According to the Kaiser Family Foundation Report (1999), children spend an average of 2.5 to 3 hours on watching television per day. As van der Voort and Walma van der Molen (2000) noted, children learn most readily from visually presented materials, such as videos and films. As a result, mass media has a great influence on children’s development. As noted by Swindler (1986), the contribution of media exposure to the cultivation of children’s values, beliefs, dreams, and expectations cannot be overstated. Additionally, Thompson and Zerbinos (1995) found that children who watched cartoons with more gender stereotyping had similarly gendered expectations for themselves and others. This suggests that media portrayals of stereotypes based on gender may influence children’s gender role acquisition and expression.119
Theoretical Perspectives of Gender Role Portrayal
The constructivist approach and cultivation theory both suggest an effect of viewing gendered stereotypes upon children (Graves, 1999). The constructivist approach posits that children develop beliefs based on their own interpretations of experiences and observations about the world (Martin, Ruble, & Szkrybalo, 2002). Therefore, viewing stereotyped illustration of gender roles will influence children’s ideas and beliefs about gender (Graves, 1999). On the other hand, cultivation theory proposes that exposure to television content exerts an influence on concepts regarding social behaviour and norms (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorelli, 1980). Thus, children’s media exposure influences their socialization processes and the gendered materials children view may have an impact on their cognitive understanding of gender and their behaviours (Graves, 1999). Additionally, cultivati...
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...war. In The Princess and the Frog, the princess is career-oriented and strong-willed when she works at different diners in order to raise money to turn an old sugar mill into a restaurant.101
On the other hand, as noted by Towbin et al. (2003), marriage remained highly important for women in Disney Princess films over time. This illustrates the continuous depiction of women’s likelihood of getting married and settling down. In each Princess movie, the princess is romantically linked to a prince and they reach a marriage arrangement (at least implied) with their respective hero in the end except for the princess in Pocahontas. Pocahontas opts to let her lover, John Smith, go back to England while she stays with her tribe to achieve her fulfilment through her dedication to her people. This was argued by Dundes (2001) that Pocahontas follows a stereotypic female script
England, Dawn, Lara Descartes, and Melissa Collier-Meek. "Gender Roll Portrayal and the Disney Princesses." N.p., 10 Feb. 2011. Web.
Pike, J. J., & Jennings, N. A. (2005). The Effects of Commercials on Children’s Perceptions of Gender Appropriate Toy Use. Sex Roles, 52(1/2), 83-91. doi:10.1007/s11199-005-1195-6
Tristani, Gloria. (1998). Children are watching stereotypes in the media. Tri - State Defender. 47.
Gender Roles. A hot button topic that has become a topic of conversation for years now. When we think of Gender roles what things come to mind? With Men we often think of qualities such as strength, toughness, bravery, and masculinity and being a Husband. With Women we often think of characteristics such as: care taker, Wife, nurturing, cooking/ cleaning, and often very supportive. But another big question that we should be asking ourselves is where and how these gender roles and stereotypes have come from? And for the answer to that question we should look to our media consumption. For years now TV shows and Movies have truly shaped what gender roles should be in our society. These ideas are planted in our minds even at a young age, whether
Our girls are expected to conform to a beauty and behavior standard at a very young age. This is something that stays with these girls into adulthood. They will continue to conform to beauty standards and they will conform to what our male-dominated society wants. If/when women break these standards they are labeled as something else: free-thinker, weird, and even “lesbian”. This brings up another issue; Disney princesses are all heterosexual. So from the start, if girls want to be like a princess, then they better be straight. In this way, Disney movies are hetero-normative, and influence girls to believe that if they want to find their “one true love,” then they need to find a handsome man, not possibly a fellow princess. Evette Dionne writes that Disney princesses gave her warped expectations of love and romance in "Were You Ruined by Princess Culture?”.
Cinderella-like tales has become a staple of the Disney movie lineup. That may explain the overwhelming popularity of these themes. The influences of these innocuous movies has a profound effect on people. Yet Disney admits there is very little marketing strategy behind their products. However, Feminist and author, Peggy Orenstein demonstrates that companies like Disney stereotype and market to little girls. The idea that a “Princess Culture” has corrupted the Cinderella fairytale is used by marketing to increase consumerism, regardless of its effects on girls.
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 (...
