In The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence, Henry Giroux cites the incredulous statistics of the staggering influence the Disney Company exerts worldwide in terms of the communications industry. Nearly one quarter or almost twenty five percent of U.S. households fall under their direct magical spell of media propaganda. But also of staggering importance is how these totals are designed to bombard children into becoming loyal Disney consumer/acolytes.
Entertainment for Disney then becomes a deliberate educational power as an extension of the corporate ideals and culture of white middle-class suburban society "to shape the public memory, national identity, gender roles, and childhood values…to determine the role of consumerism in American life." Because of the ubiquitous permeation of its well-groomed lovable, family-oriented public person advocating wholesome fun, the interior mechanisms driving this cultural engine is oftentimes confused as purely fantasy. Sure, other critics as Giroux points out, decry what Disney has come to represent, but what of the overt corporate "cultural imperialism" which insidiously masks the swindle of fulfillment that the general public literally buys into?
This is a lesson not so unfamiliar to my upbringing as the first memory I learned of art related to Walt Disney. In class, whenever I drew a facsimile of Mickey Mouse, rather than be complimented on my budding artistic skills, the general response from teachers and even some classmates took forms of warnings against copyright infringement. Stories about being sued by this fascist monolith hell-bent on preserving the sanctity of allowing no one else the opportunity to profit from their creations certainly placed the fear of God in my mind. That this cultural machinery could teach me at that young an age to view this cartoon character not as something delightful and warmly cute but cold and of the adult world hardened my perspective.
Throughout the globe, children find solace from the drudgery of compressed life in the fantastic retreat of what Disney offers on the surface. Everywhere one turns is evidence of Disney utopia. So in the parlance of pseudo-Disneyspeak, How could something so harmless as a bunch of cartoons and their related theme parks be so bad for you? This danger pertains to issues of a larger corporate vision to monopolize and privatize the spaces once considered noncommodified.