daughter-mother relationships, with the mature adversary acting as a wicked maternal substitute, simultaneously erasing the mother and replacing her with a negative image' (Do Rozario, 2004, p.41). This could suggest that once the evil femme fatale has been stripped of her powers, her importance is reduced and a prince has substituted her in the princesses’ life. This results in the princess still being passive but now under the control of a prince rather than the powerful evil stepmother.
To juxtapose the Wicked Queens tall and mighty appearance, Snow White has a slim, hourglass figure with pale skin and a petite frame. Alike, the contrast between Cinderella and Aurora compared to their evil other further enhances the good versus evil message that allows the audience to side with good over evil. Cinderella and Aurora are both portrayed as beautiful women with small waists who are kind, good mannered and innocent who passively accept their fate.
It could be argued that in Disney’s first era of films women are seen as objects rather than human beings. As mentioned, the female protagonist awaits her fate from the prince to live a happy ending. This promotes that women do not need to fend for themselves due to someone coming to rescue them, enforcing a powerless stereotype. ‘Since women were leading the war effort at home and managing entire households and companies on their own, few would easily of readily identify with the passive damsel awaiting her prince’ (Stover, 2013, p.2). Snow White is a stereotypical homemaker, she caters to the dwarfs every need, never complaining and staying obedient. When put under a spell by the evil Queen, Prince Charming must kiss her in order to break the spell and free her from this life. The sa...
... middle of paper ...
... theorists, including historians and scientists, started to analyse women in terms of their appearance and how concepts of femininity had changed over the years. Prior to this era, trends towards contemporary femininity appeared to embody cultural attitudes concerning adult females. It could be argued that as viewpoints in society were changing about women and they were gaining independence and trying to increase equality, that in Sleeping Beauty, Disney were attempting to ‘retain traditional ideals of femininity whilst speaking to a changing generation’ (Stover, C, 2013, p.2). There is a thirty year gap between the release of Sleeping Beauty in 1959 and the next princess film The Little Mermaid in 1989. Thus, there appears to be a correlation of passive princesses during a time of society upheaval and changes for women’s equality and the absence of princess films.
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and many other Disney movies all have one thing in common, they feature a female lead who needs a male figure to save them. However, things started to change after the release of Mulan in 1988. Movies that were only representing female leads as weak and always needed to rely on someone, started to feature females who showed off their more masculine side. Mulan was one of the first animated films that had started to dive into that, not to mention it was based on a true story, making it even more powerful. In the article “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Pixar/Disney”, authors Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden explore Pixar movies show male characters who were not afraid to show their emotions
Although Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” published in 1837, contains many patronizing nineteenth-century attitudes towards women, a value system that at least acknowledges the legitimacy of femininity shapes the fairytale. Unfortunately, Walt Disney’s 1989 film version of “The Little Mermaid” eliminates the values that affirm femininity in the original story (Trites 145)
We can see that throughout the making of Disney movies the gender images have not evolved to match the changes in our society now, they have stayed stereotypical and similar to when Disney movies were first made in 1937 (Towbin et al 2003). In studies of 16 different Disney movies Mia Towbin (2003) and others
...llier-Meek. "Gender Role Portrayal And The Disney Princesses." Sex Roles 64.7/8 (2011): 555-567. OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson). Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
What does it mean to be a classic princess? The Princesses Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Belle all have a few of the same things in common. People have referred to these princesses as “Sugar Cookie Style” Princesses “They are a lot like sugar cookies: sparkly, white, and too sweet for their own good.(#5) The normal “Sugar cookie eyes” are unrealistically big about the size of golf balls. Whatever room or lighting the princesses may be the size of their pupils never change unlike normal humans. Disneys reason for huge eyes is so the princesses look more child-like in the movies instead of having more natural eyes. The size of the classic princesses head is bigger than the rest of her tiny waisted body. Bodies of the classics are slim with medium perky boobs and a defined waist. No muscles or hips appear on these petite princesses unlike an actual woman. The size of their feet and hands are considered to be the size of toddl...
This is because children tend to be the major audience of Disney films. The author’s main claim is that typical stereotyped gender roles of Disney’s princess films has evolved from 1937 of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to the most recent film, The Princess and the Frog released in 2009. Princes and the princesses, the main characters of the films in the past were depicted as they were more fit into the stereotyped gender roles: princes tended to be more masculine whereas princesses were emphasized for their femininity. The author provides support through suggesting other academic theoretical views stating how Disney’s princess line affects children’s development of gender roles. The purpose of the study is to show how characteristics of princes and princesses from Disney’s films have changed over the time. The author then introduces the results of the study saying that it is explicit that princes showed masculine characteristics in older films while princesses emphasized their femininity in the past. However, both characteristics have slightly mixed in current films. The warrant that the author uses is that children can be also stereotyped by Disney films due to their susceptibility and flexibility toward such information. Therefore, the huge market of Disney’s merchandises has significant influences on children’s cognitive development of gender perception. This is due to the fact that they are both the most targeted consumers of its market and watchers of the films
In “Escape from Wonderland” by Deborah Ross, the writer explains how the fictional characters are admired. Although they seem to be sending a bigger message to young girls. The writer talks about drawing a line between fantasy and reality. In the end Ross’s objective is to show how some Disney characters break the femininity and imagination tradition. Which can have an effect in children and how they value their own ability to have unique visions. By comparing Alice in Wonderland (1951), The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991) to heroines like Arabella from The female Quixote. “Charlotte Lennox’s (The Female Quixote illustrates both these conservative and progressive plot patterns, for it both draws upon and criticizes earlier romances, which themselves often both celebrate and punished female imagination and expressiveness. Therefore, like Disney’s movies today, which also use material from romance and fairy-tale tradition”, (pg. 473, Escape from Wonderland). Young women may not only begin to fantasize about a grandeur life more exciting than reality but to be disappointed with society in the workplace and relationships. For example, Meredith from Brave she is a princess that wishes to have a different life than what her mother has planned for her. She refuses to get married and have the duties of a princess. She wants to have adventures and be
involved in the workforce that much. Women were described as conservative and moderate during this period. Also Cinderella was released before the 1970’s. These princesses do not make a strong impression on younger girls. They do not seem as inspirational as the newer ...
