Walt Disney
Getty Images
He created Mickey Mouse, so how bad could Walt Disney really be? Plenty bad, as it turns out. He was more Wicked Witch than Snow White.
As Neal Gabler exposed in his biography Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (as summarized by Vulture), Walt certainly had his racist side, and not just because he let Song of the South happen. He was reportedly the kind of person to, in meetings, refer to the Seven Dwarves as a "n***** pile," which isn't just terrible, it doesn't make any sense. He also used terms like "pickaninny" in meetings, which was an old-time (and offensive) term for black children. Don't ever use it.
Then there was his issue with women. As Ward Kimball, one of Disney's associates, said, "He didn't trust women or cats." (What's wrong with cats, pray tell?) Then there's a letter Disney sent a woman named Mary Ford, who wanted work as an animator. Was she good? We don't know, but Disney didn't care either way — he rejected her outright, because women simply didn't do that kind of work for him. In the letter's own words, "Women do not do any of the creative work … as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason, girls are not considered for the training school." Snow White and the Seven Dwarves appear on the letterhead, almost like they're mocking her for her silly woman chutzpah.
Read More: http://www.grunge.com/69542/respected-historical-figures-actually-terrible-people/sl/walt-disney?utm_campaign=clip
Getty Images
He created Mickey Mouse, so how bad could Walt Disney really be? Plenty bad, as it turns out. He was more Wicked Witch than Snow White.
As Neal Gabler exposed in his biography Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (as summarized by Vulture), Walt certainly had his racist side, and not just because he let Song of the South happen. He was reportedly the kind of person to, in meetings, refer to the Seven Dwarves as a "n***** pile," which isn't just terrible, it doesn't make any sense. He also used terms like "pickaninny" in meetings, which was an old-time (and offensive) term for black children. Don't ever use it.
Then there was his issue with women. As Ward Kimball, one of Disney's associates, said, "He didn't trust women or cats." (What's wrong with cats, pray tell?) Then there's a letter Disney sent a woman named Mary Ford, who wanted work as an animator. Was she good? We don't know, but Disney didn't care either way — he rejected her outright, because women simply didn't do that kind of work for him. In the letter's own words, "Women do not do any of the creative work … as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason, girls are not considered for the training school." Snow White and the Seven Dwarves appear on the letterhead, almost like they're mocking her for her silly woman chutzpah.
Read More: http://www.grunge.com/69542/respected-historical-figures-actually-terrible-people/sl/walt-disney?utm_campaign=clip
No comments:
Post a Comment