The new Beauty and the beast song

Listen it here.

Mulan song

Find it here.

Final blog

        So this is the final blog. There is a lot we have done this semester in Decoding Disney. Villainy and heroism, gender and racial equality are the major topics in the Disney Academia. Starting from the beginning of the semester, I enjoyed readings of Giroux and Haasen which presented unseen aspects of Disney for most of its consumers. Although I expected certain criticism of Disney, but the depth of research and the magnitude of Disney’s impact were out of my expectation.

        Disney is a power empire and it is getting stronger as we speak. It provides children entertainment which seems so pure and impeccable, but under close examination it is full of culture heritage that can be either beneficial or create prejudice in their opinions, claimed by majority of critics of Disney.

                                      

      Consumerism was also discussed in class. Being a major result of capitalistic society, critics argues that Disney is turning future generations of American into product of consumerism. This statement was interesting to me because it is hard to imagine any other life-styles besides consuming through money purchasing in society nowadays.

      We watched a series of Disney animation films ranging from the Beauty and the Beast to Frozen. The time lapse between these movies shows not only progression of Disney animation skills, but also of the ideologies that lie behind the movies. Racial equality, gender equality and ambiguity of villainy are certainly improvements presented in recent Disney films. It is hard to believe how much Disney improved in the past decades, and how much American society has been looking forward into diversity and equality.

       Disney is an enterprise that focuses on the interests of the majority. It is to their interest to maximize revenue by creating films that reinforces public opinions. As time passes, it is clear to see through Disney’s films that they follow the trend of society instead of breaking it. Its first South African princess film Moana, is a result of gradual equalization between races in US. Disney produces entertainment by creating a world of perfection and magic, will it gain as much success by challenging the currents of society? Definitely not. Disney is not the representation of righteousness, because neither is society. Everything in society is a mixed production of nature that consist unique characteristics.

        Equality is pursued by our society because we deem it a desirable quality; however, under different social structures people might have completely different opinions about equality. Some might argue that our democratic society is the best in the world, statistically speaking it certainly earns a lot of its fame; that is not saying it come without its own flaws.

                                  

           Disney has massive cultural power considering its impact toward children, and our course provided me with many information of it. Disney as a childhood memory might not seem so pure after all, but with a new layer of capitalism and social injustice. I appreciate all the scholars’ efforts in claiming their opinions on Disney which can result in positive progress in society and raise awareness of the existence of this film giant, that seems to become part of our identity long ago.
         Some of the Giroux article can be find here.

Let it go

Relax yourself before the final, everything is going to be fine. 

Some daily Disney Bazinga: Disney seeks new patent for soft robots playing characters

More information can be view here.
                                

Frozen movie review

Information about the movie can be viewed here.

Frozen was the first princess Disney movie that is memorized in my brain. I did not understand reasons behind its popularity and still remembered it had something to do with the ice bucket challenge.

                      

The visual effects in the movie is incredible, the scenery of the kingdom, princess Elsa's dress and ice castle are all stunning showcase in the movie. The music is gorgeous and brings a fresh taste of Disney's pursue of freedom. 

One thing I remembered clearly is that I could not identify the villain in Frozen the first time I watched the film. I can feel the villainy in prince Hans but not a significant one. He seemed like a decent guy who tries to rise in power but ultimately failed.  He has the intent to kill but princess Elsa also has such power when she used the ice magic in front of the public forming blades of ice that nearly hurt the guests. 

The movie is inconsistent sometimes. The development of side characters did not leave an impression to me or made much a difference in the film. The movie consists a lot of sub plots and takes a long time for them to converge.

The movie is unlike many other Disney’s princess movie, there are two princesses in the first place. The movie tries to make audience pay more attention toward Anna whose story is not very interesting, sometimes I find her childish arrogance does not actually accomplish what directors wished.

Interestingly there is also not much love relationship going on with Frozen’s male and female characters. There is no true chemical love, to say the least, besides the sister love between Elsa and Anna. It is an atypical Disney princess film that might invoke controversy.

I was never a devoted fan into Disney’s Princess movie, but I found the controversial discussion on Disney’s films interesting. The Han’s twist in the movie certainly confused a lot of audiences who are expecting Han to be the typical prince in a Disney film.