Disney is one of the largest corporations in the world, known for entertaining and having a dominant role in children’s media for over 60 years and counting (Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund & Tanner, 2003). The purpose of this study is to analyze Disney animated films according to gender roles and gender role portrayals. Research shows that Disney animated films have highly portrayed traditionally feminine and masculine characteristics (England, Descartes and Meek, 2011). The focus of this paper is to discuss the stereotypical representation of gender role portrayal between the men and women in Disney animated films. Scholars have suggested that in Disney animated films women are portrayed as being domestic, nurturing, wanting to marry, helpless and in need of protection (Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund & Tanner, 2003). However, men are portrayed as having a non- domestic job, use physical anger as a mean to express emotion, are naturally physically strong and are very heroic (Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund & Tanner, 2003). My first hypothesis is whether in Disney animated films, men are playing traditional roles and women are playing traditional roles. My third second is whether stereotypical gender role portrayal in Disney animated films will become less traditionally characterized as society progressed to let go of traditional gender roles.
From a young age, princess culture has impacted the lives of numerous people. Some individuals may have spent their childhood parading around in the attire of their favorite Disney princess while they put on their best rendition of the character they admired most. Ohers may have only seen a few Disney princess movies here and there and went seemingly unfazed by the phenomenon. With Disney’s debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, princess movies would provide the defining factor of the Disney entertainment empire for years to come. From this, fairy tales embarked into a territory that would touch the lives of many individuals
Leaper, C., Breed, L., & Perlman, C. (2002). Variations in gender stereotyped content of children's television cartoons across genres. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32 (8), 1653-4363.
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.
Toys, literature, media, and films also encourage sex roles. Males are depicted as "doing", while females are always "receiving." In this paper, 5 articles focusing on sex roles were used. The articles look at the damaging effects of sex role stereotyping, and some ways the sex roles are accentuated in the schools.
Each Disney princess has different positive attributes that make her unique, the most recent Disney princesses are especially fitting in today’s society. In Jena Stephens’ analysis of the three most recent princesses, excluding Anna and Elsa, she describes Rapunzel by saying, “Her forward thinking, desire to prove she is just as capable as a man, and realistic dreaming make her a great role model for young girls”. Whether it is to become a princess and marry her true love like Cinderella or open a restaurant like Princess Tiana, all of the Disney princesses have aspirations. Jena Stephens says, “The words that Tiana sings about the necessary hard work it will take for her to reach her dream stand out as a message to young viewersone that does not covey that love is the only thing that will make girls happy”. Not only do Disney princesses have dreams but they make their dreams come true with hard work. As Liz Gumbinner described her trip to Disney World with her daughters, “The princess luncheon led to a great discussion later in our hotel room, in which we told our girls that it is okay to be strong, smart, hardworking and still dream of marrying a prince”. Disney princesses carry themselves in a humble and confident manner. The princesses are beautiful but they are not conceited. Lastly, they are never stuck up but rather loving and independent which makes their character so
Princess films are centered around a female character who meets the love of her life and, like in other fairy tales, ends with their wedding (Ross 4). Initially, the Disney princesses’ have portrayed a typical female role in the film, showing the expected gender roles in American society (England Descartes Collier-Meek 563). These gender-based stereotypes are influenced by the time period they were made in, but also originating from old fairytales made centuries ago. “Society’s increasing reliance on the use of television and videos to occupy children warrants continued investigation of how exposure to media may affect children. Given that media portrayals like those in the animated movies of Walt Disney often reinforce societal stereotypes related to gender, ethnicity, and culture, parents may consider a more thoughtful approach to the use of television and videos” (Disney Movies 1).
Stereotyping women is not only rampant in the adult world; it also flourishes in the kiddie universe as well. Here, there are depictions of women and girls as motherly or innocent, silly, and passive. This occurs not only in popular programming on Public Broadcasting, but also on television in other countries. Mothering images on Philippine TV has shown some of the same trends that is seen in the United States. Although “Teletubbies and Barney & Friends display an equal representation in number, each show displays gender stereotyped qualities,” it is obvious that these programs are sometimes reinforcing the wrong ideas about gender roles to children, roles that feminists have been battling for almost half a century. “Both programs demonstrated clear gendered roles with males being more active and females being more social and passive. This distinction appeared most obviously in the real-life segments of both programs with women as mother or passive viewer of action. Neither program shows women or men in non-stereotypical roles, indicating at an early age children are exposed to gender-specific occupational expectations.” Each show has children as additional characters, and each episode consists of a live action activity.