Representations of animal harm and objectification in the works of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ films: 1937- 2016

This PhD thesis critically examines how Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS) has depicted – and sometimes failed to depict – different forms of harming and objectifying animals (1937–2016). This is an interdisciplinary project that contributes new research into Disney studies and critical animal studies. As such, this project will utilize past research in critical animal studies, particularly speciesism, throughout. Each chapter of this thesis focusses on a different form of harm or objectification that animals can experience: Chapter 1: Animal Food Farming, Chapter 2: Hunting and Fishing, Chapter 3: Clothing, Chapter 4: Pets and Working Animals, and Chapter 5: Entertainment. Each chapter begins by outlining the history, relevant scholarly literature, and other relevant cultural depictions of that form of harm. Then, each chapter presents the data that demonstrates how many times these types of harm or objectification have been depicted in WDAS films. Next, each chapter offers a broad exploration of how the chapter’s topic(s) has been depicted in WDAS films and (where appropriate) across the wider Disney brand. Finally, each chapter includes case studies relevant to that chapter’s topic. For example, Chapter 1: Animal Food Farming includes a close-reading of Home on the Range (2004), a WDAS film set on a dairy farm. As well as studying WDAS films, this project will also explore other elements of the Disney brand such as the theme parks and merchandise in order to understand Disney’s depictions of animals and animal harm more broadly. The thesis concludes by arguing that since 1937 WDAS representations of animals and animal harm have been shaped by speciesist attitudes. Throughout WDAS’s history, higher-order, heavily-anthropomorphised, neotenized, pro-social, and individualized animal characters have been depicted as un-deserving of the harm or objectification that their species commonly experience. In contrast, lower-order, non-anthropomorphised species have been depicted as little more than objects. Additionally, it is evident that WDAS has only challenged animal harm that has become socially unacceptable, such as the production of fur. Animal harm that is socially-acceptable or involves lower-order species (such as the production of leather) has been minimized, attenuated, or depicted romantically. Additionally, some forms of animal harm that are very common in reality, such as medical testing, have never been depicted, or even acknowledged, in WDAS films

Campus News September 14, 2001

https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/campus_news/2456/thumbnail.jp

Disney Film Genres and Adult Audiences: A Tale of Renegotiated Relationships

Disney films occupy a special place in the viewing habits of children, but their relationships with adult audiences are underappreciated and under-researched. At the same time, many assumptions are made about the concept of a Disney film, which is distinctive enough to warrant being described as a film genre but has not yet been described as such. Using an innovative mixed methods approach, this research investigates the ways in which adult audiences negotiate and renegotiate their relationships with Disney films. To do so, the research first sets about identifying what a Disney film is, and therefore defining a Tangible Disney Genre based on an analysis of Disney’s film output. An output survey analysing data based on 390 Disney films released between 1937 and 2015 allows a more comprehensive understanding of the Disney film than has previously been offered. Following analysis of the tangible film output, attention turns to the audiences of Disney films, from fans to antagonists. Building on previous work by the Global Disney Audiences Project (Wasko et al., 2001), the research employs a sample survey and focus groups to define a Disney genre that is grounded in shared audience perceptions. This Fantasy Disney Genre is based on data drawn from over 3,500 participants. Having established the Tangible and Fantasy Disney Genres, the two concepts are compared alongside evidence drawn from interviews and the autoethnographic experiences of the author to determine the effects of any differences and similarities between the genres. Within the comparisons between the two Disney genres is found the space for adult audiences to (re)negotiate their relationships with Disney films. The outcomes of the research include methodological innovations, an updated and comprehensive examination of Disney audiences, and establishment of Disney genres based on both the Hollywood studio’s tangible film output and the perceptions of adult audiences

Prenatal HIV screening of pregnant women in Ethiopia using ‘opt-out’ approach : the human rights and ethical concerns

Following the recommendation of the WHO and UNAIDS the Ethiopian Government revised its guidelines on Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission to adopt a routine provider-initiated ‘opt-out’ HIV testing approach to all maternal health care services. The testing approach requires all pregnant women to be provided with HIV test unless they expressly decline it. This thesis examines the human rights and ethical implications of the implementation of this HIV testing approach within the maternal health care settings in Ethiopia to screen pregnant women. It argues that this HIV testing approach may be able to meet the pressing public health imperatives presented by the incidence of HIV in Ethiopia. However, a full understanding of the context in which this testing takes place reveals that, the implementation of this testing approach can result in the denial of pregnant women’s rights to informed consent, to have access to adequate counselling and to ensure confidentiality of their HIV test results. This thesis argues that the implementation of routine provider-initiated ‘opt-out’ HIV testing approach in the maternal health care settings is affected by the weak health system, the feminization of poverty, and the persistence of HIV related stigma and violence as well as gender inequality. The fieldwork undertaken in the Tigray region provided insights into the subjective experiences of women in relation to their ability to make autonomous decisions regarding the HIV test offered during their pregnancies. It involved in-depth semi-structured interviews with pregnant women and key stakeholders as well as non-participatory observation. In addition, the normative and conceptual aspects of human rights and ethical principles inform the thrust of discussions and arguments in this thesis. This thesis concludes that although the HIV testing approach adopted by the Ethiopian Government to screen pregnant women for HIV infections does not violate human rights requirements, its implementation in the context Ethiopian socio- economic, cultural and legal context raises serious concerns. The study therefore recommends that attention must be paid to balancing the scaling up HIV testing of pregnant women in Ethiopia to prevent vertical transmission of HIV and respecting the individual’s rights to make their own medical decisions including refusing the HIV test

Expanding the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA: Experiences from Botswana

Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) have emerged in recent years to become an important means of governing conservation land across the national boundaries of contemporary states. Southern Africa’s TFCAs have developed as ‘new conservation’ spaces, which are considered to promote a more holistic approach to managing protected areas by effectively integrating conservation and development ideals. However, these initiatives require complex management structures that extend across and engage with a complex mosaic of land uses, while effectively trying to reconcile diverse ecological, social, and economic agendas. The Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA is the largest of these initiatives extending across the borders of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This research traces the expansion of the TFCA from its formation in 2003 to 2018, with a particular focus on its land integration and resource management processes in Botswana. To examine this expansion, this research utilizes the concept of ‘territory’ as a lens of land control which draws attention to the ways in which land within various spaces is valued, utilized and accessed. For this research, territory provides a useful perspective with which land and resource valuation, land-use conflict and resource rights within the TFCA’s boundaries can be critically engaged with. In order to better understand the territorial expansion processes of the TFCA, this research examines firstly, the objectives of the Botswana state in terms of the growth of the TFCA; secondly, the motives behind the expansion processes; thirdly, the ways in which land under various tenure regimes is involved within the expansion processes; and finally, the impacts of these processes on local communities within these areas. The methodology adopted in this research involves (a) document analysis primarily focused on Botswana’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP) for the KAZA to understand the planned political processes of expansion; (b) GIS mapping activities to identify the areas and types of land tenure that have been integrated into the TFCA; and (c) interviews with stakeholders and local communities to understand the expansion processes on the ground. From this territorial orientation, this research demonstrates how the Botswana state has placed a strong strategic focus on the development of a luxury tourism industry based on wildlife and non-consumptive resource uses. This focus aligns with the growth of the KAZA TFCA in the region, which aims to develop the region’s tourist potential by expanding its conservation estate. Within these processes, land and natural resources are increasingly being seen as a means of revenue and capital accumulation in the KAZA region. These revaluations of land and resources have translated into changing land dynamics in areas that have been integrated into the TFCA. For communities in these areas, this has resulted in increasing resource restrictions, land-use and human-wildlife conflict, as well as a disengagement from resource management activities. These processes lead to unintended consequences in that they pit local communities against conservation agendas in the area

Building Universal Digital Libraries: An Agenda for Copyright Reform

This article proposes a series of copyright reforms to pave the way for digital library projects like Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, and Google Print, which promise to make much of the world\u27s knowledge easily searchable and accessible from anywhere. Existing law frustrates digital library growth and development by granting overlapping, overbroad, and near-perpetual copyrights in books, art, audiovisual works, and digital content. Digital libraries would benefit from an expanded public domain, revitalized fair use doctrine and originality requirement, rationalized systems for copyright registration and transfer, and a new framework for compensating copyright owners for online infringement without imposing derivative copyright liability on technologists. This article\u27s case for reform begins with rolling back the copyright term extensions of recent years, which were upheld by the Supreme Court in Eldred v. Reno. Indefinitely renewable copyrights threaten to marginalize Internet publishing and online libraries by entangling them in endless disputes regarding the rights to decades- or centuries-old works. Similarly, digital library projects are becoming unnecessarily complicated and expensive to undertake due to the assertion by libraries and copyright holding companies of exclusive rights over unoriginal reproductions of public domain works, and the demands of authors that courts block all productive digital uses of their already published but often out-of-print works. Courts should refuse to allow the markets in digital reproductions to be monopolized in this way, and Congress must introduce greater certainty into copyright licensing by requiring more frequent registration and recordation of rights. Courts should also consider the digitizing of copyrighted works for the benefit of the public to be fair use, particularly where only excerpts of the works are posted online for public perusal. A digital library like Google Print needs a degree of certainty - which existing law does not provide - that it will not be punished for making miles of printed matter instantly searchable in the comfort of one\u27s home, or for rescuing orphan works from obscurity or letting consumers preview a few pages of a book before buying it. Finally, the Supreme Court\u27s recognition of liability for inducement of digital copyright infringement in the Grokster case may have profoundly negative consequences for digital library technology. The article discusses how recent proposals for statutory file-sharing licenses may reduce the bandwidth and storage costs of digital libraries, and thereby make them more comprehensive and accessible

An Embedded, Comparative Case Study of Municipal Waste Management in England And Denmark

This PhD concerns the potentials and challenges for conducting innovation in public-private partnerships (PPPs) towards the objective of transforming municipal waste management towards more sustainable systems. In recent years, local authorities have been met with intensified demands from the EU and national governments to change existing waste management systems from solutions based on disposal and recovery towards more recycling and prevention and at the same time deliver more efficient waste management services through the inclusion of private businesses. These two demands may to some degree be mutually supportive, but may also lead to challenges in the prioritization and development of new solutions

Sound Record Producers\u27 Rights and the Problem of Sound Recording Piracy

This paper will describe some current issues and developments that are of relevance to sound recordings protection, as they are experienced and debated in industry and among customers, as well as policy making bodies. The paper’s focus is on the historical development of sound recordings protection under United States Copyright law. In Part II, this paper will explore early federal and state law protections for sound recordings, including the Copyright Act of 1909, common law protections, and state statutes. This section also will trace the development of proposals for a federal statute granting express copyright protection for sound recordings. In Part III, this paper will examine the 1971 Sound Recording Amendment, particularly the scope of protection afforded for sound recordings. In Part IV, the paper will review some recent forms of sound recording piracy that occur over the Internet with the development of digital technologies, recent litigation, and alternative solutions technology can offer against piracy. Finally, in Part V it will examine the available remedies in federal law against sound recording piracy