The Zoo as Animals' "Natural" Home

The Los Angeles Zoo has just unveiled a brand new, $1.2 million advertising campaign aimed at both bringing in visitors to the Zoo's "Rainforest of the Americas" exhibit, and, presumably, discouraging people from stealing these often cute and cuddly animals and bringing them home with them.

The campaign is called "Every Animal Has a Home, Just Not Yours," and through print media and television commercials uses humor to show wild rainforest animals living in a human home, albeit not very successfully. Each ad ends with the campaign tagline: "Every cotton top tamarin/giant river otter/harpy eagle has a home. Just not yours."

The ads are cute, and are hopefully effective in keeping the moronic bro's who occasionally break into their local zoos and steal penguins and other cute animals for their girlfriends from doing so.

But they're also terribly ironic. In this print ad, which shows a river otter taking a messy bath in your bathroom, the point is made that he doesn't belong in your home. But read the fine print below, and what does it say?

"See these and other exotic species in their natural habitats at the Rainforest of the Americas Exhibit at the LA Zoo" (emphasis mine). So apparently the Los Angeles Zoo is now the natural habitat for these rainforest animals, who live, as with the cotton top tamarin, in the treetops of Colombia, while the giant river otter swims in the Amazon River.

Zoos today claim that they are primarily about two things: education and conservation, even though the public goes to zoos for entertainment. And yet the Los Angeles Zoo is spending over $1 million not to educate the public nor to conserve any species, but to tell the public that rainforest animals belong in the zoo.

What kind of a message is this?

The Nonhuman Disney Princesses

Deconstructing Disney

Feminists have long been critical of animated Disney films¹ for promulgating outdated gender roles that see women as subservient, dainty, perpetually sexualized, and overly fixated on romance and the "happily ever after" with their dashing prince. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White have been criticized as evidence of rape culture (anyone who is unconscious cannot consent), while Beauty and the Beast romanticizes domestic violence. The Little Mermaid encourages little girls to give up their voice and change who they are for men. In most of the princess movies, the story's grand finale is the magical marriage. After that, the story ends. Youth, love, and matrimony are portrayed as the end all be all for women. Women don't have interesting adventures, their male counterparts do. Female characters are only the objects of rescue and the trophy to be won. Magic and romance control their destiny; they are rarely the determiners of their own lives.

Source: Sociological Images

Many have also criticized the Disney princess collection as overly white. Very few women of color are featured, and those who are tend to be stereotypical or otherwise lacking in depth and cultural sensitivity. Because the media is an important agent of socialization and these images are heavily marketed to young children, feminists and critical media theorists are right to be concerned.

In this essay, I extend this gender and race critique to explore the representation of nonhuman species in Disney princess films. While women of color are grossly underrepresented in Disney animations, nonhuman princesses do star in several films.² Unfortunately, the diversity ends there, as many of the same gender scripts persist.

Nonhuman Disney Princesses

Bambi (1942)

Perhaps the first nonhuman Disney princess was Faline in Bambi. After meeting as fawns, she and Bambi begin a courtship that necessitates Bambi battling another buck to "win" her. He will later face a disastrous forest fire and rescue her from hunters and their dogs. Following this, he becomes the "Great Prince of the Forest" and starts a family with her.

The Aristocats (1970)

After their wealthy mistress bequeaths her vast wealth to them, Duchess and her kittens are ousted from their Parisian mansion by the jealous butler. Stranded in the country and handicapped by her femininity and hyper-daintiness, Duchess and her children are rescued by tom cat Thomas O'Malley. It is indicated that some sort of romantic relationship forms between Duchess (who is lonely after the loss of her former male partner) and her hero.

Robin Hood (1973)

Disney's animated version of Robin Hood features a fox princess who is trapped in the court of the miserable and murderous King John. Robin Hood faces certain danger to participate in an archery contest to win Marian's affections (and "earn" the prize kiss). As King John's sights narrow in on Robin Hood, Maid Marian's situation becomes increasingly precarious. Robin Hood eventually liberates the kingdom and marries his damsel in distress.