I appreciate Disney challenging its traditional love story and still manage to attract audiences and make the film a global phenomenon. Maybe that is the power of Disney magic.

                            

At this point I am still not quite sure the reason behind the feverish crowd. Maybe Disney has never made a snow princess before? But certainly parents were going to take some time to explain to their kids the reason behind Han’s betrayal.

While many claims Frozen to be the best animated movie of 2013. I have seen more enjoyable films for myself such as How to train your dragon. What is certain is that Disney really took different approaches in the film that is different from Disney Classic: there is no love interest, but has diversified story lines.

                        

One fundamental reason behind the controversy is that villainy in Frozen is not convincing and undesired by parents. There is no clear separation between good and evil but I have to give credit to Frozen for this confusion because it does represents the ambiguity of morality in real life even though the prince was condemned at the end of the story. 
(ps: Sorry this is not the best movie review, quite busy this weekend with 5000 words due, while that is college right :D)

TRON reboot expectation

I loved the tron movie when I watched it years ago with its amazing visuals, but now I am more excited for the reboot. Speculations can be viewed here.                                                                                                               

News on Avatar parks opening speculation

The park might open early, more be viewed Here!

Response on Hastings' article

 More information about the film can be viewed here.
 This week we had the pleasure of reading and discussing an interesting conference article written by Waller Hastings on Disney’s movie Pocahontas. The movie was under controversial criticism by many critics arguing it being a positive or negative portrayal of American history and Native American.

                                     

 Hasting argues in the article that although Disney claimed Pocahontas is its first historically accurate film, there exists a lot of transformation and distortion that contradict Disney’s claims. It is important for audiences to understand these differences and the power of Disney.

  

  Hastings is able to create strong arguments in his writing, including finding contradictions in Disney’s claims. For example, the exaggeration in visual scenery and changes in main characters’ ages are the opposite of Disney’s “research” of Virginia and characters’ in the history.

     

    In fact, Hasting believes that the story of Pocahontas has become a legendary tale that has multiple versions of story instead of factual depictions of historical events. Disney’s effort in portraying the event as “correctly” as possible is itself an inefficient approach. Furthermore, Disney emphasis on their effort of truthfulness, though genuine, is laughable for many critics.                                                                                                              

   

   When the motivation of a company is to create entertainment and make money, accuracy is not part of audiences’ expectation and that is why Disney was able to escape many criticism by setting the background story of a movie to “ a kingdom far away”. However, Disney entered a dangerous realm when it tried to create extra attraction for consumers who care for history. In that case it will be the parents who want their children to get educational benefit.

   The motives behind Disney for the creation of Pocahontas can be diverse: make the movie more educational, create racial equality…etc In the end, children will not remember the history but only the Pocahontas Disney presented to them. As many critics claims, Disney has the responsibility to be educational and accurate, I doubt it will ever be part of the standard in film industry. Externality, or side-effects, created by Disney’s films on children can be influential but in the current system there is no way of quantifying the influence nor judging the minor mistakes Disney has made in its movie.

After all, Disney is doing its best to attract customers to buy its product. Although the majority of consumers in late 20^th century might be white population, as the income gap decreases Disney will concern more for critics’ claim and others raising ethical group consumers. It is a sad way to put it, but in the business world, the so called “moral high ground’ is not always advantageous.

     Thus, Disney, critics and consumers all play roles in social progression. Folks in Disney are part of society and if the society is racially biased, how can people in them not be? To ask Disney to change is to ask society to change. The problem is that younger children who are watching Disney movies might not understand the underlying messages in them, and the traditional biased trend can carry for a while in media and it is our job to correct the trends and create progress.

Disney Animal kingdom Pandora

Video link is here, looks amazing!

24th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival

Disney new festival, come check it out!

Aladdin movie review

 

For people reading the blog that have not watched the movie, which is probably very few, here is a quick summary of the plot. Aladdin lives in the city of Agrabah, who has to steal food to survive. After freeing the lamp and three wishes granted, the evil force arrives and Aladdin needs to save his love, Princess Jasmine and an adventure unfolds.

Aladdin is considered an all-time Disney Classic and it deserves such title. The music and humor in the movie provides wonderful entertainment toward children. Brilliant performance by individuals in the movie such as Robin Williams makes characters extremely entertaining to watch.

