With phenomenology the primary concern is with exploring how human beings make sense of experience and transform experience into consciousness. (Quinn Patton, 2002, p. 104) In relation to my research topic therefore, I shall be looking at the experience of consuming animated features from the Disney studio, particularly in relation to protagonists who the audience of these films are particularly likely to take as role models and identify with, often adopting their personality characteristics. (Gotz, 2005, p. 89) This shall then be examined in terms of how these messages are translated into behaviours and morals for the adolescent market who consume them.
For example, to take a scene from The Frog Princess, we see Tiana ultimately working hard to fulfil her dreams, taking long shifts at a restaurant and physically showing signs of exhaustion, with heavy shoulders, ungraceful steps and dishevelled hair, painstakingly gathering just coins to put towards buying her own restaurant before she collapses into bed, with the alarm going off moments later for her to go out to work yet again. As ultimately her hard work and sacrifice of the opportunity of going out and socialising with her friends in favour of work is rewarded through saving enough money to buy the restaurant of her dreams, similarly the notion of hard work is rewarded and encouraged. Under a phenomenological approach her behaviour would be interpreted as similarly encouraging the notion of hard work to the audience of viewers, and this would then be translated into consciousness to cause the child to similarly be imbued with a strong work ethic to achieve your goals.
A reason for my choice of a phenomenological as opposed to a constructivist approach is because the constructivist approach emphasises the way in which there is a variety of sources which come to create reality for a human being, those which are both related to the media and external of media consumption. As I am exclusively discussing Disney features, factoring in the influence of home, school, parents as well as other media sources for influencing behaviour may well complicate my research unnecessarily. As this approach highlights plurality it takes the emphasis off the role of these films and includes a variety of other sources to explain behaviour. Whilst it is important that these sources are not neglected in accounting for a childs behaviour, to study the effect of just one source of influence the phenomenological approach seems more appropriate.
In relation to the earlier example therefore, Tianas display of being hard working and ultimately being rewarded for it would not necessarily be linked to the childs adoption of this ethic. Rather, exploration into the childs life, involving their personal experience of hard work, the ethic their parents have towards hard work and what they learn in school about being hard working would all need to be taken account of to explain a child displaying hard work. I believe that this ultimately does not help achieve my research objective of uncovering the behaviours a Disney films elicits in a child, and rather more broadly examines the various sources where a child learns behaviour. Therefore to be most effective in achieving my research aims, adopting the phenomenological as opposed to the constructivist approach seems more appropriate and rewarding.
In contrast to this however the realism approach seems to undermine the subjective nature of film viewing. This approach seems to imply that there is just one real truth from these films which can be uncovered to account directly for the behaviour of a child. The phenomenological approach therefore emphasises the translation of a specific experience into behaviour, whereas the constructivist approach covers various experiences, and the realist intends to uncover just one true experience of watching these films. By adopting the phenomenological approach therefore discovery of how a viewing of a certain film leads to behaviour is uncovered, appropriately providing a framework from which to answer my research question which simultaneously does not overstate the plurality of this process, nor does it ignore its subjective nature.
According to the body of literature already existing in relation to the way in which the characterisation of females by the Disney company has changed over time the potential for Disney to act as a moral educator for generations of children is extremely high and potent. For example, both John Taylor in Storming the Magic Kingdom and Michael Real in Mass Mediated Culture point out this influence. Particularly in American culture Disney has a philosophy which is so wide spread and accepted it is akin to that of religion as argued by Phil Vischer in Me, Myself and Bob, permeating all areas of American culture. In addition, these messages which are purveyed through their features are reproduced through cross media sources, through film, television series, merchandising, experience at theme parks and much more, according to Ward in an almost propaganda like manner (Ward, 2002, p. 2). Through studying the behaviour consuming these films elicits we are able to gauge more accurately the consequences of Disney and come to a judgement as to whether or not these texts are appropriate for children in a 21st century context, causing parents to think more critically about the amount of trust they put into this company to educate their children about the behaviours which are expected of them and the role they are expected to fulfil throughout their lives.
In order to achieve this it is therefore necessary to conduct a semiotic analysis of these Disney films. To make the semiotic analysis I conduct as effective as possible in meeting the objectives of the research study it is important to distinguish between the signifier, what is denoted on screen, and the signified, the connotations of these or the hypertext surrounding them. For example, in Pohcahontas upon seeing her for the first time Smith raises his eyebrows. Whilst this may on surface seem like an insignificant movement, Disney animation is not an innocent art form nothing accidental or serendipitous occurs in animation as each second of action on screen is rendered in twenty-four different still paintings. (Bell, 1995, p.108) The connotations of this signifier therefore emit messages about the value of physical attractiveness. Whilst Pohcahontas is often seen as one of the more female empowering texts, as she ultimately acts as a peace maker between two conflicting cultures rather than passively watching by as her culture is overridden by the white people, nonetheless, she still possesses physical beauty and through the attention Smith pays her exclusively because of her physical appearance, signified by him raising his eyebrows, the message is that possessing physical beauty is an important trait to possess, and in order to replicate Pohcahontas and to be attractive to the opposite sex, emphasis must similarly be placed on psychical attractiveness.
