Bambi in Boyland III: The American Forest

Bambi in Boyland: How Disney’s Fawn Reflects American Morals

Part Three:

The American Forest: How Lost is the Dream of Success?

The American Dream must be re-envisioned. It’s time to abandon goals of material wealth and embrace the values of a Forest Prince.

 If 50 Cent is a Shallow Prince, then so may we all be. Since our childhoods, we have watched Bambi grow inevitable and righteously into the new Prince of the Forest. He has built friendships, learned of the world, battled dogs and fires, found love, and beaten rivals to his cause. His emergence into adulthood to take the place of his father is natural, expected, ordained.  It’s earned. Leadership is built not merely of prowess but of character. The little fawn who cries for a lost mother grows bravely, sincere and honorable, noble, with dignity, and supported by loyal friendships. Would that were the case of most Americans. 

Public school students learn of the American Dream, the Puritan Ethic of hard work and sincere devotion which will lead us ultimately to fame and material success (Warshauer). Certainly celebrities like 50 Cent arguably work hard, devote themselves to their careers.  But the challenge of the Forest Prince is not within the idea of hard work but the goals of materialism, of an independent fame so desperately sought that all honor and dignity is sacrificed along the way. 

The American culture is replete with role models like 50 Cent and too few Forest Princes.

Bambi demonstrates nobility and honor, but people like the misogynist Charlie Sheen continue to be employed for major money.  Now he’s hosting a TV show for women on relationships; this from a man who has “shown little to no signs of regret or repentance after showing the horrifying and actively harmful sides of [himself] to the public” (Bennet). And it’s models for American fame like Sheen who may contribute  to a national prejudice, especially among young white men, that actually damages our economy (DeVega).  Misogyny is cruel to women, damages the livelihoods of thousands, and is truly ignoble. By any definition of the American Dream, Sheen and his emulators do not belong. We may watch and berate Sheen for his infamy, but we still watch him, we still talk about him, and we still employ him.

But if Sheen and Cent are poor examples for our Dream, so too must the truly indecent celebrities and their emulators be. This is not a statement about prudery but one about dignity and self-worth.  It is a statement about self-respect and public sincerity. It is about the twerks and drugs of celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan. Like Sheen, that we continue to return to Lohan as an object of employment and forgiveness (numerous violations of probation, grand theft convictions, published sex lists, and middle fingers to her own employers as some examples) says more about us than it even does about her. Cyrus has underscored these scandals with her own, from a seeming acceptance of a “Blurred  Lines” rape culture to VMA

dances which revealed anything but dignity.  Most important to the Cyrus story, though, may be her defense that all she wanted to do was “make history” (“Miley Defends”). In other words, the goal to become famous is more important than a decision about what behavior will get you there.  In the same interview, Cyrus says that she literally “didn’t think about it,” that her behavior is therefore unworthy of reflection. And we revere her.

The Bambi Prince vision demands something more. It demands that we consider what we do, that we walk with dignity and honor, that we reject egotistical behavior (see Bambi’s defeat of the misogynist deer Ronno), and that we are respected by others for our honor. None of this is about fame or wealth, though Bambi gains both.  He takes his father’s place in the Forest, and he gains too a wealth of friendships he will keep for his entire life. Too many of our celebrity role models can barely maintain their marriages, let alone their friendships.

It’s no wonder that my survey of senior high school students found 100% of them naming careers and material objects as future ambitions (Chisnell).  Not a single one indicated a character attribute amongst their goals. This suggestion that we value the material first—primarily—before honor and dignity, before charity and friendships, implies also that too many Americans may sacrifice these virtues of character in order to retain their ambitions for wealth.

Perhaps the simple dream of Forest Prince is naïve. Perhaps it’s too late for America to recognize that we are Ronno/Sheens instead of Bambi/Princes.  But Bambi’s mother made clear what the real problem was early in Bambi’s life.  Bambi asks his mother, “Why did we run?”  Her reply: “Man was in the woods.”

Works Cited:

Bennet, Alanna. "Bustle." Bustle. N.p., n.d. 24 Apr. 2014. http://www.bustle.com/articles/20739-
     charlie-sheens-hosting-a-relationship-show-on-we-tv-because-the-world-is-nonsense>.

"Cyrus Defends VMA Twerkiness: 'That's Just Me'" HLNtv.com. N.p., n.d. 24 Apr. 2014. 

     <http://www.hlntv.com/article/2013/09/03/miley-cyrus-speaks-out-mtv-vma-performance>.

DeVega, Chauncey. "Racism and Sexism Are Killing the U.S. Economy."Saloncom RSS. N.p.,
      n.d. 24 Apr. 2014. 

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/how_racism_and_sexism_are_net_drains_on_the_u_s_economy_partner/>.

