Group no. 2. Project proposal

Group no. 2
Yuval Haklay
Maria Komarova
Hillel Mannasse
Maria Shchepetneva

Topic:
Backlash and cancel culture towards live-action Disney movies

Research proposal:
The chosen empirical case for this paper is the upcoming premiere of the Disney movie “The Little Mermaid”. The premiere is surrounded with a lot of controversy and negative responses. The criticism is mostly due to the casting of Halle Bailey for the role of the main figure of the movie - Ariel. News of the casting became viral and was called racist for casting the little mermaid as African American, when the original movie portrayed as a white skinned mermaid.

The backlash towards the casting will be studied using cross-cultural textual analysis of comment threads on Russian and Israeli social media platforms. We are going to compare discussions in the Russian social media about mermaids  that are used by generation Y such as Telegram and Twitter, and the ones that are used by generation X such as VKontakte. Regarding Israeli social media,we are going to study the comments on Facebook and Twitter. In both countries we will compare discussions and arguments (childhood memories, regarding scientific justifications such as mermaids can't be black), and emotions surrounding it.

Nowadays Disney's animated films play a key part in discussions about pop culture and race among generations Y and Z in both countries. During this research project we’d like to find the links between culture and emotional expression in different cultures, and how emotions and emotional expressions interact in social life.

References:
1) Little Mermaid: Why is Halle Bailey starrer facing a backlash with over 3 million dislikes on the trailer? // URL: (there should be a link, but forum prevents it. warning: New members are not allowed to post external links or emails for 7 days. Please contact the forum administrator for more information)
2) The racist backlash to The Little Mermaid and Lord of The Rings is exhausting and extremely predictable // URL: (same)
3) D. Clark, M. (2020). Drag them: A brief etymology of so-called “cancel culture.” Communication and the Public, 5(3–4), 88–92.
4) Saint-Louis, H. (2021). Understanding cancel culture: Normative and unequal sanctioning. First Monday, 26(7).
5) Domas, Rebecca, "Unmasking the Mouse: Cultural Appropriation in Disney Films" (2021). Honors Student Research. 6.

Dear group 2, thank yo for the proposal, I like it, comparative dimentions especially. I could sujjest on this stage to elaborate a bit more focus on emotions - what do you expect to find, how you will analyse them and whar the evidence such emotional contexctual differneces (in any) will give us?

Thanks - I agree with Anna that you need to develop the 'emotional' component in the study further. Perhaps even try to discern a particular emotion (or set of emotions) behind the backlash. Perhaps Arlie Hochschild's Strangers in Their Own Land. Anger and Mourning on the American Right can be useful here. Also, I am intrigued by your insistence on the use of generational analysis for this study. What theory are you using for this and how would you perform such an analysis from a methodological standpoint? For example, do you hypothesize to find clear-cut generational distinctions in the reactions to the movie? And are the digital platforms themselves so generation-specific as you describe? In other words, I am curious what you will do if/when you find mixed responses to the topic.

Dear group 2, I like very much your proposal because it focuses on one manifestation and two readings of it in two different socio-cultural emotional regimes. And YOUR own interpretation will the the fired layer and also cross cultural. I agree with Anna and Pavel that focus on emotions is crucial and it will help you to focus the task. I see a clear gender issue here and it allows you to take a look on gendered emotional appearance as perceived in two contexts. And also I can see a potential to discuss different form and content of PC discourse in Russia and in Israel. In both of them the manifestations of PC is a "translated" from the original American version. Please look for article of "New Ethics" in Russia, I will send you some as well, In Israel, there racism is in a way part of culture, there is another version of PC - and in both countries there is a very strong critique of this culture coming from different political positions. Looking forward to see what you find!