Ethnicity in Disney: The representation of ethnic minority groups in Disney films A qualitative study about the perceptions and experiences of Dutch young adults on ethnic representation in Disney films

Disney has been the producer of many children's films and classic fairy tales such as Cinderella and Snow White for decades. Recently, newer stories have been added such as Coco and Moana. For several years now, on their streaming service Disney+, the film company has a disclaimer stating that they acknowledge that they have historically discriminated against certain groups and that they used racial stereotypes. This prompted a research into the experiences of people with different ethnic backgrounds about the representation of ethnic minorities in Disney films. The literature is largely lacking in this regard. A lot of research has been done into the influence of gender, but the relation to ethnicity is hardly visible. This research will therefore contribute to the gap that exists in the literature. The representation of different ethnic groups in films has an impact on society as a whole. Public opinion is partly influenced by the media. In conjunction with the audience, various discourses emerge. In this research, attention is paid to the importance of audience research, because they are seen as active participants who give meaning to what they see. The experience of people and the extent to which they critically look at these films depends on the degree of engagement. Five logics of engagement are discussed that can serve as an explanation to describe how the representation is experienced. Here, the logics of entertainment, social connection and identification are most visible. Audiences mainly watch Disney films to be entertained and they find it important to identify with the characters and the story. As a result, they are less critical of what they see. In addition, it is stated that there are a number of deficiencies in the representation of ethnic minorities, such as underrepresentation, negative framing, stereotyping and normative whiteness. There is a plea for superdiversity, which means that more attention must be paid to individuals instead of the group as a whole. More emphasis should be placed on intra-cultural plurality. In order to measure the experiences, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Dutch young adults of different ethnic origins. Various sampling strategies were used for this, such as snowball, criterion and purposeful sampling. The respondents indicated that they experience the representation of ethnic minorities as stereotyping. There is a difference between white and non-white characters and it generally has a negative connotation. They do, however, see developments in this respect, whereby in recent years there has been an increasing emphasis on positive aspects in cultural traditions, norms and values, also known as cultural appreciation. In the future, young adults would like to see more diversity and inclusion in Disney films. In addition, they believe that the representation of ethnic minority groups should be more normalized. The study concludes with a number of limitations and suggestions for further research.