Warshauer, Matthew. "The American Dream." The American Dream. N.p., n.d. 24 Apr. 2014.

     <http://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/American_Dream.htm>.

Bambi in Boyland II: The Infamy of a Failed, Rapping Wannabe Forest Prince

Bambi in Boyland: How Disney’s Fawn Reflects American Morals

Part Two:

The Infamy of a Failed, Rapping Wannabe Forest Prince

How our ideas of power and success are shallow and naïve, and that Bambi’s virtues remain a noble goal.

“Later, you grow and start to understand”. (Cooper)

Rapper 50 Cent reflects on the death of his mother.  He was eight years old, too young to understand, and the adults around his life would say to him, “She’s not coming back,” but he refused to listen to them (Cooper). Unlike Bambi’s father, Curtis Jackson’s father was absent from his life; and, unlike Bambi, Jackson would have to find his way to “Prince of the Forest” on his own.  I don’t know if Jackson ever saw the Disney film, but it’s fairly clear from his career path and thoughts on love that he may have benefited, not only from having had a father figure in his life, but from the movie’s lessons on adulthood.

Jackson insists that he respects women, puts them on a pedestal, even.  Of course, this is only because of their beauty.  And only a few “Queens,” for reason. The rest, he says, are “b****es and hoes” (Kugel).  His attitude may be evident through the lyrics of his art:

Yeah! - I got all kinda b****es: from vet b****es to beginner b***h (uh!)

My phone ringing and I ain't answering cause I'm in a b***h. (yeah!)

I'm all like a pimp than a trick. - I send a b***h! (hahaaa!)

50's and lead escorts, call me the runner b***h. (whoooooo-whooooooooooooooohhhhhh!)

If we going out, we going dutch pay for your inner, b***h!

Look b***h! - This is my life, I'm on some different sh*t.

Every different day I wake up to play with a different b***h

B****es love me. (yeah!) - Just like I loooove me! (yeah, YEEEAH!)

(“All His Love”)

Here 50 Cent struts his status as a player, boasting about how many woman he uses. Their names are irrelevant, their interests, too.  His insistence that they “love me” strikes us as shallow, even naïve.  How could they?  Unless his idea of love is completely warped.  While Jackson claims that the loss of his mother was a major impact on his young life. Had he a mother to remind him of basic decency in interacting with people, had he a father who stayed to teach him how to act like a man, the sort of Prince 50 Cent would become might look very different.

But the 50 Cent Prince of the Forest is, in fact, very shallow, and very temporary.  Debuting a powerful set of albums in 2003, he has not produced a single album since 2009, and that one—Before I Self Destruct—failed to reach gold. Beset by legal problems, Jackson is finally about to release another album after many false starts, but early reviews aren’t positive.  To be a Forest Prince, something more tangible, powerful is required.  Jackson does have power—nearly gunned down in the street is 2000, much of his fame is built upon this near-martyrdom (and a deal to sell vitamin water) (Charnas). But fame, power, and princedom require more than a near death experience and a slick business sense.  Bambi’s rise is inevitable, permanent, marked by genuine love, respect, and power based on nobility, morality, and truth.   

In stark contrast to 50 Cent, Bambi builds himself to Princedom through his love, friendships, and simple humility.  He does not buy Faline’s physical attention or even remark on her obvious cute factor. Instead, with an endearing innocence, he builds a friendship and devotion to her.  He nobly battles Ronno for her.  He protects his family from fire, wards off attack dogs, and finds his way back to her. In short, Bambi earns both love and power. He does it because he is genuine, and he does it because he has a father who teaches him. Jackson does not want to even meet his, though he admits that he might not have made so many mistakes. (Cooper)

One might argue that Bambi is a fictional character and 50 Cent is real.  Given. Yet we must not forget that it is Curtis Jackson who is as real as Bambi author Felix Salten.  50 Cent is Jackson’s fiction as Bambi is Salten’s. And, as Jackson himself says of art, “Nobody’s gonna pay a million dollars for me . . .  scribbling (Kugel).  You said it, Mr. Jackson. This is why you found a few quick years of infamy while Bambi endures. I wish you had seen the movie.  

“Later, you grow and start to understand.”  

Works Cited

"All His Love by 50 Cent." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Apr. 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7WALks4J5c.

Charnas, Dan. "How 50 Cent Scored a Half-billion." Washington Post. The Washington Post,   

           19 Dec. 2010. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

            dyn/content/article/2010/12/17/AR2010121705271.html.

Cooper, Roman. "50 Cent Recalls Losing His Mother, Has "No Interest" In Meeting 

            Father."HipHopDXRSS.   24 Mar. 2014.          

             http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.23614/title.50-cent-recalls-losing-his-mother-

             has-no-interest-in-meeting-father.

