Cannibalism, Child-Trafficking, & Striptease: the Truth Disney Buried | Dark History | Bailey Sarian

Bailey Sarian was shocked to learn about the controversies surrounding Disney's 'Aladdin' when it was released in 1993. The movie faced criticism for showing bad stereotypes about Middle Eastern culture, including mispronounced Arabic names, nonsensical scribbles instead of Arabic text, and offensive lyrics like, 'Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face. It's barbaric, but hey, it's home.' Disney later changed these lyrics due to protests. Furthermore, the magic carpet in the movie is actually a sacred prayer rug. Sarian also discovered that the original 'Aladdin' story was an ancient Chinese tale, not an Arabian one, appropriated by a French writer.

Sarian explores how many beloved Disney fairy tales have dark and adult origins. Before widespread literacy, stories were passed down orally and often adapted to entertain or teach lessons, sometimes naughty ones. These original tales were far from the glittery versions we know today.

The familiar story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf is a sanitized version. The French oral tradition from the 1400s depicted Little Red as a 'seductive young woman' who performed a striptease for the wolf, ultimately dying, an example of slut-shaming. Later versions focused on protecting virginity. A published version from the late 1600s portrays Little Red as a cannibal, unknowingly eating her grandmother after the wolf butchers and serves her. This version even includes a cat slut-shaming Little Red. The red hood is theorized to symbolize female sexuality and menstruation. An early Disney cartoon from 1922 offered a bizarre, psychedelic adaptation with a man as the predator, not a wolf.

Disney's 'Mulan' was celebrated for its independent, non-royal princess. However, the story existed for centuries in China, first appearing as a 300-line ballad around 500 AD. The ballad tells of Mulan disguising herself as a man to take her elderly father's place in war, fighting for 12 years before returning home to reveal her true identity to her astonished comrades. Unlike the Disney version, the original ballad didn't feature characters like Mushu or a romantic subplot. Some darker versions of Mulan's tale exist, including one where, after returning from war, she finds her father dead, her mother remarried, and is ordered to become the king's concubine, leading her to commit suicide at her father's grave. The Ming dynasty saw a play about Mulan with 'naughty humor and excessive erotica,' where Mulan's transformation involved a striptease, sexualizing her character rather than empowering her.

Disney's 'Pocahontas' (1995) was an attempt at a diverse historical narrative. However, the real story is far darker. Pocahontas's birth name was Amonute, with 'Pocahontas' being a disrespectful nickname. The movie depicts a romance between a young Pocahontas and John Smith. In reality, Amonute was a child, possibly 8-10, when she met the 27-year-old John Smith, and their relationship was not romantic. Smith was also a feared and militant figure. Amonute married Kocoum and had a son, but was later kidnapped by English settlers and forcibly taken to England. Her husband, Kocoum, was killed by the settlers. She was used as a political symbol, brainwashed into believing her family didn't care for her, and allegedly raped. She eventually had a mental breakdown, and after becoming pregnant from the assault, she remarried an Englishman, John Rolfe, converted to Christianity (named Rebecca), and had a baby. She died mysteriously at only 20 years old on a ship before she could return home.

Sarian questions why these dark stories were so drastically altered. Psychologists like Freud propose that fairy tales, despite their often cruel content, are crucial for children's development of right and wrong. The extreme punishments in older tales, like the witch being baked in 'Hansel and Gretel,' reassure children that evil will be dealt with. Sarian suggests that perhaps we underestimate children's capacity to handle these darker truths, and that the original, more gruesome versions might provide a stronger sense of justice. While acknowledging the value of the sanitized Disney versions, she emphasizes that there's always a deeper, 'dark history' to uncover.