Gonzaga University to host an event about whether Disney hit movie ‘Moana’ is really about rape

A professor at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, plans to host an event challenging students to analyze if Disney's "Moana" is actually about rape and not a strong young woman who saves her island from a curse.

What are the details?

Philosophy professor Danielle Layne has scheduled the event at the Catholic college on Thursday to discuss whether the film is about sexual assault. The event is jointly sponsored by the university's Women and Gender Studies and Native American Studies departments.

According to Campus Reform, Layne is set to argue that the "Western patriarchy" and "masculinity" at large attack "the feminine" through the environment and cultural differences.

The event will include a screening of the 2016 movie with a question-and-answer session to follow.

A newsletter obtained by the outlet boasts, "Layne will advance a controversial thesis wherein she suggests the film is an extended rape metaphor."

"Layne will ultimately also suggest that the film is Neocolonialist, i.e. it advances a new myth that scapegoats Maui, excusing Western culture from oppressing women, degrading the environment and erasing/murdering indigenous people," the newsletter adds.

What else?

In a statement, Layne told the outlet that the event is part of a monthly retrospective analyzing a variety of films.

"This particular Filmosophy is a bit of research as I am currently writing a pop culture piece on the film and so I am excited to see how all students, those who agree and disagree, respond to analyzing the movie," Layne explained.

One person not on board is Gonzaga College Republicans President Olivia Johnson.

“Why do we have to ruin a cute children's movie that was obviously not made with the greater metaphor of rape?" Johnson told the outlet in a statement of her own. "It seems as if this lecture is trying to find yet another way to blame the problems of the world on western civilization and the patriarchy."