Advance ticket sales have ended but plenty of additional tickets remain available at the door.
Profs & Pints Metro Detroit presents: “How Disney Keeps Princesses Down,” a critical look at representations of race and gender in Disney films, with Anne E. Duggan, a professor at Wayne State University who teaches courses on fairy tales across history, across media forms, and across cultures.
[ Planet Ant requires proof of vaccine and a mask to enter the building and will be updating its policy as the CDC updates its guidelines.]
The popularity of Disney fairy-tale films gives them a huge cultural influence, as evident by countless young girls who love to dress up as Ariel, Beauty, Jasmin, or Tiana. That’s reason to pay attention to the messages about race and gender that such films communicate. And upon closer examination, they are not just “innocent” entertainment for children, but clearly send political messages regarding women and members of various racial and ethnic groups.
Join Anne Duggan, a scholar of fairy tales and author or editor of several books about them, for a talk examining how Disney deals with gender, race, and ethnicity. Touching on films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Mulan, and The Princess and the Frog, she’ll tackle the question of whether Disney has a “glass ceiling” for princesses of color, and she’ll leave you seeing Disney movies in an entirely new light.
As part of her talk, Dr. Duggan will explore in depth how the animated film Aladdin depicts Arab and Muslim culture, and she’ll look at Disney Studios’ reluctance to fully embrace a Black princess in The Princess and the Frog. She’ll discuss how Disney Princess films promote stereotypes about—and impose limitations upon--Arab and Black female characters, and she’ll point to the many instances of Disney’s implicit and explicit bias with respect to Middle Eastern and African American cultures.
Whether you are a current or former Disney film fan, a parent concerned about the messages that films send to children, or someone interested in opposing discrimination and inequality, you’ll find this talk thought-provoking. (Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, or $13 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in. Comments, questions and concerns about Planet Ant’s health and safety policies can be directed to [email protected] )