Post Class Blog - Andrea Luongo

I was really glad that in class on Wednesday we discussed Ariel Dorfman’s “Instructions on How to Become a General in the Disneyland Club,” because I found it to be one of the more interesting readings that we’ve done thus far.  Disney World, and the entirety of the Disney brand have become such an integral part of our culture that it can sometimes be hard to remember that Disney is just a mass-produced corporation made up of theme parks, movies, and many other outlets, as we stated in class.  Instead of our culture defining Disney, the opposite happens in the sense that Disney defines our culture.  Having been at Rollins for the last three years, I have been able to witness first hand the power that Disney has on our society, as illustrated by the fact that when looking back at De Saussure’s idea of the signified and the signifier, in this case Orlando would be the signified and Disney would represent the signifier.  In other words, to the greater population, Orlando is only recognizable because of Disney.

But, as Dorfman and Mattelart discuss in their essay, Disney has become so much more than just an internationally known brand, located in cities such as Orlando.  Instead, Disney represents a commodity that over time, has become a fetish to our society.  As we discussed in class on Wednesday, given the international popularity of the Disney brand, Disney, and the emotions that Disney instills in us, are constantly being reproduced and ingrained in our society.  We talked in detail about the idea of the “father complex” or as the authors state, the “new reality” (113), that parents subconsciously create for themselves through their children.  So, while Disney has become a global brand, it is not just creating toys and movies, but for adults, it is also creating tension between reality and a dream world.