Across the myths of identity, the self- and gender identity could be defined since people’s childhood though multi-media to the world is the central concern of cultural industries such as Disney (Wohlwend 2012; Allan 1999; Xu and Tian 2013; Belkhyr 2012; 2013; Kozinets 2001). Wohlwend (2012) suggests that the brains of children digest the identities information early on in their lives. Children thus would follow and learn what they see, then the identities would also developed, sometimes with imagination. Take, for example, the dreams creating-cultural industry – Disney. Disney make the use of modern communication technologies to control its external brand image from their consumers specially children. Individualism would be taken as always …show more content…
Therefore, Disney would convey the particular messages, concepts or ideas or beliefs into people brain from any age especially children though the form of a sound-image association. Yet, Kozinets (2001) indicates that it may burring of fantasy and reality though mass media consumption. Disney might cause a risk to human to distinguish between the fantastic and the real. Some people may argue that the human beings are born with a set of sexual organs and body which is shaped by hormones. However, to ‘be girl’ or ‘be boy’ could be imagined or idealised as consumer expectations and the actual experience of consumption, individual would allow current idealised state of being by the current society (Martens 2009; Campbell …show more content…
Applying ‘reader response theory’ in this case, Ritson and Elliott (1999) finds that the audiences would tend to be role that mass-communicated in the lives. Disney uses the Princess products (such as costumes, glittery seashell jewellery and make-up kits) to make the children could able to ‘be Princess’ and share their happiness with the interpretations to other girls. The consumer desires to a romantic ethic of fantasising could be a motivation for the feature of ‘myself as I could be’ (Belk, Ger and Askegaard 1996: 368) is that desire consumer themselves pleasurable. The desire could be shared and constituted interpretations of romance literature to build and strengthen culturally in the social group, or the women audience of the soap opera used their interpretations as a conversational resource with other members of audience. The toy from cultural industry could show the construction and repetition of a ‘hegemonic masculinity’ and ‘emphasized femininity’. Two separate gender roles would be created and maintained as the images of Hero and Princess. Subjectivities would be socially constructed subject positions through global discourses within particular situations (Karen, 2012). Even so, gender stereotypes could be pervasive and persistent in children’s play (Blaise, 2005; Boldt, 2002).The gendered
Media is a powerful agent in entertaining children. It also influences and teaches the youth of society the suitable and appropriate gender roles that they inevitably try to make sense of. The power of media is very influential especially in the minds of the youth. Disney movies target the youth and plant certain ideas and concepts about social culture into the vulnerable minds of children. Media uses gender to its advantage, just like Disney productions. Humorous caricatures reveal some harsh realities about the portrayal of Disney Princesses in many movies made by the Walt Disney Company. Disney mixes innocence with the ultimate form of fantasy to capture an audience. Predominantly, Disney helps highlight the gender roles by showing the audience simply what they want to see. In the attempt to stick to the norm and portray stereotypical female characters, Disney created Princesses. Presented as damsels in distress and inferior beings to men, Disney Princesses give children an inaccurate portrayal of gender roles at a young age. Through Disney’s social success and intriguing films, such as The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast, Disney Princess movies portray stereotypical representation of gender roles through the denigration of the female image, targeting and ruining the perception of youth today.
Some individuals, like Monika Bartyzel, argue that princess culture sets boundaries for what is considered feminine or princess-like. Arguments against princess culture suggest that companies like Disney have a responsibility to young consumers and that they need to extend their reach outside of gender roles. Meanwhile, individuals, such as Crystal Liechty, counter-argue that princess culture is not entirely negative. Arguments for princess culture suggest that the negative effects produced by the Disney princess franchise are an over-exaggeration because gender roles are presented in various forms. Whether it is for better or for worse, princess culture has impacted the lives of numerous people in the past. Thus, provided the evidence of this trend, princess culture is sure to play a role in lives of many individuals for generations to
A little girl sits on the floor with her gaze fixed on the television screen in front of her, watching magical images dance before her eyes and catchy songs flow through her ears. Even though she had seen it at least twenty times before, she still loved The Little Mermaid just as much as she did the first time she watched it. As she watched it, she longed to be a beautiful mermaid with a curvy body and wonderful singing voice like Ariel. She longed to be saved by the handsome Prince Eric, and fall in love and live happily ever-after like Ariel did. In today’s society, women strive to achieve equality between the sexes. Despite the tremendous steps that have been taken towards reaching gender equality, mainstream media contradicts these accomplishments with stereotypes of women present in Walt Disney movies. These unrealistic stereotypes may be detrimental to children because they grow up with a distorted view of how men and women interact. Disney animated films assign gender roles to characters, and young children should not be exposed to inequality between genders because its effect on their view of what is right and wrong in society is harmful to their future.
