When reflecting on why society cares about Disney, I can think of many reasons. These include morality, beauty, entertainment, love and receiving the joy out of it. I feel like society wants to live up to Disneys standards. For instance, being a princess and the characteristics that come with it is how people want to be. Or, people dream of the 'ever after' that Disney has introduced us to. But, there are many things that Disney has shown children that can be controversial. Like females always being the one who needs a males affection or attention to rid of the evil in her life. There is also an abundance of magic or witchcraft, which can be seen as the bad or evil character in Disney and people do not want their children to see witchcraft or be a part of it. although Disney has recently tried to overcome these stereotypes with its recent movies, Disney is still based on old social norms and offensive messages. …show more content…
Although most villains in Disney are male they seem to be outshined by the female villains. Some of the scariest female Disney villains include Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Queen Grimhilde from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmatians and Lady Tremaine from Cinderella. These leading ladies have stolen the evil show from their male counterparts, not only because they do a better job, but they look better doing it. I'm not sure if being evil is sexy, but Cruella De Vil sure makes it look easy. These scary characters are iconic because of how wonderfully bad they are. In modern day society, the characteristics held by these villains are what people want to be. society doesn't want to be the princess who needs saving by a man, they want to be the confident woman who doesn't need a man to support her and can act confidently in what she
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.
The two Disney films that I decided to watch and research are Robin Hood from 1973 and Toy Story 3 from 2010. I decided to choose these movies because they both have a good amount of action and adventure in them, which is what I like best in movies. Stereotypes are very common in todays’s society according to Robert Sapolsky who states, “Face it, we all do it—we all believe in stereotypes about minorities. These stereotypes are typically pejorative and false, but every now and then they have a core of truth.”(Sapolsky,1997) The Disney animated films Robin Hood and Toy Story 3 portray many issues and gendered and racial stereotypes that are still present in society today.
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. According to Disney films, it is important for women to achieve the stereotypical characteristics of a woman, such as maintaining their beauty to capture a man, and being weak and less educated than male characters. The women in Disney movies are always beautiful, which helps them to find a man.
Many of us have seen a Disney movie when we were younger. Disney movies captured our attention with their good morals and successful conclusions of finding their true love. The animations and music transform us into a land of magic where anything is possible if we just believe. Disney movies wrapped us in the idea that good always triumphs evil, that happy ever after exists. We have become the generation of Beauty and the Beast, 101 Dalmatians, Dumbo and Snow White as children now have not heard of these or have watched them. Some of these movies have been recreated and released in high definition and on DVDs in the past few years, but the structure and themes of the movies stays the same. However, we never stop and think about the undertones in Disney movies. They contain abuse, violence, dysfunctional relationships, and gender stereotypes, which is not appropriate for children. They may not understand what abuse, violence, dysfunctional relationships, alcohol or gender stereotypes are at their ages but do we want them to think that it’s normal. When we think that little girls watch these movies where the female characters are controlled by man or need a man to watch over them, they are not creating good role models for them. Would we not want them to have a better understanding that women do not have to have a prince charming to be happy, women can be independent and have careers and yes find love but not give everything up so their prince charming has the control.
According to Giroux (1996), animated movies are a part of children’s culture. Children’s culture consists of entertainment, artifacts, myths, etc. that are based around the notion of what it means to be a child. Animated movies, particularly Disney films, encourages the child’s imagination and fantasy to be enhanced, creates a drive within them to go on adventures and helps them develop an aura of innocence. Animated films are “teaching machines” (Giroux, 1996, p. 66). Disney films teach children about specific roles, values and ideals and also take them through the world of enchantment. It helps them to understand who they are and what it means to be a part of the society and an adult environment (Giroux, 1996). Disney characters are a reflection
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 (...
“The essence of this trope is the suggestion that, while male villains can be evil by nature or by choice, such depths of evil are not natural for women, and so, if a female character has truly evil thoughts, a man must be ultimately responsible for putting them there, even if her actions and behavior don 't hint at it. Thus, when facing in-universe justice, she is more likely to receive a less severe fate for the same crimes as a male villain might.”
The tales, more often than not, were always about the life of a princess in search of her prince charming. In line with the stories, one can never deny the fact that there would always be a villain or an antagonist. Those were the characters that would do anything to destroy the lives of the princesses or protagonists. Walt Disney films are known as one of the most prominent developers of fantasy stories and characters, and most of these made use of films as a tool to expose such movies. Evidently, children have always been exposed to this kind of films, films that have the “never-ending-tale-of-love-story” concept.
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...
As children, I believe we cannot differentiate between what is real and what is not. For the most part, many have fond memories of Disney films as did I when I was a child. Personally, children are too young to understand some of these issues and may misinterpret them altogether. The critics in Mickey Mouse Monopoly are educated and mature allowing them the ability to analyze and interpret these issues, whereas a five or even twelve year old may not. Perhaps, as one matures they realize what is really being portrayed. I disagree and agree with Mickey Mouse Monopoly. I disagree because I firmly believe children are for the most part viewing and understanding these cartoons innocently. However, I do agree that Disney has major influence on it
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.
Are you for or against Disney? For a majority of Americans this is a no brainer. There answer would be “YES”, because Disney inspired them as a kid, Disney let their imagination be free, or let them dream. Others would not agree, they say “NO” to Disney. For those people Disney has served as a direct representation of an individualist society, money making capitalist, or it represents dreams that cant come true. Yet, Disney has an incredible effect on today’s society due to the direct correlation to the American dream that they create in its publications and products.
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.
I have come to the realization that my views of evil are subconsciously skewed in the way Disney (and many other children’s programs) portray their villains. They characterize them as darker, as uglier, as non-Americans (often with accents); Seeing the way in which Disney subtly markets these characteristics to children is unsettling; However, with all of these studies and articles written about the stereotyping Disney uses, adults still allow their children to watch these films. The main thing I have come to believe since taking this course is: yes, Disney does use racism and sexism and genderism in some of their films, but ultimately, it is the parent’s responsibility to understand what they are showing their children. If they allow their kids to consume this type of content, they are the ones responsible for teaching them that the stereotypes portrayed are inaccurate and
Critics have warned the public audience about Disney programming’s affect on the “invasion and control of children’s imagination” (Ross 5). These movies express the typical gender roles “such as males being physically strong, assertive, and athletic, and females being prone to overt emotion, inc...