               However, racial generalization in the film passes right through the heads of audiences without realizing its potential implications. Aladdin as an early Disney production does exhibit traits of racism. In the song “: Oh, I come from a land From a faraway place Where the caravan camels roam. Where they cut off your ear If they don't like your face It's barbaric, but hey, it's home.” Critics have continually blamed Disney for demonizing races in its earlier productions and Aladdin is one that takes a lot of the heat. The New York Times countered Disney and said, “To characterize an entire region with this sort of tongue-in-cheekbigotry, especially in a movie aimed at children, borders on barbaric.”

                This conflict is saddening because Disney produces goods that attract the public. Back in 1992, racism is still a social trend that could not be easily broken off. Instead of saying Disney is the one to blame, the public itself should improve as a whole because Disney is not an advanced philosophical palace; it is not a world that contains all truth; it is, however, a reflection of populism. Even at present day, audiences hardly realize the stereotypical depictions in the movie, instead, they remembered them as a childhood movie that provided happiness and joy.

               Although Disney may not be completely at fault, I am not denying that such criticism is necessary and much needed for American public to realize the underlying racism in movies, books and memories. In fact, Disney is never perfect even though the corporation tries the hardest to please the public. Even so, Disney hardly acknowledge their potential mistakes, but decorate their creations as wonderlands with purity. In marketing perspective, yes, it is good for business. But when the imaginary bubbles break in front of their consumers, the consequences can be influential.

               Over the past decades Disney has improved tremendously in its stand on racism. With the new Moana movie with the first South African princess as protagonist and upcoming reboot of Mulan, Disney is taking huge steps on following up the social trends that push for racial and gender equality. And it is our job as the public to let Disney realize that the public wants stories of globalization and equality of races, genders and sexuality instead of hierarchical and biased tales.

               Overall, I enjoyed the movie and admittedly, the racist propaganda is indeed easy to get into audiences’ mind. The humor and the addictive soundtrack were enough to make me whistle along through the movie. 

             Further information about Aladdin can be viewed here.

Beauty and the beast review

Happy spring break everyone!
Although the movie is not released in most cinema yet, my favorite movie reviewer on Youtube has already watched it and given it a wonderful review. If interested, come check it out!
                               

A Whole New World

Get ready for life animated Aladdin with this classic song!

Disney blog post on Logan

SPOIL ALERT:

This past weekend I stayed in my friend’s home at Philadelphia. The weather was incredibly cold even though I lived in Connecticut for four years, maybe it was I travelled a lot during the past two days. I visited university of Pennsylvania and University of Drexel, not really a campus for either one, but I enjoyed their facilities.                                                                                                                                                        

Now I just got back to New York, staying in my friend’s dorm in NYU. Cozyyy. Besides eating good foods, I enjoyed the new Marvel movie, Logan. As a Marvel fan, the ending chapter of wolverine starring Hugh Jackson was something that went beyond the simple identification of hero from traditional Marvel standpoint.

I really appreciated the ambiguity of heroes in the film as they condemned themselves in the movie because of their behaviors. Professor X is characterized as a criminal because of his brain instability, and when the seizure happened in the mall, professor was beyond desperate by his unintentional killing of several innocents. Wolverine claimed that hero did not exist to his daughter and said to others” You don’t know me.” His deny of heroism was presented in his film as he faced many plights: between saving Professor X or the girl, saving the group of Children or take the money and leave.

All the options Logan chose were self-serving and saddening in the film, which is the general tone of the film. However, the villains in the movie can be easily identified and the reasons behind are not very sounded. The reason behind them is to create human weapons in the 22th century with super human abilities. It is hard to believe such weapon is needed or even powerful enough to stand against modern weapons. The ultimate “weapon” in the movie is a clone of the younger wolverine that can be easily put down by a driving vehicle or firepower.                                                                                                                         

Though failed in creating great villains, this movie presented a fantastic and refreshing view of the marvel universe, where there is no fairy tale or imagery sanctuary, but only people who have incredible persistence and hopeful spirit that compel them to achieve something extraordinary.

Logan is not a typical Disney or Marvel film. Its story-telling is both realistic and artistic. In finding the imagery safe-haven “Eden” for the girl, Wolverine’s viewpoint of the world changed as he realized that dreams can happen as long as people put sweat and blood into the ideals.

