Disney Films
In Disney films, motherhood is generally featured as latent, inexistent, or enacted by an evil stepmother. The conflicts which arise in the majority of the films usually due to the missing biological mother, either through her death, through her removal from the life of the child, or the stepmother. This sheds a poor and/or dark light on the role of motherhood.
An example of a Disney film in which the mother is latent is Sleeping Beauty. The main character, Briar-Rose, a princess, has a mother, but she does not know her. She was removed from her parents at birth in order to protect her life. The mother appears only at the beginning and the end of the film, when Briar-Rode is born, and then on her sixteenth birthday when she is to be wed. This latency makes motherho...
Myths relate to events, conditions, and deeds of gods or superhuman beings that are outside ordinary human life and yet basics to it” ("Myth," 2012). Mythology is said to have two particular meanings, “the corpus of myths, and the study of the myths, of a particular area: Amerindian mythology, Egyptian mythology, and so on as well as the study of myth itself” ("Mythology," 1993). In contrast, while the term myth can be used in a variety of academic settings, its main purpose is to analyze different cultures and their ways of thinking. Within the academic setting, a myth is known as a fact and over time has been changed through the many different views within a society as an effort to answer the questions of human existence. The word myth in an academic context is used as “ancient narratives that attempt to answer the enduring and fundamental human questions: How did the universe and the world come to be? How did we come to be here? Who are we? What are our proper, necessary, or inescapable roles as we relate to one another and to the world at large? What should our values be? How should we behave? How should we not behave? What are the consequences of behaving and not behaving in such ways” (Leonard, 2004 p.1)? My definition of a myth is a collection of false ideas put together to create
Stephanie Hanes opens up the article with an experience a woman named Mary Finucane had with her daughter. The 3-year-old, Caoimhe (Keeva), became a more passive child than she was before discovering the world of Disney Princesses, which her mother credits to be the cause. Mrs.
Why is it that in Disney created films, the motherly figures and role models are completely diminished whereas the fatherly roles are extravagant? Why does mainly a woman play the role of the vilan? If you notice, you will find that in just about every classic Disney film, the mother is portrayed in a horrible and questionable fashion. But, there is always a fatherly or male figure that everyone boasts about.
When several films, including “A Raisin in the Sun” and “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” make the focus of films working for and acquiring his or her dreams, despite being made almost twenty years apart. A main factor in these films typically comes motherly support. Many times, you see the mother sacrificing her wants and needs in order to help her children succeed and achieve their dreams. Since the theme is common over time, it is relatable to the audience of the films and is a way to capture the audience and keep them focused on the film. Due to the similarities in both the theme of the role of the mother and achieving his or her dream, it can be shown that over decades, these themes remain constant, though the dreams, race, gender, and stories can change.
The mothers’ voices are powerful and override their husbands’ voices throughout the entire film as they are portrayed as the “woman of the house” instead of the “man of the house” and because of that, as women, they are seen as antagonistic, evil characters. In a scene where Coraline complains about the bad dinner with her parents, Coraline is told by her mother that her dad is the one who has to do the cooking, and her other mother does the cleaning, completely enforcing female stereotypes that the cooking and cleaning are to be done by the females. Despite Coraline’s ecstatic enjoyment of the “Other” world, it is brought to the audience’s attention from that scene that Coraline seems to be the one who is trying to enforce gender stereotypes into her own life and her family because of the fact that the “Other” world has another mother who cooks delicious food and another father who is silly and humorous. As Coraline has teetering opinions on her new house and friend, a scene is shown where she is taken to the clothing store to shop for her new school uniform with none other than her mother, the gender who is known to be the most prone to shopping. The “Other Mother’s” first appears in the film stereotypically cooking in the kitchen and a majority throughout the film, she is most often seen cooking delicious food for Coraline. At one point in the film, it is revealed that she makes a brand new outfit for Coraline, accentuating the stereotype that females stay home to cook food and tend to clothes.. In another scene near the end of the movie, the true form of
In her 2014 article entitled “Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead?”, author Sarah Boxer emphasizes her belief that the seemingly coincidental or harmless tendency to eliminate mothers from animated movies results in a cleverly incorporated patriarchy. Boxer’s article starts out by questioning the role of the dead-mother trope, mentioning the the overused plot device is dated back to ninth-century China. Moving on to the suspected reason for such a morbid plot device, Boxer claims that mothers are killed off in order for the father to take his position in the spotlight. The father now has the ability to come off as a charming, sensitive man capable of making mistakes while still being a good father. Boxer mentions the fact that animated movies
Since Disney first introduced Snow White from the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves back in 1937, the definition of what it means to be a young woman has been hugely influenced by Walt Disney Studios princesses. From the hair and the dresses to the demeanor and poise, Disney princesses have been showing girls of all ages how a woman should look and act, if she wants to have a happy life and find the perfect husband. Being constantly fed the seemingly ‘ideal’ image of beauty since their youth; most girls feel a need to strive to that level of beauty in order for them to feel accepted in society, and confident in themselves. According to researcher Dawn England, “The princesses in the first three Disney Princess movies were frequently affectionate, helpful, troublesome, fearful, tentative, and described as pretty” (England).Focusing in on the three original Disney princesses, Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, according to those three princesses what it means to be a young woman is to have unrealistic physical beauty, be dependent on a man, and be submissive and obedient.
