Racism and The Lion King

I was skeptical before reading Naomi Rockler-Gladen’s article Race, Hierarchy, and Hyenaphobia in the Lion King, but after completing this read I find it to be one of the most insightful and interesting articles within the text.

Rockler-Gladen does an excellent job in justifying her research, while at the same time quelling her critics before they can interject and claim her work as frivolous. I agree with the author when she summarizes that The Lion King most likely will not turn toddlers into racists, but that the “film’s larger ideological implications remain unchallenged.”

Of those “larger implications,” there are a number that I found very interesting, and although Rockler-Gladen applies her analysis mainly to race, gender, and class systems, I can see a wider berth of application for this analysis.

First, I found the article cited in the beginning of this study very surprising. When professors surveyed their students, most were reluctant to criticize Walt Disney or their films because the company was deemed innocent. This was a shocker because the company’s founder Walt Disney was very outspoken about his personal bigotry and the film has a history of producing questionable pieces. Most pointedly the anti-Nazi propaganda shorts produced and released in the 1940s.

Second, when Rockler-Gladen explains the naturalization of hierarchal structures in society, I feel that could be applied to the entire structure of Western Democracy, and not solely from a race/gender perspective, but from and elitist domination view and hegemonic systems of power, as well.

Finally, and most disturbingly, when the author explains her analysis of hyenaphobia and how it is portrayed in the film it parallels almost exactly with Lincoln Rockwell’s noted white supremacist children’s story, “The Fable of the Ducks and the Hens.” (http://www.heretical.com/pubs/fabledh.html). The idea of the outcast society causing havoc and destabilization of a perceived utopian society is clear as she outlines it in the film, and it is surprising that the link with this type of literature is so clear.

Overall, this article was really fascinating and makes me want to go watch some Disney films myself, but this time with a more critical eye!