Post-Post-Modern Pop (1 of 5): The Goofy/Pluto Dilemma

This blog post is the first in a series of five on weird time wasting post-Post-modern dilemma's.  We start off with the Goofy/Pluto dilemma.


What I listened to while typing: Caribou - Odessa (check out the widget to the right ->)


I know a lot has been said on this issue (you're probably wondering if this is even an "issue" - Yes.  It is.).  So Goofy is a dog and Pluto is a dog.  Weird.  We get it.  It was probably just poor planning by the Imagineers.  There are a few things, though, that I wonder about.

Social Hegemony
The special relationship between human and dog is the ultimate display of man over animal (or something like that).  The special relationship between anthropomorphic dog and regular dog is just plain weird.  In that respect, Pluto's role in relation to Goofy isn't so much 'pet' as much as it would be 'slave', right (Disney s&m comes to mind)?


Now, if Pluto spoke to Goofy while he walked him, that would be too strange, wouldn't it?  Otherwise, their relationship isn't very weird unless you really think about it.  That says a lot about the way we view (or don't view) domination.  Yeah, I'm serious.  Mostly.

The least we can say is this: in the Disney universe all dogs are not created equal; basic rights are only afforded to dogs similar to Goofy.  This situation doesn't seem all that odd to us because it's actually rather familiar.  Given, we don't have other humans as pets (I don't know about you, but I don't), the dynamic between Goofy and Pluto is very similar to the basic dynamic of popular domination in the real world.

I know you're all cool about rights and stuff, like "human" rights and what not.  However, the Goofy/Pluto relationship reveals something sinister and nefarious (and evil and malicious (and odd and negative adjective worthy)).  Though we may all say "human" rights, what's really meant is "human (like us)".

You may say "Now, hold on a cotton-pickin' second, Danny"
and I'd say, "No, you hold on!  'Cotton-pickin''?!  That's my point exactly!"

In Goofy's world, all it takes to deny a character of inalienable rights is to deanthropomorphize it (or if you'd like a word that I didn't make up: dehumanize).  As long as Pluto isn't like Goofy, all is ship-shape in the Disneyland (or should I say dixieland?).

That's the tie to the real world (which may also aptly be called Disneyland).  To deny someone inalienable rights (and not start a riot) an/the establishment only needs to dehumanize a people.  The first instance that comes to mind is American slavery.  This was done in a very real way, when African-American's were not only dehumanized but were also commodified -  metamorphosed into products to be bought, sold, and owned.  Most American's were okay with not affording rights to these people - after all, in their minds they were a 'thing'.

Naturally, this was an extreme situation, but the subtleties can clearly get out of hand when addressing people that may be especially susceptible to this dehumanization.   These types of people are often also the most vulnerable,  such as children, the elderly, minorities, prisoners, those with mental disabilities, those with mental disorders, and so on.

It can be easy to subconsciously think of such persons as somehow "less-human".  We consider ourselves "typical" humans and such one's aren't very similar to us at all. They would somehow, deserve less rights and thus, be further exploited by the system that stripped them of dignity and rights.  It can all get out of hand real fast, or just stay under the surface of discernment and hand out oppression in subtleties.

Goofy, I'm ashamed of you.


Next: (2 of 5) The Blue Raspberry Dilemma.