The Lion King (1994)

The Lion King features a relatively strong nonhuman princess, Nala, who struggles to keep the pride afloat in Simba's absence. A bit of a "manic pixie" character, she encourages Simba to "find himself" and be the man he is destined to be. As a result, she is relegated to sidekick status. We never learn much about her own interests, desires, challenges, or background. Predictably, she also becomes a love interest, and soon realizes her other primary female role in producing an heir to the kingdom.

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

More recently, Disney's The Princess and the Frog sees a young Creole princess transformed into a frog and partnered up with her obnoxious amphibian prince. This film has been criticized as squandering the only Disney princess film to date that features an African American girl by presenting her as a frog for most of her screen time. This film is also problematic because this young girl is basically preyed upon by a man who exploits her empathy for his gain. Of course, he also uses her forced time with him to woo her and they are eventually married. Unique for Disney films, we are at least left with the understanding that Tiana has a life after marriage, as she founds her own restaurant.

Gender Norms and Anti-Speciesist Values

Sadly, then, we see many of the same gender norms perpetuated in films starring nonhuman princesses. They remain side characters who must be rescued, who must encourage and inspire the more important men, and who must be won and married. Love is always the end result, with romance and marriage the epitome of a happy ending. And, though these characters are illustrated as deer, foxes, cats, lions, and frogs, they are overwhelmingly white normative. That is, epistemologies of whiteness structure the characters in speech, behaviors, and values.³ Of course, most of the voice actors are also white. Though Nala is supposed to be an African character, adult Nala is voiced by a woman of Irish decent who identifies as white.⁴ These films are also representative of Disney productions in that they are painfully heteronormative. That is, they present romantic love and marriage as an institution only applicable to opposite sex couples.

However, anthropomorphized as they are, these films are important for granting personhood to other animals. For the most part, respectful attention is paid to their unique challenges as nonhuman "others" in a human world. We learn to empathize with "stray" cats, scorn hunting, take forest fires seriously, and see frogs as complex individuals.

Like many children, my concern for other animals was greatly shaped by the animated films I grew up with. A child of the 1980s, my family only had a handful of VHS tapes, two of which were Charlotte's Web and Disney's Honey I Shrunk the Kids . Charlotte's Web tells the story of a runty piglet who didn't want to become bacon and a wise spider that craftily saved his life. Honey I Shrunk the Kids featured Anty, the courageous ant that befriended the shrunken children over an oatmeal cream pie, eventually giving his life to protect them from danger. One blogger admits:

It is hands down the bravest thing ever done by a fake insect and as much as one may hate to admit it, it made you cry… Or at the very least made your eyes fill with tears. The noble ways of Anty made many; myself included, really reconsider how we treated ants. I’ll admit, as a kid I liked to play Godzilla and stomp on bunches of innocent bystander ants from time to time, but seeing Honey I Shrunk The Kids changed all of that.

Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989)

My brothers and I watched these movies over and over. I didn't come from a vegan or vegetarian family and I grew up in rural Appalachia. My anti-speciesist leanings came from somewhere else. Children's media acted as a window into the outside world, shaping my values and raising my awareness.

Nonhuman Animals hold a special place in many children's stories, which is especially helpful for challenging speciesist ideologies in a very animal-based world. The problem arises when other animals are used as vessels for oppressive norms that marginalize women, people of color, homosexual persons, and other vulnerable groups. I would like to see more nonhuman Disney princesses that exhibit egalitarian values. Strong female characters that control their own lives and are not fixated on men and romance would be a great improvement. A better film would not anthropomorphize other animals as white, straight, subservient women or hyper-masculinized, entitled men. bell hooks reminds us that media of all sorts is a kind of fantasy. It reflects the world we idealize and constructs political narratives. Disney films specialize in fantasy-making and are especially well suited to using the magic of the movies to inspire social change. I want to see Disney princesses taking on human supremacy without appealing to white supremacist patriarchy.


Corey Lee Wrenn
Founder of Vegan Feminist Network & Council Member for the American Sociological Association's Animals & Society section.

In cooperation with the Animals & Society Institute, ASA's Animals & Society section facilitates improved sociological inquiry into issues concerning other animals and is currently seeking members. Membership is $5-$10; you must be a member of the ASA to join.

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Notes

1. See Jezebel's "Feminist Guide to Disney Princesses," The Root's "Enough with the Disney Princesses!," Sociological Images' "Disney Princesses, Deconstructed," and Feminist Disney Tumblr.

