Ageism pervades Disney … cartoons, that is…

Grumpy and Dopey are no longer just the loyal friendsof Snow White but must now line up with the likes of the Wicked Queenand Cruella de Vil to be accused of fostering negative images ofelderly people.
Accordingto academics, Walt Disney’s seemingly ageist cartoon depiction of olderpeople as evil or incompetent risks adversely influencing children. Grumpyand Dopey join the assorted hags, crones and villains in the dockbecause they might lead some youngsters to think older people arebad-tempered or dim-witted in real life.  A studyby American researchers at Brigham Young University, Utah, looked at 93characters who appeared to be aged 55 or older from 34 Disney filmsgoing back 70 years.  A majority of oldercharacters, such as Maurice in Beauty and the Beast or Rafiki in TheLion King, were portrayed as wise or kind, like Pinnochio’s fatherGeppetto.  But a significant minority were portrayed as  unintelligent, nasty, bad-tempered or useless, giving children a bad impression. . . Typical portrayals of elderly people included showing them astoothless, hunched, and with cracking voices. Many were depicted with”saggy breasts”, the researchers said in an article for the medicalpublication Journal of Ageing Studies.

Source:  London Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/31/wdisney31.xml