Race and Ethnicity as portrayed by Hollywood

We will address the New Disney movie, “The Princess and the Frog” and how race and ethnicity of the African American princess affects the view of the general public. This is Disney’s first film ever depicting a Princess African descent, and has gained much attention as a controversial subject among people in the U.S. We would also like to point out how our text’s definition of the term “Disneyfication”, truly affects the public’s view of culture and race. The terms race and ethnicity will be clarified and we would like to explore the absence of color in animated characters within the media, specifically Hollywood, and how it effects not only the consumers, but particularly the youth of today.

Cooper, B. (1999). Hegemony and Hollywood: A Critique of Cinematic Distortions of Women of Color and Their Stories. American Communication Journal, 2(2), 1. Retrieved from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

This article discusses how the entertainment industry has used certain perceptions of race and ethnicity to critique particular aspects of race particularly with black women and their sexuality. This article specifically talks about film translations of three texts written by black women and the issues they tackle. It also discusses how certain truths must be told to expose the reality of black women in Hollywood and unfortunately this is not always done.

Storey, J., 2009. Cultural Studies and the Study of Popular Culture, second edition, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

The book gives us a reference to various issues, namely Disneyfication, Race, Ethnicity, etc. It also provides a broader view of popular culture and the entities it entails.

“Race, ethnicity, Walt Disney”. 2008. In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved March 5, 2010, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Race

The dictionary is an overall excellent source to give the precise definitions of the terms we are dealing with in our podcast and provides for a more articulate explanation of the issue at hand.