The Lion King and Race and Hierarchy

A few blogs ago I talked about hidden messages that are prevalent in the cherished Disney movies we all love and have grew up on. I mentioned a few movies in particular where there might have been subliminal and sexual images infused into certain scenes. In this particular blog however, I would like to focus on one of our readings in class and the movie The Lion King.

The reading titled, Race, Hierarchy, and Hyenaphobia in The Lion King by Naomi Rockler-Gladen, focused on a textual analysis that was not only interesting but discussed how this particular Disney movie had race and hierarchy involved in it. “The Lion King is one of the many places where a child might learn implicity about how race and hierarchy function in his or her own culture,” (Lind, Gladen 193).

How Rockler-Gladen breaks down this hierarchy in The Lion King, has reminded me of something I am familiar with. She discusses how the hyenas in the film were like the minorities and the lions were the majority. The lions lived in the beautiful Pridelands while the hyenas lived on the outside of the Pridelands in what could be considered, “the hood.” They lived in caves with skeletons unlike the lions. The hyenaphobia comes from the fear that if the hyenas were to come into the Pridelands, they would basically run down the area and the food supply would be depleted.

I was born as raised in Detroit, Michigan and have lived in some nice areas as well as some rough ones. A surrounding city of Detroit called Southfield use to be extremely nice to me as a child. This was my perception as well as those around me. If you lived in Southfield, you either had some type of money or were white. This was the idea behind the reasons why someone would live in such a nice area. As I got older, that notion we all had of Southfield was no longer the same as more and more black people moved into the city and then it started to look a little run down. We use to joke and say that the black people ran out the whites in the city but the reality is, it was probably true. “As the old unspoken fear goes, if the minorities are integrated into mainstream culture, everything will fall apart,” (Lind, Gladen 195).

It’s nothing new that the hyenas in the film represent minorities and perpetuates some stereotypes of African Americans. They are violent, the bottom of the food chain and are shown as loud, which are negative characteristics that have been tagged on to Black people.

The hierarchy is shown in the lions being the rulers and having the most power over all the other animals and even within that hierarchy, the lioness is under the lion. Here we see male dominance and it has indeed become naturalized as we expect men to have more power than women.

I’m not one to say that all Disney movies are bad but I am one to say that these movies are more than mere entertainment. What we see and what we hear definitely have an impact on us and whether we realize it or not, even a Disney movie can have much more meaning to it than we want to acknowledge.