Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The impact of Disney films on children
How does Disney impact society
The influence of disney on the society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The impact of Disney films on children
What Growing up in a Disney-Flavored World has done to Society: A Research Paper Young girls sit in front of the television watching Disney movies portraying picture perfect girls who are rescued and swept off their feet by a handsome knight in shining armor. While some believe these movies are perfectly harmless, research proves differently. Disney culture has negatively affected society by causing self-esteem issues, establishing gender norms in movies like Sleeping Beauty, and by setting unrealistic expectations, such as those seen in the similar “fairy tale” endings of The Little Mermaid and the movie version of Pride and Prejudice. If one has a bit of background information on this topic, he or she can make up his or her mind on the issue. The definition of a fairy tale is “a made-up story usually designed to mislead” (Merriam Webster 2015). This is exactly what Disney has done; they have shown separation anxiety, depression, and unrealistic weight expectations in their movies (Waltson 2015). Scholars have created a new diagnosis known as Princess Syndrome, that makes the child show conceited behavior and imitate princesses (Waltson 2015). This shows that Disney has gone too far with unrealistic …show more content…
Disney has shown us that there is supposedly a prince charming waiting for each person in the world, but this is not true. Nearly fifty perecent of first marriages in the United States end in divorce, two-thirds of second marriages, and seventy-five percent of third marriages (Epstein 2014). This is because of unrealistic expectations given by Disney. Disney has caused failed marriages all over the world by telling girls how successful romantic relationships are made and maintained. For example in The Little Mermaid, Ariel finds Eric and they get married, but that is not how it really happens in life. Disney continues giving children unrealistic expectations in The Little
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.
Since Disney’s Snow White appeared in 1937, Disney princesses have been a present in pop culture. With the release of new movies frequent and re-release of decades old movies inevitable, a continuous stream keeps Disney princesses in the foreground of adolescent society. It is with the value of entertainment they have been created and as entertainment they should be viewed.
Presently, many books and fairytales are converted movies and often, producers alters the original tales to grasp the attention of a large audience. However, some of these interpretations hide the primary interpretation. The original interpretations of the Disney classics Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are greatly reinvented from the original fairytales Sun, Moon, and Talia and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because of the brutal nature of the treatment women in these original forms. Although there are differences in certain aspects from the original tales to the movies, there are many issues that are influential to the young girls who are still watching the Disney version. I realize this when my youngest niece, Anella asks me, “Why can’t I be beautiful and fall asleep and suddenly wake up to finally find my prince?” This is true in all cases of the four different translations of the fairytales. Every single girl in these stories are in a “beautiful” state of half-death who wake to find a prince who if eager to carry them off. This can lead to negative psychological effects on young girls as they are growing up, creating a large amount of pressure and low self-esteem due to the beauty that these stories portray and maintaining restrictions that these women experience in the stories. While it is true that Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves are considered Disney classics that entertain children and provide meaningful role models, it is evident that the true, vulgar nature of these tales are hidden; these stories are about women who are thrown away.
So why does it matter?. What effect do original or Disney fairy tales have in kids?. It matters because these are one of the first things, the first stories that kids read. Would you want that the first lesson that your three year old daughter is taught that girls are like maid, that they are weak and need a guy to save them. The impression that Disney leaves with these kids is that guys are strong, girls just wear pretty dresses and hope that a rich handsome man falls in love with them. Watching Disney movies leave girls in response to loose confidence. This is not what a child should be
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.
Disney has portrayed women in movies by the use of animation characters for over a century since the 1900s. There has been a very big change since the early 1900’s to modern day in Disney’s depiction of the personalities of the women, their attitudes and ideologies towards men, and the way they are portrayed in the movies. This progression has had a distinct development, from passive damsels in distress in need of the help of men, to being superheroes. Therefore, the evolution of women in Disney movies will be analyzed through the use of university level feminist essays, as well as a research paper written about gender roles in Disney animation. The evolution will also be analyzed through examination of the clips of the movies themselves.
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.
Many of us have seen a Disney movie when we were younger. Disney movies captured our attention with their mortals and successful conclusion. 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, The 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 thought of 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 tobacco are at their ages but do we want to think it is normal. When we think that little girls wat...
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.
Over the years, fairytales have been distorted in order to make them more family friendly. Once these changes occur, the moral and purpose of the stories begin to disappear. The tales featured in the many Disney movies - beloved by so many - have much more malignant and meaningful origins that often served to scare children into obeying their parents or learning valuable life lessons.
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).
The Main Street station, is the curtains to a large production as if the Magic Kingdom was a theater. As I wander beneath the archway, I notice that above the arch is a plaque that reads: “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy”. As I continue to stroll through the passage on the way to Main Street, there are posters of “upcoming attractions” that line the walls on both sides. I then step into Main Street U.S.A. and begin to hear the Victorian style orchestra playing over the speakers. I notice some Disney pals in Town Square greeting guests as if they were old friends. Then I begin to travel further down the street, and the smell of the caramel apples, chocolate chip cookies, and other sweets walk out of the open doors of the bakery and into the street. At the end of this turn of the century town, sits the one hundred eightyninefoottall, Cinderella Castle. This moment is a pivotal moment in any Disney vacation, because the castle is well known to millions. I get
I can understand how many parents are blinded to the negative effects of Disney movies, and their princesses. When they get a movie for their kid they probably say to themselves, “They’re made for children, so they must be okay, right?” Wrong. Just as Henry Giroux, the writer of the book, “The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence” believes that Disney movies have a negative impact on the children that watch them, I believe that as well. Disney movies can teach young girls stereotypes of the ideal body image, how they should act, and unrealistic expectations of love.
of influence in both the characters and gender roles of people in our society. The films have brought about the shaping of morals, behaviors and characters of not only children, but also adults in todays society, through engaging them in a constant series of unthinking consumption. In addition, most of the films in Disney bring out many different gender roles and people who grew up watching them have been influenced greatly by the content in the films (Blum 13). This paper will involve the various roles played by the characters in the films and how their roles have influenced the society at large.
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