The candle of hope was transferred from the older generation of X men to the youngsters, who were able to escape from the cruelty of the weapon corporation and begin new lives. The sacrifice in the movie was immense as all the well-known X-men faded into history. Logan, in many way, is a combination between Manchester by the sea, and Rogue One. Family, sacrifice, hope are all important element in the film and it deepens the messages.                                                                                                            

I enjoyed Logan very much even with its flaws. It reflexes progress Marvel and Disney are making in their film production. They not only provide an entertainment in these films but also input critical moral values that are important for society. 

More information can be viewed here, the film is quite bloody and tragic overall, but I would absolutely recommend this movie. 

The Lion King Song

Time to enjoy some lion king song before the reboot!
Listen here, the Circle of Life.

Beauty and the Beast controversy

Some progress are made in Disney production on LGBT community, but it can be a set back because Disney is setting the Villain as a gay character. More can be seen here,

Bon Voyage Breakfast at Disney's BoardWalk

Looks like a great cast performance! More can be find here.

Disney's Elephant experience

Disney opened "Caring for Giants" experience for animal kingd
om, come and check it out!

                                

Transgender villain

           Although villains in Disney comes from different imaginations, they always have similar characteristics and appearance: harmful, deviant appearances, and abnormal actions. However, many similarities are under the same category, transgender behavior.

           As Putnam stated in Mean Ladies, many Disney villains exhibit transgender identities, or lack of gender identifications. For example, Anastasia in Cinderella as a young lady seems over masculine with her large feet and lady Tremaine’s facial features and behaviors mark her as both unfeminine as well as unmotherly.

                                     

                 Sometimes, females that are overly feminine are also marked as villains. Ursula in the Little mermaid is an example of overly feminist with large breasts and abnormal body appearances.

                                 

          However, male characters that are overly masculine are rarely criticized in Disney’s films. In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast is portrait as a character that is a hero in its heart; however, such quality does not apply to female over-feminist characters. One may conclude that sexism is at present in early Disney’s films.

I found Putnam’s passage to be effective and her viewpoint seems unique to me. Her analysis on Disney villains is able to identify the ill relationship between gender identity and morality. I am surprised at how clear Putnam showcased Disney’s strategy in villain building and it certainly brought a refresh experience to me.

            Do I blame that Disney characterized villain as people who have transgender identity? It is a hard question to answer because transgender is a minority in society and for Disney it just seems to be the easiest way to signal audiences who the identification of characters in movies. Human are based on value appreciation from society and the more qualities that are similar, the easier to be appreciated. On the other side, minority identity group are not at advantage in modern society because they have less in common with the majority.

                             

            I can understand Disney’s motives behind its approaches, but they do not necessarily present accurate messages. People have different genetics and Disney’s ideal of perfection is a misleading information for younger generation. As Putnam discussed, creating villains that are based on heroines is irresponsible. Even more, with constant reinforcements, such messages will eventually become a natural reflexes for audiences not only in movie watching but also in real world interactions.

            However, Disney is an enterprise that focuses on the interests of the majority. It is to their interest to maximize revenue by creating films that reinforces public opinions. As time passes, it is clear to see through Disney’s films that they follow the trend of society instead of breaking it. Its first African princess film Moana, is a result of gradual equalization between races in US. Disney produces entertainment by creating a world of perfection and magic, will it gain as much success by challenging the currents of society?

                     

               It is hard to break off a negative moral spiral, and it is even more so when financial interests are involved. Disney has massive cultural power considering its impact toward children and its earlier recipes of villains should be carefully amended to entertain and instruct younger audiences. And base on its recent progression, I am certain that Disney is able to achieve this goal.

               Information on new Disney movie can be seen here, and let us hope that Disney can constantly improve its message toward the youth

Cinderella(1950): A classic film for now and always

          As one of the most beloved animated Disney films in 1950, Cinderella has left a deep impression for me. I watched the reboot of Cinderella a few years ago and it is hard to believe the 1950s had such amazing visual designs. The stylings of Cinderella produced by Mary Blair gave such a magical, dreamlike quality that makes me engage into the movie.
                             

          Although it did not have the most realistic ideology,

"No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true",

         the story itself is instrumental for children’s development and being optimistic is helpful in dealing with situations.

