Disney and Its Worlds PAMLA Panel Review

I went to the Disney and Its Worlds panel and it was amazing! Each speaker had very interesting points. The first speaker titled her presentation A Successful Partnership: Gender Roles and the Ballroom in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. She used analysis of the waltz and ballroom scenes in both the live action and the animated films to show that the sequence does not perpetrated traditional gender norms like most people say. She pointed to Belle initiating the dance and the times where who was leading switched to show that the dance showed a partnership between the characters, not the traditional role of males leading and females following. Other than just analyzing the choreography, she used elements of ballroom culture to make her point. She made us aware that in ballroom dancing, most women are “doing gender” and playing a role. She made it clear that Belle’s comfortableness with the lead switching showed that she was doing the same thing, playing a part, and that she was not actually showing submission. While some of the elements that show that Belle is not following the traditional role are things that only people with a knowledge of ballroom might notice, like the positioning of frame throughout the dance, I noticed that there were signs that anyone could notice. One such sign is that in both versions it that Belle is the one that starts the dance and in the live action there are multiple times were Belle holds out her hands to invite Beast to come to her. While a person versed in ballroom would be able to get another layer from that gesture, that holding your hands palm up signals that you are leading, the gesture is still very obviously not following the female role of submission. She ended her presentation by claiming that the dancing does romanticize the film, it does not perpetuate traditional gender roles. The presenter did a wonderful job overall, I was fascinated. The other presenters where almost equally as interesting. The next presenter talked about hoe elements of goth that were “sanitized” from early Disney films are coming back. The third talked about using Disney as a teaching tool in English 101, which was interesting the hear since I am an English 101 student. It almost felt like a lesson, except I didn’t actually have to do the work that she was describing. She talked about the different types of introductions and I think that I might be able to use the information that she described in my own essays. The last presenter spoke about music in Disney. She used some obscure terms so I couldn’t quite follow her point, but I think I got that she was trying to say that music creates “spaces”, like Mother Knows Best from Tangled creates a space of imprisonment. A lot of her points tied in well with the earlier presenters so it made sense that she went last. I learned a lot of interesting information and each presenter made their point very well but, I couldn’t help notice how they were presenting. I could tell that the third presenter was definitely a teacher not just from her topic, but how she presented her topic. She wasn’t reading off something like the other presenters and it felt like she really was commanding the attention of and teaching a class. She had so much energy.  Two of them where reading off their paper or tablet the entire time. I really got why teachers are always telling us to memorize our speeches and to look up. Because they were always looking down or just doing quick upward glances, it felt like they never really connected with us the audience. Overall it was an amazing experience and I am so glad that I got up early to see it.