By our age, we’ve all heard of the naughty things the Disney creators supposedly put into their films over the years, such as phallic shapes or scandalous phrases.

But did you know that some of the worst aspects of Disney films aren’t their little hidden gags, but instead things that aren’t really hidden much at all?

I’m talking about the fact that in every Disney film there are sexist and racist themes. Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m not here to bash on Disney films and demand that they be taken out of circulation.

I might not be a lifelong Disneyland pass-holder, but I treasure my childhood films and memories just as much as the next person, and I’ve been known to rock out to “Hakuna Matata” more times than is probably cool to say.

However, I think it’s important to realize that Disney films aren’t the perfect, ideal children’s movies that we make them out to be, for several reasons.

One major reason is that Disney movies perpetuate certain social stereotypes that were prevalent at the time the movies were made, or disseminate discriminatory attitudes that reveal social flaws we should be careful not to support.

Admittedly, countless other types of movies do these things as well, but, in the interest of brevity, this article is just going to focus on Disney films. Specifically, I’m going to examine the movies “Aladdin” and “Mulan.”

Now, I love examples because they always help me understand a concept better, so we’ll just jump into some examples to show you what I’m talking about.

First, let’s tackle sexism in the 1992 Disney movie “Aladdin.”

We all probably know the story, but a synopsis to spark your recollection wouldn’t hurt, right?

“Aladdin” is set in Agrabah (essentially India) and focuses on a “street rat” named (creatively) Aladdin, who falls in love with the princess Jasmine but is prevented from marrying her due to his low social status.

Jasmine is being forced to marry in order to assume the throne, and Aladdin uses his wits and the support of a magic genie (even more creatively named Genie) to pretend to be a wealthy king and woo Jasmine.

Aladdin is eventually found out, but Jasmine’s father decrees that Jasmine can marry whomever she wishes, regardless of social status, and Aladdin and Jasmine live happily ever after. There’s more to the story, including the machinations of an evil sorcerer named Jafar, but that’s not important right now.

So, moving on. Maybe I was a weird child, but one thing that always bothered me was that Jasmine apparently wasn’t allowed to rule her kingdom by herself, or maybe even at all. Yeah, it’s all well and good that she is able to marry Aladdin, the supposed love of her life, but if the sultan (her father) could simply change long-standing rules willy-nilly, couldn’t he just decree that she could rule without marrying?

Then, she could choose to marry Aladdin (like in the above picture) in her own time, but it would still not affect her power. In fact, I don’t even think there was a guarantee that Jasmine would have any ruling power.

Instead, the only fact that’s emphasized is that Aladdin will become the new sultan due to his marriage to Jasmine. So, maybe I’m a little sensitive, but I feel that’s all a tad discriminatory against women.

Now, that was a pretty obvious example of sexism, but I felt that it was an appropriately gentle lead-in.

Let’s go back to the evil sorcerer Jafar, the villain of “Aladdin,” and his relationship to race and racial stereotypes.

Jafar is portrayed as having an unnatural body and features: he is inhumanly skinny and tall, has hooded, slanted eyes, an exaggerated mouth, and a large, crooked nose. It’s not coincidence that his skin tone is also darker than all of the “good guys” (the sultan, Aladdin and Jasmine).

On the other hand, Aladdin and Jasmine have lighter skin and regular, symmetrical features such as large eyes, small lips and proportionate noses.

Clearly, there is a rather racist correlation being drawn between goodness and whiteness, as well as between evilness and dark skin.

Let’s continue onto some similar examples of racism in the 1998 movie “Mulan.”

The protagonist of “Mulan” is (appropriately) Mulan, a young Chinese woman who doesn’t exactly fit in, mostly because she isn’t jumping to get married like the other women in her village.

When the Chinese military begins to conscript men, including Mulan’s elderly father, to fight against the invading Hun army, Mulan pretends to be a man and takes her father’s place in the army.

She is eventually crucial in defeating the Huns and is rewarded by the emperor, acknowledged by her previously disapproving father, and asked out by her love interest, Shang.

I’ll start off with saying that “Mulan” is one of my favorite Disney movies, but there are undeniable racist undertones when comparing the Huns (historically either Mongolian or Turkish) and the Chinese characters such as Mulan, Shang and the emperor.

First, the Huns are portrayed with much darker skin tones than the Chinese soldiers. As you can see in the picture below, the Chinese soldiers and the emperor (the “good guys”) have a peach-y, almost Caucasian skin color, while the Huns have a significantly darker greyish-brown (or sometimes yellow-ish brown, depending on the scene) skin tone.

The Huns are also depicted with more stereotypically Asian features, such as smaller eyes and wider, flatter noses.

In addition, to emphasize their “otherness,” the Huns are also represented as extremely animal-like. For instance, the lead Hun, Shan Yu, has hands that more closely resemble paws than human fingers, he constantly sniffs the air like a dog, and the fact that he has black retinas with yellow pupils firmly establishes him as inhuman.

On the other hand, the “good guys” like Mulan and Shang have extremely light skin, small noses, larger eyes, regular hands, and educated, refined voices and vocabularies.

They’re obviously made to appear more familiar and approachable in many ways, and this reassuring quality is purposefully associated with whiteness in “Mulan.”

Anyway, now that I’ve rambled on for a thousand childhood-killing words about how Disney movies have some not-so-secret sexist and racist traits, I hope you’ve learned at least a little something.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t build a blanket fort and binge-watch Disney movies in alphabetical order, but just be aware that what you’re watching (and showing kids) isn’t all as innocent as it appears.