         As a wonderful and almost flawless tale, Cinderella’s small characters such as Bruno the dog, Lucifer the Cat and especially Gus the mouse certainly added an element to the beloved story.

          The wonderful music and sounding in the movie helped to evoke audiences’ emotions and affection to certain characters.

          The usage of color contrast between villains(step mother, the cat) and Cinderella is decisive and can easily create character stereotypes as the bright and dark side of the story.

           I appreciated the brilliant animation, the clever plot turns and humors. The animation is very well done, and brings me right into the scene with characters. The animation also does well portraying the styles of the backgrounds, at Cinderella’s home and the grand ballroom of the kingdom. The humor from the mice is a fundamental element in the movie that was one of the spotlight in the film

The movie is not made for accurate depictions, but to bring audiences into the life of Cinderella and see her lovely characteristics and cheerful spirit even in miserable situations.               
                                

          Something about this movie just evokes the magic of Disney. And it was the reason behind further successes in Disney’s films.

Although I do not find Cinderella as my style of movie, I can see why it had been such a popular children film in the past half a century and continues to be an ever-lasting tale.

        However, Disney’s films might seemed slightly redundant, where female characters were always saved by male protagonists. Although Cinderella is an optimistic, hard-working and loving lady, she is not able to escape from her living condition and continues to be tormented by her step mother until the Magic of old lady saved her.

       The unrealistic side of magic showed the fact that women at that time period were still not strong enough to make a difference for themselves and these messages can be viewed as biased; however, it is an accurate description of women in 1940s where they required the support from men.

        As magical as it seemed, Cinderella is still a product of the decade and cannot escape some of the biases. However, Disney’s magic is constantly evolving and its movies nowadays have much more dynamic within the women characters.

         Cinderella is definitely a classic animation that fully represented Disney’s values in its production: fun, idealistic, and fantasy-like wonderment, its goals are to attract, inspire, and entertain youngsters while bring them into a fantasy land where hope and magic are essential parts of the universe. And the magic remained in many peoples’ hearts.

James Earl Jones and Donald Glover to Star in Live-Action Remake of “The Lion King”

The remake of 'The Lion King" will be legendary with these two incredible singers.
More information is here.

Rivers of the light

Disney's animal kingdom just had a beautiful night time event called "Rivers of the light". The scenes were stunning. For more pictures click here.

Comparasion between Hiaasen and Giroux

           Hiaasen and Giroux, two iconic critics of Disney, have very different approaches in terms of evaluating the "evil" deeds of Disney and I found both writing styles to be very thoughtful and entertaining. People may prefer one over the other, and the reason behind it is the drastic difference between authors' intended audiences. 

           The audiences, Giroux wanted to reach are probably people who value a critical analysis of Disney. Giroux is able to present the broad picture of Disney and many negative effects of other multimedia corporations. He provides logical reasoning against the norm of praising Disney's entertainments, sometimes using statistical facts and sometimes in discussions of Disney's social responsibility.

                                                          

           Although some languages in Giroux's articles have a spice in them, the majority of the passages are objective to the point with a critical view of capitalism market structure.

           Hiaasen, on the other hand, perhaps hoped for audiences who would enjoyed a good laugh or a chill down the spine. He viewed Disney in a much closer perspective.

           Instead of condemning on the capitalism itself, Hiaasen provides his own fascinations of Disney combining with facts. Using descriptive wordings, Hiaasen presented a vivid presentation of how Disney shaped the United States, if not the world.                                  

           Many examples in the book Team Rodent are author's first-hand experience with Disney, and these instances bring proximity to reveal the Disney Hiaasen has in mind: a self-evolving and expanding mouse that slowly rules the world in every possible angles. Examples of security team chasing teenagers, investigation on actors' backstage and invitation of journalist to Disney Land reflex just how powerful and omnipotent Disney can be. 

          Of course, wordings in the book are meant to attract audiences’ attention and trigger their emotions, but these event are indeed accurate which is even more repulsive to think about.

           Although their intended readers are different, two authors are excellent in expressing their own believes. However, sometimes opinions in the readings are too biased which are hard to follow with furious storms of attack on Disney. Maybe I might not be the intended reader after all.

          Both authors have strong arguments and I appreciate their efforts in evaluating the issues they perceive in Disney. One of many factors both writers mentioned in their articles is the lack of governmental regulation which is a fundamental reason behind “accidents” happened in Disney.