Disney shows and shows similar to such have taught us from a young age the concept of “happily ever after". This is a fairy-tale of absolute happiness. It is a state of feeling good all the time. In fairy tales, this feeling is usually found in fulfilling marriages, royal castles, singing birds and laughing children. In real life sometimes finding that happiness isn’t as easy as a fairy tale makes it look like. Research suggests that if you focus too much on trying to feel good all the time, you’ll actually undermine your ability to ever feel good because no amount of feeling good will be satisfying to you, that is when you become a perfectionist. If feeling good all the time were the only requirement for happiness, then a person who uses cocaine every day would be extremely happy receiving the same euphoria or natural happiness. Natural happiness is what we get when we get what we wanted, and synthetic happiness is what we make when we
In an article published to The Atlantic “Why Are All the Cartoon Mother’s dead?” by Sarah Boxer declares her point of why in a variety of kid’s movies the mother is deceased or missing and the father is present meanwhile in reality the stats are the opposite. She is coming off as a feminist questioning why mothers are not in a majority of Disney Movies and kid movies in general. In a matter of fact she addresses feminism in this article because she keeps throwing jabs about why fathers are the child’s only parent in the children’s movies. Such as, “Is the unconscious goal of these motherless movies to paper over reality? To hint that the world be better without mothers?”(Boxer). This explains my last thought of how she is addressing feminism
Is there a difference between a Carl’s Jr. Hamburger commercial featuring a scantily clad Paris Hilton and a Disney movie? Many would argue “Well, of course there is a difference!” Those looking through the lenses of feminism would see that both are highly sexualized and send a negative message to children. They teach young girls that they are only valued for what their beauty sells. In this age of technology, children are spending more and more time in front of their television. Whether it is an episode of an edgy situation comedy like Two and a Half Men or a serious, heart-to-heart episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, there is a very high chance that a child is learning about their gender role and what that entails. The trend of damaging stereotypical portrayal of women in animated films has not lessened and perpetuates poor role models for children.
Most children and adults come across a Disney movie whether it be Mickey and Minnie Mouse to Snow White and the seven dwarfs. Although these movies are inaccurate to represent historical events they show us the roles that were retained by genders for centuries.
Fantasia is remarkably crafted masterpiece and is one of the most unique videos in Disney History. The intense music and intriguing animation makes this film extremely interesting. The movements of the characters are fascinatingly coordinated with the sounds of the music. As you watch the film, every act is put together to perfection. The imaginable variety of animation and mysterious music is boldly noticeable. The scenes in this film can be analyzed in many different ways according to your imagination. In my opinion, this is about good and evil or hell and heaven. The two scenes that relate to this motto are: "A Night on Bald Mountain," and "Ave Maria." As the animation evolves itself by good and evil, so does the music. These two scenes from Fantasia are prime examples of how you can create a story without using dialogue. This movie is one of a kind and set a great example for different things to happen in the future. The music and animation of "A Night on Bald Mountain" and "Ave Maria" are connected in a various amount of ways.
Wynns, S. L., & Rosenfeld, L. B. (2003). Proquest. “Father-daughter relationships in disney's animated films.” The Southern Communication Journal, 68(2), 91.
Disney has been an inspiration to kids since October 16, 1923. With the start of Mickey Mouse cartoons, Disney has created an empire of imagination. Ever since Snow White, Disney’s first princess in 1937, came on the screen, young females have been amazed by the vision of the “Disney Princess”. As the years went by, dozens of princesses have hit movie screens and Disney has made billions off of the profits from these individuals. In reality, Disney has influenced the immature views of what to expect of beauty from a woman.
During this time I always watched Disney Princess movies with her and she had reasoning for showing me them to me over and over. My mother didn’t care for them all expect one, Mulan. And this is where my idea of how one movie can express how women have the ability to break away from the feminist’s idea ...