Griggs, Taylor2020-07-282020-07-282020https://hdl.handle.net/1794/25415Submitted to the Undergraduate Library Research Award scholarship competition: 2020 .32 pagesThis thesis aims to examine the limitations of the Walt Disney Company’s attempts at including diverse representations of marginalized people in their popular films, including Aladdin (1992), Pocahontas (1995), The Princess and the Frog (2009) and Moana (2016). It examines how Disney has succeeded and failed in its representations of diverse groups, given the fact that it exists as a multibillion dollar enterprise in a globalist, capitalist world. This paper examines the positive impact that diverse representations can have, especially on young audiences, and the authenticity, or lack thereof, of these representations, using Marxist and Neo-Marxist frameworks. Ultimately, the thesis concludes that based on the research conducted, because of the complexities and nuances of capitalism and the fact that it is impossible to have authentic representation even with seemingly strong attempts to do so, Disney films will always exist in a system that has exploited the marginalized people they are now intent on representing in their films, and it is not possible to have actual authentic representation of these marginalized groups under multicultural capitalism without a major economic shift.enCreative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-USDisney filmsrepresentations of marginalized peopleauthenticityThesis / Dissertation