Disney Said To Foster Ageism (Seven Dwarfs??)

Daily Telegraph (UK) via NY Sun ^ | June 1, 2007 | Sarah Womack

[gpapa]

LONDON — Even the Seven Dwarfs are guilty. Well, two of them anyway. Grumpy and Dopey are no longer just the loyal friends of Snow White but must now line up with the likes of the Wicked Queen and Cruella de Vil to be accused of fostering negative images of elderly people.

[Redcloak]

I get Grumpy; but Dopey?

[HungarianGypsy]

That’s how life is. That’s how people are. Not everyone is nice, good, beautiful, slim, and intelligent. Some people have too much time on their hands to worry about Disney characters.

[crazyhorse691]

I knew the man that served as the model for Dopey...he was closer to Grumpy in temperament.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

...Typical portrayals of elderly people included showing them as toothless, hunched, and with cracking voices. Many were depicted with "saggy breasts,"...

LOL. Like all stereotypes, there's not a single shred of truth to it.

[weegee]

Uncle Remus was a nice old man.

[gcruse]

I can't think of saggy breasts without conjuring up a cartoon, though it isn't Cinderella's mom.

[dr_lew]

LORD POLONIUS

I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.

HAMLET

Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here
that old men have grey beards, that their faces are
wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of
wit, together with most weak hams

[kinoxi]

the elderly characters are also stereotyped in terms of race and gender. Two thirds of older characters — excluding animals — from films ranging from "Dumbo" to "The Aristocats" were male; 83% were white.

They're ageist (?), sexist and racist. A bigot's hat trick. The evil conspiracy at Disney must be working overtime. /s

[Bigh4u2]

Shhhh.....

Shakespeare will be the next ‘target’ on their list.

[Dumpster Baby]

[weegee]

Look at how many “missing fathers” there are in Disney cartoons. Sexism!!!

[Tanniker Smith]

Look at how many “missing fathers” there are in Disney cartoons. Sexism!!!

Missing mothers have gotten a bit of equal time with The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (he did have a father figure, at any rate) and Aladdin. Toss in Pirates of the Caribbean, if you like,

[dr_lew]

Yes and how about Jonathan Swift? Here is part of his description of the immortal Struldbruggs from Part III Chapt. X :

When they came to four-score Years, which is reckoned the Extremity of living in this Country, they had not only all the Follies and Infirmities of other old Men, but many more which arose from the dreadful Prospect of never dying. They were not only Opinionative, Peevish, Covetous, Morose, Vain, Talkative, but uncapable of Friendship, and dead to all natural Affection, which never descended below their Grand-children. Envy and impotent Desires are their prevailing Passions. But those Objects against which their Envy principally directed, are the Vices of the younger sort, and the Deaths of the old. By reflecting on the former, they find themselves cut off from all possibility of Pleasure; and whenever they see a Funeral, they lament and repine that others have gone to a Harbour of Rest, to which they themselves never can hope to arrive. They have no Remembrance of anything but what they learned and observed in their Youth and middle Age, and even that is very imperfect. And for the Truth or Particulars of any Fact, it is safer to depend on common Traditions than upon their best Recollections. The least miserable among them appear to be those who turn to Dotage, and entirely lose their Memories; these meet with more Pity and Assistance, because they want many bad Qualities which abound in others.

... and how about Juvenal? He’s toast!