Kugel, Allison. "Inside 50 Cent: The Rap Mogul's Thoughts on Love, Sex, Fear & Taking Risks  

          The PR.com Interview - PR.com." PR.com. 24 Mar. 2014. http://www.pr.com/article/1136.

Bambi in Boyland I: Commerce Drive-In Theater, 1968

Bambi in Boyland: How Disney’s Fawn Reflects American Morals 

Part One:

Commerce Drive-In Theater, 1968

A boy is introduced to movies and Disney’s Bambi, and the initiation teaches fear.

I admit my memory is cloudy . I was five. My father and mother drove me to my first movie, the story of a Disney fawn stumbling his way through youth and tragedy. Our blue Ford Galaxy, its windshield spotted with dust, rolled up to the rusting post in the middle of the field. My father unhooked the small speaker that dangled there from a cord and perched it on the driver window; static peppered the thin sound, and the image on the screen before was dim, the occasional moth shadow stark and quick.  But for me it was pretty magical. Bambi etched its complex purposes into me: fire, fear, violence, and something else more powerful still.  

In my memory, the parts of the movie skip about, blur together.  Bambi is practicing words:  “Bird. Bird.  Bird.”  Thumper laughs at him. But then the gunshot and the father’s voice: “Your mother can’t be with you anymore.”  I think it was Bambi’s first year of life—but for me he was five.

I don’t remember feeling any fear that evening. My own mother tells me that I cried. And looking back on that scene today, more than 40 years later, I wonder at it.  What was Disney up to?  Ralph Lutts, in Forest and Conservation History, reports that Disney initially considered putting the death on screen. He set up details so that the audience would feel Bambi was “more helpless and everything.”    Did he know about me, squeezed between the two front seats of my father’s Galaxy, 25 years later, inscribed by this horror? Did he know about the millions of children who would watch it? Think about the millions of dollars it might make? Or did he have some other idea about writing the American culture?

While Bambi is now culturally responsible for so much of our thinking—everything from Smokey the Bear  (“Bambi or Bear?”)  to Ann Curry’s scandalous firing in “Operation Bambi” (Markinson) —it may also echo some of our national trauma. Rated by Time as one of the Greatest Horror Movies of All Time (“Top 25 Horror Movies”), it’s a hell of a movie to put in front of your first-born child.  And if I was terrified by the  .

forest fire, the loss, the vulnerability of Bambi, so too might we all be compensating for those same terrors. In the end we are destined to become Prince of the Forest, resolute and proud Americans.  Just like Simba about 50 years later

I guess I’ve always felt that an abundant show of strength is too often a narcissistic mask for our insecurities.  Behind every Forest Prince is a lonely and helpless fawn.  That night in 1968  I didn’t need Bambi to tell me that I was afraid of fire, afraid of losing my mother, afraid of gun violence, perhaps even afraid of growing up. Detroit was on fire in ways I did not understand, and my parents spoke in whispers and half-sentences with anxiety.  Batman was on most weekdays, and Walt Disney’s Wonderful World would give me hours of nature movies and cartoons every Sunday night after grilled cheese sandwich dinners.  Bambi was different from the Sunday night Walt. I could watch my parents laugh at Carol Burnett and not feel afraid.  I could watch Disney’s The Ugly Dachshund or Pablo and the Dancing Chihuahua and not worry too much about adult ideas.

The Commerce Drive-In is gone now, and my initiation into Bambi is over 40 years ago. My mother lives gently on a farm in southern Michigan. But as that child in the back seat that night, Bambi reminded me of how fragile my innocence was, and it taught me how sternly as an adult I would need to defend it.

NEXT WEEK:  How Bambi’s lessons might have helped a hip-hop idol .

Works Cited 

"Bambi or Bear?" Smokey Bear.  27 Mar. 2014. http://www.smokeybear.com/vault/bambi_bear.asp

"Bambi's Mom Dies." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Feb. 2008 . 27 Mar. 2014.

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eHr-9_6hCg

Lutts: "The Trouble with Bambi." Lutts: "The Trouble with Bambi"   27 Mar. 2014. 

                http://www.history.vt.edu/Barrow/Hist2104/readings/bambi.html

Mirkinson, Jack. "Ann Curry Firing Plot Called 'Operation Bambi': NYT." The Huffington Post.

TheHuffingtonPo.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/ann-curry-today-firing-bambi-stelter_n_3108302.htmlst.com, 18 Apr. 2013. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.

"Top 25 Horror Movies." Entertainment Top 25 Horror Movies Comments. Time.com  27 Mar. 2014.

                http://entertainment.time.com/2007/10/29/top-25-horror-movies/slide/bambi-1942-2/