Disney promotes sexisim by forcing young girls to live in a patriarchal world. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The little mermaid, Aladdin, and Snow White are all examples of popular Disney movies that encourage young viewers that they need a man to save the day. Yes, it’s true that there are recent movies such as Moana and Frozen that prove otherwise, but how long will it take to completely get over the fact that women are mainly viewed as secondary citizens compared to the men? There are countless examples of how Disney movies influence this theme, and how much the female characters’ actions, ideas and thoughts are not included in a Disney movie.
"Disney Princesses: Classic Fairy Tales Or Gender Stereotypes?" Hartford Courant, 27 Aug. 2012. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.
Based on my analysis of the disney movies I have watched, I can assume that all princesses are skinny, beautiful, acquiescent, and they are usually housewives and that is exactly the standard, Disney has set. To add on that overweight women are unpleasant, unmarried and ugly. Also, it seems like a woman’s appearance is more valued than her intellectual ability. That is an example of an act of feminism, because of the reason they are females. Another big thing about Disney films is that they always display the women as always helpless and always in need of protection, based on my opinion that is so wrong, because in our society there are a lot of strong and cold blooded women. Those example emulate that Disney films are prototypical and they based their films off raw
Disney films are one of the most discussed types of films when we are talking about gender theory and feminism, since even cartoons are looked at through the male gaze. In the 20th century, we have seen films like Snow White, which was released in 1937, and Sleeping Beauty, which was released in 1959. Both of these titles make the audience believe that the women are going to be the most important character and potentially the hero, since the films are named after them, but in reality both of the movies are about young women who are put into a sleep like coma because of magic, and both require the kiss of a man to bring them back to consciousness. In Laura Mulvey's essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema she states "According to the principles of the ruling ideology and the physical structures that back it up the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification. Man is reluctant to gaze at his exhibitionist like. Hence the split between spectacle and narrative supports the man's role as the active one of forwarding the story, making things happen." Although she is not referencing Disney in particular, we can see this in both Snow White and Sleeping Beauty since the men are the ones that decide to kiss the women, without consent, and because of this the stories are able to continue. With the beginning of the 21st century, however, Disney has started to change, just like many other companies, and have created some kick ass female
Fairy tales help to establish gender roles at a young age to characterize and represent the ideals, values, and roles that each gender should succumb to. They specifically target younger aged audiences; therefore these stories provide children with images in which encompass their roles as either male or female. Females are taught to be kind, sweet, week, honest, self-sacrificing, and beautiful. On the other hand males are taught to be courageous, brave, saviors, and wise. Many of these characteristics are shown in fairy tales such as “Sleeping Beauty”, “Puss in Boots”, and “Beauty and the Beast”.
Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959) were the first Disney princesses in the era. All three princess were portrayed as helpless or a damsel in distress, who were saved by a prince's sword or kiss. Cinderella, in particular, was a prime example of this stereotype. Living with her neglectful stepmother and sisters, she was repressed from all of the daily activities her step family would partake in. She was regularly tormented and made to slave around; cleaning and cooking for her spoiled family members. She didn't have the self esteem to stick up for herself. All three of these princesses had secondary characters to care for them, to have a happy ending and "marry the prince". The godmother in Cinderella magically giving her a dress, carriage and glass slippers, and the house mice helping her as well. Snow White has the seven dwarfs, and Sleeping Beauty had her three fairy godmothers.
The antiquated stereotypes that men are strong and women are weak and submissive has continued to be evident in Disney movies. Submissive princesses such as Cinderella have become more famous than those like Mulan who has exhibited strong-willed traits and independence (Green par. 6). The idolized male leads in Disney movies, and fairy tales men have been shown to provide financial stability rather than the female doing such. For example, Prince Charming provide a so-called “golden ticket” to financial security that Cinderella did not have before (Green par. 1). These “strong” male figures have also proven to give safety to princesses such as a “one true love” being the only one can save Sleeping Beauty from her curse (Green par. 2). Housework and other stereotypical feminine qualities are only given to women such as Snow White cleaning up after and cooking for the men. Males depicted as lowly as dwarfs are above the woman. Even pop culture iconic movies such as Twilight show the female lead as weak and a larger than life male lead (Green par. 1). Even female villains are shown as evil for petty reasons, such as the Evil Queen who attacks Snow White for being more beautiful. This kind of demoralizing depiction of women is what leads society to often blame a woman for dressing too provocatively possibly leading to their assault. Even some women who have been sexually assaulted blame themselves on some level, believing they have brought it some way onto themselves (Green par. 4). This goes along also with men seen as stronger for sleeping with more women, and women have the opposite standard and are looked down on for the same. This may not seem to correlate with one another, but at a young age, children are shown that men are different