The semiotic analysis method is often criticised for lacking methodological vigour, resulting in low levels of objectivity and reliability. (McNeill and Chapman, p. 166) As there are very few methodological guidelines in existence for conducting a semiotic analysis, it means that the opinion of the individual is likely to influence the outcome of the analysis, known as subjectivity. For example, Snow Whites decision to conform to a role of domesticity whilst living with the dwarves, as she states, And if you let me stay Ill keep house for you. Ill wash and sew and sweep and cook. could be interpreted in different ways by different researchers based on the upbringing of the researcher, their individual experiences, culture, sex or age. Whilst the decision could be seen to have connotations of subservience to males and a womans only fitting role being confined to within the walls of her house, as whilst the dwarves work looking for diamonds, Snow White prepares their dinner and cleans their home. Alternatively it could be viewed as being in keeping with the ideology of the 1930s, when the role of the female was primarily based around domesticity and by representing females as so, Disney is merely conforming to an already existent notion, rather than being responsible for creating this world view independently.
This point then brings me onto the issue of retrospective study which is also an issue for my research. As the vast majority of features to come from the Disney studio which place females in a starring role were made decades ago, by looking at them from a 21st century perspective, when ideology and the role of females in society has changed to an almost unrecognisable degree, inconsistencies should be expected to be found. I believe however it is still important to address, given the Disneys companys longevity and the tendency for these films to have enduring popularity for generation after generation, with parents trusting them enough to pass onto their children, whether a child growing up today would pick up negative or positive behaviours through consuming these texts which were intended for a 1930s, 40s or 50s audience and this is a question I intend to address.
For example, Snow Whites behaviour reflects messages which would have been appropriate for the context in which the text was produced which was in the midst of the Depression. Following a terrifying chase through the woods where she is only just spared her life by the huntsmen and is plagued by horrifying images through the forest the underlying message is that she will cope somehow with a smile and a song. Whilst the connotations of this seem inappropriate to teach a child growing up in our modern society in 2010 when a more active role is encouraged in choosing your own fate, in 1937 when times were a lot more difficult and there was a real fear in society that you might not be able to get through these difficult times the message therefore had a lot more resonance, was far more fitting and was an adaptive attitude to possess.
Similarly, Cinderella reflects some of the issues which were potent post World War two. Cinderella was the first feature to come out of the Disney studio after the war and an eight year halt in production. During the war the females had patiently been waiting for their husbands and partners to return, therefore the connotations of the image of Cinderella fighting for her right to go to the castle to find her Prince, whilst it may seem out of touch to a modern audience as she seemingly falls in love at first sight after only a dance with him and her fairy Godmother comes to rescue her by providing her with a dress and a carriage, would again have had a greater deal of resonance with the 1950s audience it was intended for who are likely to have been only too able to relate to Cinderellas finding of true love and the message of struggling to be with him. Certainly the box office figures suggest that Cinderella had resonance at this time, as the film ultimately grossed 85 million for the Disney company.
However, despite these flaws of the semiotic analysis methodology it is a method which numerous academics in this field have selected to look at childrens film through. For example, Ward. Within her text Mouse Morality she looks in turn at a number of Disney features and using various techniques of semiotic analysis to access how and what they are communicating about morality. She also makes the point that whilst the semiotic tools provide the method for which these moralities are uncovered with, they shine a light on the results, as opposed to determining what may or may not be uncovered. (2002, p. 8) In terms of my research study therefore, by adopting a semiotic analysis approach the messages being communicated through these films are able to be uncovered, however, it is not the case that by using a different method, for example looking at virtue ethics, studying myth, archetype and ritual, would uncover an entirely different message. It seems the case that through the varied number of films I intend to look at, the broad approach of semiotic analysis seems to lend itself to more widely identify the signifiers and signified and provide a level of flexibility, as opposed to an approach such as myth and archetype, which Ward adopts in relation to The Lion King, a text which is heavily related to these notions and would not work as well with a film such as Sleeping Beauty which isnt as hinged on these notions.
In addition, a method which is also often used in social science is content analysis, which involves a more quantitative approach, whereas semiotic analysis is more concerned with latent, connotative meanings. (Chandler, 2007, p. 222) This is an approach which was deployed successfully in this field by Junn (1997) who did a content analysis of the number of times love, sexuality and marriage were mentioned in Disney films. Whilst this approach may have more reliability given the quantitative and definite nature of it, however, a flaw with this method is that simply because a film mentions these notions a certain amount of times, it does not automatically make it significant. This problem is overcome by the semiotic analysis method as the connotations of these instances of representation can be decoded to allow for a more thorough and exhaustive study of the Disney companys messages, rather than merely dealing with numbers and figures which do not align themselves so well with a more in-depth analysis of the relationship between the denotations of a text and the behaviour elicited in the viewer.
To apply this point I would like to highlight the case of Ariel in The Little Mermaid. It is often put to the Disney films from the 1990s that the female protagonists tease with the conventions of burlesque. (Bell, 1995, 114) and Junn found that there was a total of 823 instances of romantic or love related verbal references, settings or behaviours to come from films which were assessed as being part of the new romantic sub genre along with Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin which represented a increase of 124 from the classic romantic sub genre. Whilst this is a significant increase, the assumption from the qualitative results is that this increase is negative and is encouraging sexualised behaviour in the viewers.
However, a semiotic analysis of the behaviour as opposed to a content analysis shows a very different story. Ariel may on paper perform romantic gestures more often than Cinderella or Snow White, however, her behaviour is fuelled by vastly different reasons. With Cinderella and Snow White the emphasis is placed on marriage, and the underlying message is that a woman only finds fulfilment in romantic love. Conversely with Ariel, her motivations lie in wanting to escape the confines of her life under the sea and be free in the real world, as she sings the lyrics, What would I give if I could live out of these waters What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand Betcha on land they understand that they dont reprimand their daughters. Proper women sick of swimmin, ready to stand. From these lyrics we can see that her fulfilment comes through being permitted to be free on the land and being empowered as a female rather than through marriage, and her sexualised behaviour provides a way for her to fulfil this desire, which seems to tell a very different story to that of the quantitative analysis.
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