Cartoons and Culture

1
Cartoons and Culture

• What is the relationship between civilization and
  self-discipline?
• How do we learn self-discipline?
• Where does popular culture fit into this process?

2
The Hays Office

• Sex sells, but it must be packaged in socially
  acceptable ways
• Reinforcing gender roles is an important way of
  teaching people to repress natural impulses in
  order to learn self-discipline
• In patriarchal societies, women and men who step
  outside their roles are particularly threatening
  to order, so institutions are created to restrict
  such representations in popular culture in
  Hollywood, the Hays office

3
Disney and Sexuality

• Steamboat Willie (1929)
• The Hays Office (1933)
• The Nifty Nineties (1941)

4
Safely Sexy Women

• Foreign, non-European women (the harem or the
  child of nature)
• American tendency to see other cultures as havens
  for sexual experience forbidden at home
• Good girls vs. bad girls
• Serpentine Dances (1895)
• A Good Time for a Dime (1941)

5
Betty Boop

• Introduced in 1930 (pre-Code), Betty appears
  comfortable with her sexuality and enjoys
  flaunting it
• She has no fixed boyfriend, but rather a series
  of romantic/sexual adventures
• Her trademark is the flirtatious wink with which
  she manipulates her male co-stars (and,
  presumably, viewers)
• Betty Boop and the Little King (1936)

6
Betty Boop

• She appeals to women who see themselves as
  liberated in the 1920s shes a flapper
• The Hays office insists that women (and their
  sexuality) stay properly in the home
• By the later 30s, Betty has become more
  domestic, but still cant compete with heroines
  like Snow White and Lois Lane female ideal
  images have changed
• Snow White (1933)
• Snow White (1938)

7
Up in the Sky . . .

• Superman makes the world safe for democracy (as
  well as for racism and patriarchy)
• Jungle Drums (1943)

8
WWII Who stole that cell?

• Censored at Home!
• Shown Uncut to the Troops!
• Swing Shift Cinderella (1945)