DISNEY DELUSIONS

Decades ago Walt Disney
rustled up an empire
with a progeny of corporate
children and today
Michael Eisner sits
somewhere near a big vault
ticking off the take with
a small chrome ticker

The issue, for me, isn't just
the corporate green sucking
but the stereotypical
images of male and female,
young and old,
that too average eyes go unseen

The White Knight rides in on a
white stallion to save
the fawning damsel in dis-stress

The wicked step mother
emerges in many a man's mind
as the epitome of step moms
like his own, and that is
definitely not the bomb

Snow White does all the shit work
defers in puerile submission
and co-dependent addiction
until she escapes by the hand
of a gallant prince/young/
he offers her a crown,
happily ever after

Only to find a houseful of
angry men, looking like dock workers
just in from the wharves

Each of them a symbol
of dumb stupid males, in hell again,
troublemakers extraordinaire/
sleepy, dopey, doc, and sneezy,
grumpy, , they all breezy in the head

who didn't know how to cook
(and don't have to because there's
a woman in the hooooouse)
who will also pick up their
filthy underwear, stars and stripes
and all, while all they got to do
is to will their bodies and minds
to the big company and go down
into the mines, to bring home
the pay, so the “little woman”
can play and pray

All of these roles are found in
the Disney Delusions, in the
abyss of the Disney vault,
they say they're not at fault
for keeping the white male
system up on top
and keeping women one down,
stereotypes that keep us lazy,
and our thinking hazy

Take my challenge, here and now,
look at the Disney stuff now
with a critical, educated eye
see the stereotypes fly by/
Look for the minstrels, white
folks' vicarious need to cry
and it won't be very long
before you recognize the voices
are those of black gospel singers
or hip hop ringers with
their sharp-tongued zingers

We pay and pay, and off we
go to Disney Delusions, at home
or in the theater/we pay to stay
ignorant of human reality/we stay

Used to be that stereo-types were
the reaction to the stimulus,
but now they're stimulus ignitions
of young impressionable youth
whose minds are carefully kept
from truth

Disney, it's yours to own, it's
your response-ability to check
out your corporate soul, so go
ahead and change the lens
by creating individuality and
help teach the young about
automatic semantic reactions
spun through the Web and
digital refractions
Put light back into media
re-designing within the context
of today's need to wipe out
bias that has become a web
you can really do this if
intentional, so get unconventional
© Christopher Bear Beam, MA April, 2009