Society cements certain roles for children based on gender, and these roles, recognized during infancy with the assistance of consumerism, rarely allow for openness of definition. A study conducted by Witt (1997) observed that parents often expect certain behaviors based on gender as soon as twenty-four hours after the birth of a child. The gender socialization of infants appears most noticeably by the age of eighteen months, when children display sex-stereotyped toy preferences (Caldera, Huston, & O’Brian 1989). This socialization proves extremely influential on later notions and conceptions of gender. Children understand gender in very simple ways, one way being the notion of gender permanence—if one is born a girl or a boy, they will stay that way for life (Kohlberg 1966). “According to theories of gender constancy, until they’re about 6 or 7, children don’t realize that the sex they were born with is immutable” (Orenstein 2006). The Walt Disney Corporation creates childhood for children worldwide. “Because Disney are such a large media corporation and their products are so ubiquitous and wide spread globally, Disney’s stories, the stories that Disney tell, will be the stories that will form and help form a child’s imaginary world, all over the world, and that’s an incredible amount of power, enormous amount of power” (Sun). Because of the portrayal of women in Disney films, specifically the Disney Princess films, associations of homemaker, innocence, and dependence are emphasized as feminine qualities for young children. Thus, children begin to consider such qualities normal and proceed to form conceptions of gender identity based off of the movies that portray the very specific and limiting views of women (...
Throughout many fairytales, Cinderella more evidently, there is the stigma of male roles and female roles. The man is the prince, the knight in shining armor, the strong protector and able provider, and the woman is the princess. Dainty and innocent, weak and capable only of looking pretty, fostering children and maintaining appearances of house and home. These roles of placement have been around long before fairy tales, and they’ll be around long after fairy tales, but the inclusion of these roles through characters in fairy tales does nothing but enforce the idea that this is the way things are meant to be, and women who do not assume these roles are wrong and unworthy. In her article, Orenstein refers to Cinderella as “the patriarchal oppression of all women”, and she is exactly right (Orenstein “What’s wrong with Cinderella?”). The impression left of these gender stereotypes travels off the pages of the fairy tale and into the real world when studies show that there is a “23% decline in girls’ participation in sports and other rigorous activity … has been linked to their sense that athletics is unfeminine” (Orenstein “What’s wrong with Cinderella?”). The blatant disregard for equality in these stories can be summed up with a term Orenstein coined, “relentless resegregation of childhood”, which ultimately defines what it means to be a boy or a girl in the terms of set behaviors and life duties (Orenstein “What’s wrong with Cinderella?”). Whether it be Cinderella or any other princess, the fairy tale business makes it a point to create a place for women with their stories, and unfortunately that “place” is demeaning and still practiced
Many philosophers and psychologist from Jean Piaget to William James have theorized what makes a person who they are, their identity. Jean Piaget believed that the identity is formed in the sensorimotor stage and the preoperational stage. This means that a child is forming his identity as late to the age of seven (Schellenberg, 29) However, identity is strongly impacted by society such as school, church, government,and other institutions. Through our interactions with different situations our personality develops (Schellenberg 34). "In most situations there is a more diversified opportunity for the development of social identities, reflecting what the individual wants to put forth to define the self as well as what others want to accept,"(Schellenberg 35). Therefore, humans, much like animals, adapt to different situations based on who they are with. Individuals are always changi...
