(Just The News)—The University of Colorado Boulder is offering a course in the spring 2025 semester on the relationship between feminism and Disney films. Entitled “Disney’s Women and Girls,” the course “examines the construction of gender, race, class, sexual orientation and disability in a selection of Disney’s animated films,” according to a description.
The three-credit course has been offered since at least 2019, according to CU Boulder’s class search. The course description states that the class “analyzes the political economy of the Disney phenomenon through a feminist lens.”
The course also says it “cultivates skills of media literacy, exploring how mass media acts to enforce and maintain conventional gendered understandings of power, privilege and difference.”
“Disney’s Women and Girls” is offered through CU Boulder’s Women and Gender Studies department and is taught by lecturer Shannon Leone.
Leone did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Leone has a BA in political science from Miami University and a PhD in English Literature from CU Boulder, where she specialized in “Gothic maternal imagery and identity in literary modernism,” according to her school bio. Leone’s teaching and research interests, according to the bio, include “feminism, intersectionality, pedagogy, modernity and postmodernity, and representations in popular culture.”
Leone said in a November interview concerning Disney princesses that she believes “recent female protagonists” are “more empowered and express desires outside of romance,” versus their royal predecessors who celebrate traditional femininity. Leone notes that modern Disney princesses do not wish for the love of a man. For instance, the movie Frozen is focused on sisterly love between princesses Anna and Elsa and not the love between a man and woman, while the movie Moana has no romantic plotline at all.
Leone also notes that portrayal of female characters overall have changed in modern Disney movies, with an example being that the princess Elsa “was supposed to be a villain” in Frozen. Leone believes that having “traces” of an antagonist in a female character such as Elsa “produces more of a multifaceted human being,” which she thinks “young viewers responded to.”
CU Boulder’s Women and Gender Studies department teaches about “gender and sexuality in a range of cultural and historical contexts.”
The Women and Gender Studies department also hosts the Gender Justice League, which exists to help students put social justice into practice, according to its webpage, and has resources on abortion, pleasure and consent, and fetishization. The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research institution, as stated on its website.
The Center Square reached out to CU Boulder media relations, spokeswoman Stacy Wagner and media relations associate and data analyst Ally Dever. None responded but Wagner, who forwarded TCS’s request for comment to CU Boulder media relations.
Trump Denies “Fake News” Report on Changes to Economic Plans
by Publius
President-elect Donald Trump has refuted a Washington Post report suggesting his aides were considering a more restrained tariff policy. The report claimed that Trump’s transition team was contemplating a tariff plan that would be less extensive than his campaign promises, targeting only imports deemed critical to national or economic security….
Gold Breaks Out With Central Bank Surge and Interest Rate Drops Expected
by Sponsored Post
Precious metals are seeing gains once again following the post-election dip, just as many economists had expected. Even China, which had been holding back for five months, returned to purchasing massive quantities of gold. “Falling U.S. interest rates and ongoing solid demand from central banks are supporting the gold price,”…
JPMorgan: “Debasement Trade” Into Bitcoin and Gold Is Here to Stay
by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge
(Zero Hedge)—The so-called “debasement trade” into gold and Bitcoin is “here to stay” as investors brace for persistent geopolitical uncertainty, according to a Jan. 3 research note by JPMorgan shared with CoinTelegraph. Gold and BTC “appear to have become more important components of investors’ portfolios structurally” as they increasingly seek to…
Hochul to Increase Payments to a Program That Serves Illegals
by Independent Sentinel
Welfare champion Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York has proposed a huge expansion of the state’s child tax credit. People here illegally can collect. New York is a one party state and Hochul runs it like a dictator. Hochul wants taxpayers to pay for an increase in the maximum credit…
More Details Emerge Regarding the Plan to Kill a Supreme Court Justice
by Zachary Stieber, The Epoch Times
(The Epoch Times)—A California man allegedly told authorities that he flew to the East Coast to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, according to newly filed court documents. Nicholas Roske flew across the country from California to Virginia on June 7, 2022, landing just before midnight. He got into a…
Kevin O’Leary Wants to Save TikTok by Buying It and Rewriting Its Algorithm
by The Blaze
“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary said that he was working on a deal to save the popular TikTok social media platform from being banned in the U.S. over privacy concerns. Republican lawmakers have banned TikTok from being used by state and federal employees after numerous reports that the platform collects…
AI Chatbots Credited With Surge in US Holiday Sales
by Valuetainment
AI-powered tools, particularly chatbots, significantly boosted online holiday sales in the US to $282 billion in 2024, a nearly 4% increase from the previous year, according to Salesforce. Globally, online sales reached $229 billion, up from $199 billion in 2023, as retailers utilized targeted promotions and personalized recommendations to attract…
Dana White Has Joined Meta’s Board of Directors
by Cactus Williams, Discern Report
UFC CEO and long-time friend of Donald Trump, Dana White, has joined Meta’s board of directors alongside Charlie Songhurst and John Elkann. This is just the latest in a series of decisions Meta has made following Trump’s historic electoral victory which seemed to be aimed at cozying up to the…
The Biggest Sale on Beef With 25-Year Shelf-Life EVER
by Sponsored Post
Let’s cut to the chase. Prepper All-Naturals is offering an unprecedented 40% off for its “Beef Steak” survival bags with promo code “steak40”. With a 25-year shelf life and a single ingredient (beef, of course), our most popular product is available for a very limited time with the biggest discount…
McDonald’s to Abandon Diversity ‘Goals’ in Hiring, to Stop Participating in Woke Non-Profit’s ‘Corporate Equality Index’
by The Post Millennial
Filmmaker and cultural commentator Robby Starbuck has gained another scalp in his effort to flip US corporations away from woke agendas focused on DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion. “BIG news,” Starbuck reported on X. “McDonald’s is ending a number of woke DEI policies today. Now let me tell you what’s…
