn’t remember these elements from when I saw it growing up, so who’s to say my 4 and 5-year-old boys will, but wow. It all makes me realize that post-1990 Disney flicks might be a better choice, as the world began to get a bit more concerned with being politically correct.

Have you seen “Dumbo” lately? The black crows invoke a painful, uncomfortable stereotype.

I had been on a crusade to get the kids familiar with Disney films so that their first Disneyland experience is steeped in some recognition of the characters. But someone today reminded me that the witch in Snow White is terrifying. So I may have to tell the stories as I remember them. I don’t want to whitewash or censor, but after living in a PC world for so long, anything without that filter really sticks out.

Society has put up so many boundaries, so many limitations on what’s right and wrong that it’s almost impossible to get a pure thought out. It’s like a little kid, a little boy, looking at colors, and no one told him what colors are good, before somebody tells you you shouldn’t like pink because that’s for girls, or you’d instantly become a gay two-year-old. Why would anyone pick blue over pink? Pink is obviously a better color. Everyone’s born confident, and everything’s taken away from you.

-Kanye West

(I read this in a blog by Randi Zuckerberg (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randi-zuckerberg/my-son-wears-pink-to-shar_b_3219007.html), and it really stuck out to me. My son loves pink. And why not? It is so true—society takes a chisel to confidence, when kids could otherwise be so secure with themselves, ready to conquer the world.)