Page 144 - The Disneyization of Society

CONTROL AND SURVEILLANCE

Control over the imagination

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In Chapter 1, Sayers’s critique of the Disney treatment of children’s literature was
noted for the accusation that it tended to leave little to the child’s imagination. 8
This accusation of providing children with simplified and pre-digested versions of
classic literature has often been repeated, but a similar claim is often made in
connection with the company’s theme parks. It is often suggested that the parks do
not encourage visitors to use their imagination but instead consign them to a
state of passivity, whereby they become onlookers – revelling in the imagination
of others (Walt and his Imagineers) – rather than being active participants in the
use of the imagination.
One of the ways in which the imagination is controlled is through an emphasis
constantly being placed on certain key themes and a tendency to eliminate from
view undesirable features. Examples are:

• An extolling of the virtues and accomplishments of industry and the corporation while
simultaneously ignoring the damage they do to the environment (or if this issue is
addressed, it is in terms of how industry has, can or will overcome the problems).
• An emphasis on the virtues of the traditional family, but ignoring non-traditional family
forms, such as single-parent families, divorced families, and other kinds which are in fact
becoming increasingly common.
• An accent on the nostalgia associated with the supposed purity of the small town, without
any recognition of the reality of the lives that went on there in terms of hardships or racism.
• A very partial account of gender and racial discrimination as in the past and not rooted
in real lives in the present day.

Opportunities for children to use their imagination are circumscribed though they
have arguably become more numerous in recent times. Opportunities occur at
such junctures as the Future World pavilions in Epcot which often given them the
opportunity to rush around trying out different machines and electronic gadgets
or at the end of the animation tour in Disneyland Paris, where children can try out
animation skills on machines. In general, however, as several commentators have
noted, the imagination of children is stifled by the routine of queuing, climbing
onto ride cars, watching, getting off, and moving on to the next attraction.

Control as a motif

In some attractions, control is a topic in its own right. Nowhere is this aspect of
control clearer than in the attraction in Epcot called Living with the Land, which is
sponsored by Nestlé (formerly Listen to the Land and sponsored by Kraft Foods).
The ride takes the form of a boat ride in which visitors are transported through var-
ious farming methods, inhospitable environments that are overcome by farmers