Defending the Pride Lands and Marginalized Subjects: The Lion Guard as Progressive Pedagogy

ABSTRACT

In this essay, we analyze the animated television series The Lion Guard, which aired on Disney Junior, and illustrate how the text functions in progressive, counter-hegemonic ways. The text, we demonstrate, consistently stages queer and feminist politics through its character depictions, plot developments, and situational dialogue. Through progressive pedagogy, we argue, The Lion Guard invites the viewers to model a mode of citizenship that is inclusive in temperament, cooperative in practice, and sensitive to social justice.

KEYWORDS:

• Progressive pedagogy
• queer
• feminism
• disney
• youth
• the pride lands
• animation
• The Lion Guard

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. By youth culture we mean “practices that many [children], teenagers, and young adults draw on in the construction and display of their identities” (Bucholtz, 2000, p. 280).