Reading Response: Challenging Disney Myths with Wasko

After reading Wasko's piece, "Challenging Disney Myths", I've certainly gained a new appreciation for the empire that Walt Disney almost singlehandedly built from scratch. In general, I feel like Wasko did a good job of remaining unbiased in her attempts to educate the audience on the truth behind certain myths involving Disney. While her introduction was lacking to say the least when she uses fancy words such as the 'critical political economy', Wasko does do a great job of laying out the framework for her argument by listing the 5 main Disney myths that she plans to challenge and discuss. While some people tend to overthink certain aspects of Disney (both the man and the company)that results in some strange myths, I do think that there are some misconceptions discussed in Wasko's piece that hold relevance in society today.

Extreme examples of Disney conspiracies

Personally, I found the portions of the document that discussed the juxtaposition's between Walt Disney the man versus Walt Disney the figure to be the most thought-provoking and poignant of the topics discussed. It's truly fascinating to think that over time Walt Disney was able to essentially mold himself into an idealized version of himself that most effectively represented the Disney company as a whole. Moreover, I love the quote from Schnickel (1968) that Wasko highlights which concludes that "Walt Disney's greatest creation was Walt Disney". For a reason that I have yet to accurately pinpoint, this quote resonated with me and has caused me to think about the influential role that an individual can have on those in society around him. Although it's confusing, I guess what I mean by this is that the image and morals of family, friendship and love that Walt Disney worked so hard to create for himself have had a direct influence on countless people around the world. While one would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't believe in these values that Disney promoted, it's scary to think about how different our society would be today if Walt Disney had chosen different values to support for the Disney brand. Luckily, Disney did the right thing and chose nice, wholesome values to represent the Disney corporation. Although Wasko did a poor job of making points that would refute or challenge her own opinions, I thought that overall her writing in this piece was provocative and insightful, leaving me with a desire to know more about Disney and the secrets that hide beneath the surface.