Dear Blog,
I went to see The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales film last night and was blown away. It wasn't that it was new information to me--income inequality and taxing the rich is a common topic in my college classes and within friend groups--, but the film was beautifully crafted and there were so many instances where I could see this idea of reality vs. fantasy performing. Baudrillard says the real can be reproduced over and over again, this is the simulacra. When the scenes from the early days of Disneyland played and showed a black "cast member" dressed as Aunt Jemima surrounded by crowds of white attendees, I felt ill. Ill at the thought that we are "reproducing the real" and the American obsession with the mammy image. I also felt uneasy that the recreation of a racist image was happening within "the happiest place on Earth" and that people really enjoyed this portion of Disneyland that was showcasing the past (Frontierland, "old fashioned" ice cream parlors, black boys shining shoes, etc.). It's also interesting that it is desired to enter Disneyland which is advertised as a step away from reality, but then to be inside and participate in a historical narrative that is based on some reality. The real is reproduced and history can be rewritten to not include the bad stuff.
In class on Tuesday (9/20) we were talking about our personal relationship with Disney. I do not have one and I have never been to Disney World. The only time I desired to go was when I was younger and my friends would go but my family couldn't afford it. The three years I've been at Rollins, down the street from Disney World, and I still haven't gone or yearned to go. After watching the film, the desire is completely nonexistent. I do not want to be a part of the problem, I do not want to spend hundreds of dollars to be with the masses putting that money in the hands of higher ups. There is a total absence of what is happening within the Disney corporation and what is actually happening within the world of Disney. As shown in the film, the people who make the magic happen are living on food stamps or sleeping in their cars, this is their reality while others walk by and enjoy the "happiest place in the world." I think it's also important to point out that the documentary did not glaze over this idea that Disney was not always like this; CEOs were not always this greedy, and the lowest wage worker was not as far from the highest wage worker as they are today. That is the key word: today. Today is difficult to distinguish the simulacra because we are contributing to what the think is the same economy that existed 60 years ago. People cannot afford the same things they could 60 years ago, that is not a reality that exists anymore and yet we believe it does. We are reproducing a narrative that does not have the same weight as it once did. The American Dream in the 50s and 60s, where it was possible to buy a house and a car and work one full time job, does not live in the 21st century.
Signing off,
mg
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