          As mentioned in Team Rodent, state government granted almost every wish of Disney. If it were other corporations making deals with government, I can imagine how difficult it will be for them to gain such a favor. Perhaps Disney’s camouflage is really working to gain itself advantage over bargains.

          After all, I find both writing styles efficient in their own manner and audiences can have their preferences as well. Giroux’s writing style is suiting for me because of its logical criticism are clear and dynamic. In addition, it dives in many fundamental issues we face in America nowadays such as the rising online social platforms and spreading fever of consumerism toward children.

Disney earnings quarterly release

        It seems that Disney earning declined about 3% from previous year's earnings. But I am sure that the new movie such as Guardian of the galaxy 2 and avengers will strength Disney's current position.
       More information can be viewed here.

Avengers infinity war "first look"release!!!

       

After 10 years of continual development of marvel heroes, it comes to this grand moment where guardians of the galaxy, spider man, and many other hero franchises joining together to fight for the survival of this universe. I am beyond excited after seeing the magnitude of collaborations and it will be my most anticipated movie of 2018.
         The trailer can be viewed here.

       Star Wars 8: the Last Jedi is going to be released on December 15, 2017. Even though it did not feel that Star Wars 7 was out two years ago, The energy from the new characters will defnitely carry this franchise much further.

    After Marvel was purchased by Disney, the movie production quality has gone out of the roof. The up-coming film, Guardian of the galaxy, will be released on May, 5th, 2017. Guardian of the Galaxy is one of my favorite Marvel film and expect of it highly. Other great movies from Marvel are coming out as well, you can see the list here.

Response post to Giroux article (Aug, 21, 2011)

          Henry Giroux, a well-known critic of Disney company, composed a well-crafted article in counter Disney's marketing agressive strategy and its role in society, especially its impact on children. The article can be viewed here. However, I am not in accord with many of his ideologies.

       
         First of all, Giroux's work is admirable. He attempted to explore the core issues facing today's children education and their role in society. Major influence of children comes from the massive multimedia corporations nowadays, as he claimed in the article.
       
       Giroux also believed that, Disney, as the leading corporation in youth market,  has created large impact in children's development and understanding of the world. In addition, these influence are highly tided toward consumerism, which is not to the best interest for children. He also criticized the segregation of public goods and many other effects of corporation culture. 

     
      I agree with Giroux that corporations like Disney has a large influence on children, but they are not necessarily bad impacts nowadays. As Disney as a corporation developed, it learned a lot of  mistakes and progressed in ideologies it spreads. From the 1950s racism and gender theme, Disney is able to expand and spread much more diverse and liberal messages.
   
     However, Disney did not spread these topics because it believed they are good messages. Disney is simply the reflection of its current popular culture. To maximize its profit, Disney needs to follow the spontaneous public opinions. It is not Disney's responsibility to be the forerunner of ideas. Their targets are youth population, and in order to attract their attention, Disney focuses on " what works" instead of "what will work".
   
      I do not see Disney intention as good or bad, but simply it follows the principle to survive as a entertainment corporation: to follow public taste. Without such connection with the majority, Disney will never able to come back from bankrupt situation in the 80s, and the corporation certainly learned its lesson.

     As a corporation in one of the most capitalism state, Disney is doing almost everything right. The problem is not of Disney, but the system of capitalism itself. Capitalism does not value social responsibility or impacts caused by individual action. As corporation like Disney might create after-effects, it is the time and place where government needs to step in and regulate on the extend of the impact.
     
     As Giroux pointed out, Disney subconsciously promotes consumerism to children through its marketing tactics. According to the current regulations and laws, Disney is not violating any rules, but in ethical grounds Disney might create negative impact to children.
   
      The lack of analysis and action from government contributes greatly toward this problem. And U.S government is much more problematic than Disney's, where interest groups can impediment or push laws to their advantages, government simply will not act, and subtle tactics like Disney's is far below convincing evidences that signal governments to step in. 

     
       The problems Giroux raises are very subtle to catch as they relates to topics surrounding human morality, which is very hard to define what is acceptable. Problem of Disney is a large part of a much gigantic and deep-rooted problem that lies in many capitalism states structure. And this problem will persist just as humanity constant struggle in developing a fair and equal society.