Whistle while you Work? Disney Animation, Organizational Readiness and Gendered Subjugation

Griffin, M.; Harding, N.; Learmonth, M.

doi:10.1177/0170840616663245

Whistle while you Work? Disney Animation, Organizational Readiness and Gendered Subjugation

Griffin, M.; Harding, N.; Learmonth, M.

Authors

Dr Martyn Griffin martyn.a.griffin@durham.ac.uk
Dissertation/SCA/SBP Supervisor

N. Harding

M. Learmonth

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of ‘organizational readiness’: socio-cultural expectations about working selves that prepare young people (albeit indirectly and in complex and multi-faceted ways) for their future life in organizations. This concept emerges from an analysis of Disney animations and how they constitute expectations about working life that may influence children through their representations of work and gendered workplace roles. The paper’s exploration of Disney’s earlier animations suggests they circulated norms of gender that girls should be weak and avoid work. In contrast, its contemporary productions circulate gender norms that suggest girls should be strong and engage in paid work. In this reading, the continued circulation of earlier alongside contemporary animations may convey to young viewers a paradox: girls must and must not work; they must be both weak and strong. We thus offer new insights into the puzzle of the continued relegation of women to the sidelines in organizations; more optimistically, we also point to ways in which future generations of employees may forge ways of constituting forms of gendered selves as yet hardly imaginable.

Citation

Griffin, M., Harding, N., & Learmonth, M. (2017). Whistle while you Work? Disney Animation, Organizational Readiness and Gendered Subjugation. Organization Studies, 38(7), 869-894. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840616663245

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jun 4, 2016
Online Publication Date	Sep 26, 2016
Publication Date	Jul 1, 2017
Deposit Date	Jun 13, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Jun 13, 2016
Journal	Organization Studies
Print ISSN	0170-8406
Electronic ISSN	1741-3044
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	38
Issue	7
Pages	869-894
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840616663245
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1402382

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