Considering that, by viewing a Walt Disney film, they will alter their perspective as a result of identifying themselves as being similar to a princess. The unrealistic tale of Walt Disney films motivates children to act in a different way. In these issues we tend to investigate the perception of children towards viewing the films. As well as identifying themselves with specific fictional characters shown in Walt Disney films. Furthermore, we can discern the different emotions of female children within viewing it.
Disney has made it his life 's goal to create home entertainment for both young and old. From the creation of Mickey to his work in films, Disney had made it clear that happiness is something that everyone should have. Disney had also know that animations is not just for the imagination of the children. Early movies such as Snow White and Pinocchio have clear messages for the younger views. “In Snow White- the main characters are victims of injustice who are eventually restored to their rightful place. In Pinocchio, the characters Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket and Geppetto are faced with dilemmas, and their own actions result in them becoming victims of ev...
Disney princesses are fun for all ages, but their target audience is young children and “as children grow and develop, they can be easily influenced by what they see and hear”. Therefore, what they see and hear in Disney movies leaves an impression on them. The first princess, Snow White, was created in a time where each gender and race had a specific role in society. Recently, many believe that Disney has come a long way in regards to gender and race since Snow White, as several multi-cultural protagonists have been introduced subsequently, and gender roles do not appear to be as stereotypical as they once were. However, many of the apparent innocent messages about race and gender in these movies, can be exposed as otherwise. Despite their mask of progression, Disney princesses still have the potential to corrupt the minds of young children through sexism and racism.
Zipes, along with other scholars such as Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan, authors of the book Deconstructing Disney, explore and catalogue the various ways in which Walt Disney-the man-and Disney-the corporation that is his legacy-perpetuate social figurations of race, gender and ethnocentrism through they films they produce. They furthermore critique Disney for reducing fairy tales to over-simplified, over-sanitized and over-sentimentalized banalities designed solely as a profit-generating products. Such analyses prove to be truly important work, as the socio-cultural ideas propagated by Disney, as well as the means by it executed such propagation prove key in unlocking the messages that are sent through seemingly harmless "entertainment". As Zipes keenly point out,
Media plays a bigger role in influencing children’s identity. The media plays an important role in constructing ideology. However, most of the time what is produced in the media is mirroring what is already happening in the society, in other words mirroring reality. When children tend to see the same image and representation happening on television over and over again, they will become familiar with that identity (USC Anneberg, 2013) and it will spark a stereotypical thinking in them. By examining the portrayal of identity in the princesses will enable us to see that the portrayal of identities are not natural.
The debate over the good and bad aspects of Disney movies has been going on for years. It has become a part of pop culture in a way never expected through things such as YouTube videos and meme’s. While looking at multiple Disney movies may give a wider range of example of both the good and the bad in Disney movies, to help depict the effects the movies actually have on kids it is most beneficial to study just one movie. Zia’s essay argues that Disney movies have a good influence on children by teaching them good life morals. However, one of her examples, Mulan, is not an example of achievement through hard work like Zia explains, but rather a change made through magic, and example of the horrible historical inaccuracies made in Disney movies and the lack of parental respect that they teach children.
In today’s modern age, young children are being raised by their TV screen. Reining from the original tales of Perrault and the Grim Brothers, the Disney princess line has been a staple on the screens since the 1930s (Do Rozario 1). However, these princesses have gone through dramatic changes to remain relevant to todays youth. The effects that can be influenced by the roles expressed in these types of films send mixed messages to the audience, causing them to ask themselves whether or not they should believe what the princess is expressing on the screen.
Towbin. M. A. et al. (2008). Images of gender, race, age, and sexual orientation in Disney
Disney and old fairytales threaten gender politics and ideal women roles by giving certain stereotypes for domestic and personality traits. Fairytales that have turned into Disney productions have sculpted domestic roles for women that consist of cooking, cleaning and caring for the children. Disney has also created these princesses with personalities that are shy, passive, and vulnerable. The cause of these stereotypes are making individuals obliterate their own identities and becoming clones from the mold that was prepared for