Page 120 - The Disneyization of Society

PERFORMATIVE LABOUR

Interestingly, the emphasis on emotionality at Disney predates the Disney
theme parks at least in terms of the representation of the Disney employee. Walt
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was keen to give the impression that his animators were like children at play who
loved their work. They were frequently described in articles on him or his studio
as happy, carefree, smiling workers. A 1933 article in a popular magazine of the
time said of the studio: ‘Everybody wears a smile, and even the humblest
employee addresses his chief as “Walt”’. 39 A 1940 article described the studio as
‘the only factory on earth where practical jokes are a part of the production line’. 40
A movie released in 1941, The Reluctant Dragon, not only constituted the
company’s first live-action film but essentially provided a tour of the studio which
served to give the impression of a fun factory. The reality was often at variance
with the image that Walt was keen to convey of the studio. Walt himself was a
hard task master who disliked being contradicted and who was ruthless with any-
one who failed to agree with him. In fact at the time of The Reluctant Dragon, the
studio was on the verge of a paralysing strike as a result of attempts to unionize
the plant. Walt became increasingly intransigent and even after the conclusion of
the strike was spiteful to those who had supported the dispute. Despite this, there
is little doubt that many Disney studio employees felt that they were involved in
a very special kind of activity and that the workplace itself had a magical quality.
What is significant for our present purposes, however, is the fact that the com-
pany was keen to create an impression of a group of employees whistling while
they worked in harmony. This management of the image of work at the
studio was conducted so that it seemed like fun rather than real work. At the
Disney theme parks, where providing a service was the goal rather than a product
like an animated cartoon film, enticing employees to exhibit positive emotions
became of key significance and not simply a matter of creating an impression for
popular consumption. Emotional labour had to be delivered as a component of
the frontline service interface.

The Diffusion of Emotional Labour

In this section, a variety of ways and contexts in which emotional labour occurs
nowadays will be outlined. Hochschild calculated that for the early 1980s, around
one-third of American workers were in jobs that included a substantial element of
emotional labour and among working women, one-half of them had jobs of this
kind. 41 These estimates have to be treated with some caution, not least because
the level of the demand to exhibit emotional labour is likely to vary quite
considerably among the occupations to which she refers. However, it is striking
that such a large proportion of the workforce is affected by the requirements of
emotional labour. Also striking is the fact that her calculations imply a greater
likelihood of women being in jobs requiring emotional labour than men. The