2. Many animated Disney films have nonhuman main characters that would be relevant to this discussion, but were not included as they were not considered "princesses." For instance, Lady from Lady and The Tramp is not exactly "royalty," just a dog from "better breeding."

3. Aristocats explicitly draws on many racist stereotypes.

4. Especially curious is the fact that juvenile Nala is voiced by a Jamaican American girl. This seems to suggest that ideal womanhood actually reflects white womanhood, with blackness associated with immaturity and lack of development.

Blackfish: The Conversation Continues

Awards Season is approaching and both sides of the Blackfish conversation are certainly preparing for the public's renewed enthusiasm regarding the film. While some might expect that scientists and social scientists remain neutral on such a delicate issue, as an anthrozoologist, I see great benefits for society in the conversations ignited by the film.

The Blackfish story offers us lessons in the importance of researching the facts and the power of marketing and story-telling. The greatest success of this film is igniting a timely conservation about the implications of keeping animals in captivity and the extent to which human influence, whether positive or negative, can impact the future of human-animal coexistence. 

Watch and share the film. Discover the reactions by students and professionals on both sides of the debate. Even those of us who struggle to "choose a side" might find strength in knowledge and confidence in curiosity.

Dog Guards Dead Friend

As if we didn't have enough examples of the loyalty of dogs, this latest video, taken in China, shows a dog who spent a full day and night guarding the body of his dead companion who had been killed by a car in the middle of a busy road.

This loyal friend only moved out of the road after someone finally moved the body of the dead dog from the highway and buried him or her in a park.

It was just two months ago that scientists at Emory University completed a study in which dogs were trained to enter an MRI scanner so that the scientists could measure their brain responses to a variety of actions. Gregory Berns, one of the neuroscientists conducting the study, wrote in the New York Times:

"In dogs, we found that activity in the caudate increased in response to hand signals indicating food. The caudate also activated to the smells of familiar humans. And in preliminary tests, it activated to the return of an owner who had momentarily stepped out of view...Many of the same things that activate the human caudate, which are associated with positive emotions, also activate the dog caudate. Neuroscientists call this a functional homology, and it may be an indication of canine emotions.  The ability to experience positive emotions, like love and attachment, would mean that dogs have a level of sentience comparable to that of a human child."

 

Berns' work is important because it gives scientific validity to those who need it. But videos like the one taken in China show us, in the simplest of terms, how clearly dogs feel emotions.

 

The question is: what are we going to do with that knowledge?

Popeye the Sailor: "Be Kind to Animals"

Originally aired in 1935, this Popeye cartoon offers a glimpse into anti-cruelty efforts of the early 20th century.  The episode begins with Popeye and Olive Oyl bonding as they feed birds in the park.  From their bench, they see Bluto atop his heavily packed cart, refusing water to his horse who was struggling to pull the load and whipping him mercilessly.  Popeye and Olive Oyl intervene, at which point Bluto insults Olive Oyl and throws things at her.   Popeye stands in for the horse's whipping, and eventually finds spinach on the cart.  Upon eating it, he is able to overpower Bluto, who had begun punching the horse in the face.  As Popeye fights Bluto, the horse frees himself and joins in to help.  The cartoon ends with Bluto pulling the cart as the horse has taken the driver's seat, whipping Bluto.

Aside from the obvious message to children that we should be "kind to animals," this cartoon has a few other interesting themes.

First, we see that interacting positively with other animals can be a bonding experience for partners.  Rather than framing empathy for other animals as an especially feminine interest, both men and women are depicted as concerned as a team.

Second, we see that violence against women and violence against other animals are linked.  Bluto is not only hitting an insulting the horse, but he is quick to do the same to Olive Oyl.

Third, we see that eating vegetables is a source of power for Popeye.  Rather than emasculating him, eating spinach gives him the ability to enact his "maleness."  A powerful counter-image to the notion that masculinity and meat-eating are inseparable.

Finally, Nonhuman Animals are not depicted as powerless victims completely at our mercy.  While the horse needed a human ally to help fight off his oppressor, we see that the horse actually liberates himself and fights back.

Thanks to Kim Stallwood for sharing this video on Twitter.