Growing up in very white area of New York State, I didn't have that many people I could relate to or that even looked like me. I remember when I was 7 years old my parents rented the movie West Side Story. I fell in love with musicals and with Rita Moreno. All the other girls that watched the movie liked Maria, but I knew she wasn't Hispanic and honestly, bad girls are just more interesting. I started to sing and dance more and thought how wonderful it would be to play Anita in a remake of the play.
I think about a month or two ago I saw Rita Moreno again on TV, promoting her new book on The View. I was stunned to find out she was in her 80's and she looked fantastic. I was also very surprised to hear that she had an affair for almost a decade with Marlon Brando. At first I thought ewww, Marlon Brando, but then quickly remembered he used to be hot. Just another example of the Puerto Rican bad girl, I loved her even more. She also told the women on the View that she had been approached by JFK before she became famous with West Side Story and that Elvis had approached her too after WSS.
The thing that really clenched the pioneer aspect of Rita Moreno was that she has been the only Hispanic, male or female, to win an Oscar, Academy Award, Tony, Grammy and an Emmy. She achieved all of this before she turned 50. Since she recently went on a book tour to promote her memoirs, here are a couple of articles and the one, the only, Rita Moreno.
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/10/173726066/rita-moreno-reflects-on-anita-awards-and-accents
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/rita-moreno_n_1327415.html

I am rarely phased by a movie but I have to admit that this movie kind of snuck up on me. I saw The Experiment for the first time last year. I was bored out of my mind for most of the year and this movie actually had me thinking.
Well before I start analysizing the movie here's a brief summary.

The movie stars Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker. Brody is a peace loving, nonviolent guy and Whitaker is a god fearing Christian man with a bible always within reach. Brody is outgoing and friendly, while Whitaker is more reserved and awkward. This movie was based on a real event where scientist decided to conduct an experiment to gauge human behavior. A group of volunteers were promised 14,000 in exchange for living in an empty prison for a period of time. They were divided into two groups, prisoners and guards, based on a personality profile that was conducted. Brody becomes a prisoner and Whitaker a guard. As the days pass the guards start to enjoy enforcing the rules of the experiment, while the prisoners start to rebel because of the treatment they are receiving. In the end the characters with the strongest personalities do a 180. The inmates escape their cells and chase after the guards and just start beating the crap out of them. The experiment is called off and each man must return to his former life.

What impacted me the most about this movie was how much each person changed under those circumstances. I've have always thought that there are certain things I could never do, but after this movie I don't believe that anymore. I'm usually pretty calm, mellow and try to love everyone. However given certain circumstances I could probably turn on my own mother. People try so hard to stick to their beliefs and morals but at the end of the day we are all just human and bound to make many, many mistakes.
After watching the movie I tried to put myself mentally in that position. I think I would have been like Whitaker. I'm usually so timid and meek that if I was given any real power I might snap. It's the quiet ones you have to worry about. Luckily I don't plan on going to jail anytime soon. If I commit a crime I'll just move to a place that doesn't extradict criminals.

Well I just finished watching Mickey Mouse Monopoly and I must say I'm not surprised. The reality is the message being conveyed in all these Disney movies is the same that movies, tv shows, commercials, magazines etc., have been conveying for years now. Every since I was a little girl I've seen this in every aspect of my life. The "role"of a woman has been instilled from a young age. I remember all the tea party sets, dresses, dolls, flowers, butterflies I was forced to accept with a smile, hug and a kiss. I remember once I said to my parents that I was sick and tired of all the Barbie dolls and that I wanted a toy gun or car/truck. My parents almost fainted, how unladylike of me to even speak in the presence of adults. I still remember the boxes of dismembered dolls I hid in my closet and under my bed. I used to wear my dresses to play and climb trees just so I would ruin them. And the tea party set, well lets just say I have pretty good aim with a BB gun.
It's not just the role of women in Disney movies that offends but also the role of minorities. Until the 90's there wasn't a role for anyone that wasn't white, unless you count the animals. The closest Princess/Lead I could relate to was Belle, and Jasmine, because they had brown hair and my same name. I didn't even realize there was a royal family in Spain until I learned about the discovery of the New World. I had actually thought only white people could be royality.
I still like that movies and watch them to this day, but I understand the true meaning behind it. In the future I would let my kids watch these movies but i would try to balance them out with some positive books or films. I would also try to stay true to the original fairytale and the moral it was trying to convey. Disney has changed some of these stories so much that it loses that all important lesson authors like Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen and The Brothers Grimm were trying to teach.
Although Disney has made an attempt to change the roles of minorities, they still need to work on the gender roles. If I see one more beautiful princess that is saved by a handsome prince just because she's hot I'll throw up. Women and girls should be portrayed in a more nontraditional way and not dependant on a man to l