Grumpy's too happy! Disney characters mask the misery of working class life, say academics

Mail on Sunday (UK) ^ | 20:54 EST, 21 February 2016 | Daniel Bates

[Olog-hai]

They are the children’s film characters loved by generations of fans, rich or poor, across the world. But the Seven Dwarfs, Bert the chimney sweep in Mary Poppins and others have been criticized for sending out the wrong message about poverty.

Good-natured Bert, played by Dick Van Dyke, is too happy and carefree given the hardships of working-class life in Edwardian London, US researchers claim. [...]

Researchers from Duke University in North Carolina looked at 32 films, many of them from Disney, that were rated G -- the American equivalent of U -- and had grossed more than $100 million worldwide. They put the characters into classes based on their job. At the top are upper class characters -- royalty, chief executives and celebrities.

The working class have jobs like soldiers, sailors, miners and sweeps. The lowest category is the jobless poor. ...

[Olog-hai]

Karl Marx was an “academic” too, from the University of Jena. None of these so-called “academics” have had real jobs in their lives; they know nothing.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

They are right. We need more Clintons and Sanders to tell how absolute rotten everything is. That’ll reall sell to the kids.

The Wash Po showed some 5 year olds some video clips of the candidates. Of of the kids said of Sanders “He’s angry!”

[Chode]

the commies showed Grapes of Wrath as a propaganda tool till they found out those watching were pizzed off to find out that American poor had cars/trucks and freedom of movement, it quickly went away

[BwanaNdege]

The Learned Academics need to watch this movie.

http://www.thehappymovie.com/

“Does money make you HAPPY? Kids and family? Your work? Do you live in a world that values and promotes happiness and well-being? Are we in the midst of a happiness revolution?

Roko Belic, director of the Academy Award® nominated “Genghis Blues” now brings us HAPPY, a film that sets out to answer these questions and more. Taking us from the bayous of Louisiana to the deserts of Namibia, from the beaches of Brazil to the villages of Okinawa, HAPPY explores the secrets behind our most valued emotion.”

[TigersEye]

I wonder how many anti-depressants the author has to take
to make himself forget how pathetic his career is?

I need to hire a chimney sweep every now and then.
I never need what this dweeb is peddling.

[JoeDetweiler]

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that this study was done by “academics” who have never worked even one day at a blue collar job in their entire lives.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Looking forward to Disney On Ice this weekend. :)

[Pilated]

Hip waders on - Warning lots of BS in this story.

[Olog-hai]

I figured that the temerity of academics to even think of speaking authoritatively on anything having to do with the “working class” was warning enough.

[mumblypeg]

Yeah, let’s make the cartoons all about class warfare and p.c. crap, and then when the children become miserable, violent little savages, we can just dose ‘em up with pharmaceuticals...oh wait. Weren’t we already doing that?

[ozzymandus]

You have to be pretty stupid to be an academic.

[crazyhorse691]

The academics got all that from cartoons? Maybe they should have spent time researching the 7 dwarfs because they would have found out the characters were based on the illustrators drawing the movie. Dopey was made to act and look like the youngest illustrator of the group and Doc was based on the jovial elder of the group of 7 working on the cartoon.

[LadyDoc]

the writer should watch the film “Saving Mr Banks”, especially the part toward the end where Disney explains to the author of Mary Poppins that he had a hard life too, but as an author, he could rewrite his experiences to be positive so that children in similar circumstances could find a tiny bit of happiness. And in the film, he pointed out that the new film would allow her a story line that redeems the sad life of her father's story, i.e. premature death from alcoholism).

Writes and artists rewrite life to give us hope. It is only in the modern world where “art” means “upsetting people”, i.e. making life seem ugly to shock those who insist there is an ultimate meaning for life..

A similar “elite” view of fairy tales got them banned from schools in the 1970’s, for selling children fantasy: The kids were supposed only to read REALITY books, full of propaganda.

Ironically, what happened to that was that kids stopped reading books...until Harry Potter hit the stands and proved that a protagonist who overcame evil with a little help from his friends was a story that young people actually liked.

[Kickass Conservative]

>>>Good-natured Bert, played by Dick Van Dyke, is too happy and carefree given the hardships of working-class life in Edwardian London, US researchers claim<<<

Which explains why Dick Van Dyke introduced Bernie Sanders at a Campaign Event last week. No, there were no dancing Penguins on Stage, just a couple of Morons.

[kearnyirish2]

The Grapes of Wrath has probably never been more relevant than today, when so many Americans have watched their way of life disappear as worthwhile jobs become scarce. Of course, today they would find the jobs in California taken by braceros. For many Americans today, the idea of owning property or supporting a family is unthinkable, and that has rippled through our economy (broken housing market, importing of foreigners to fill abandoned neighborhoods, etc.).

On the flip side, many young people have taken the ghetto mentality that ANY kind of work paying less than $200K/year is slavery...

[Chode]

100%

[Charles Martel]

Good-natured Bert, played by Dick Van Dyke, is too happy and carefree given the hardships of working-class life in Edwardian London, US researchers claim.

Oh, it's a jolly holiday with Mary
Mary makes your heart so light
When the day is gray and ordinary
Mary makes the sun shine bright.

***************

There - explained. Sheesh.