In classic Disney movies. Such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, the princesses’ lives depend on the prince’s decision whether or not to give them a kiss. That being said makes it no surprise that Disney constantly gets an anti-feminist label on all of their creations. The theme of the princesses’ perfect appearance being necessary to get them the prince often reoccurs. This idea is also backed up by Kathi Maio who states, “The movie says if a young woman is pretty and sweet-natured, she can change an abusive man into a kind and gentle man. In other words it is a woman’s fault if her man abuses her” (Disney’s Dolls)....
Most children grow up watching Disney princess movies. Girls want to be extraordinary, beautiful, and similar to the princesses seen in these movies in terms of behavior. These movies teach them that they must be fashionable, beautiful and be rescued by a prince in order to be happy. However, these movies have been shown to have negative impacts on these young girls’ life, often resulting in low self-esteem, disobedience, overdependence, and an unrealistic expectation of male partners. As a result, young girls should not be encouraged to watch Disney princess movies because they idolize the characters, which are simply fictitious and just meant for entertainment, and these movies also cause disobedience, low self-esteem and lack of confidence.
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
...t matter. This movie got popular because it was new, it was different and it showed it through out the entire movie. It still had the key factor that all Disney movies have songs and a happy ending. In the usual Disney concept there is a princess or a poor girl that’s gets into a situation and ends up into the hands a prince and then they live happily ever after, but in this case Anna and Kristoff do end up being together but it the other way around, Anna is royalty and Kristoff is poor. Also the main ending wasn’t trying to tell the love story between Kristoff and Anna; it was the love and bonds that Anna and Elsa share as sisters. So this is a Disney movie it just that it different, there’s twist and differences from regular but that’s what makes it so unique, and that’s why it is so popular because its unique and different, something that we needed from Disney.
Over the years, Disney has presented many movies to their audience—most having a Princess as the protagonist. These movies became a babysitter for most parents in the early stages of their child’s life. Most people found these movies as relatively harmless. The obvious assumption about the Disney Princesses is that they only desire true love since almost every movie ends in romance. Parents just viewed these movies as romantic movies on a child’s level. However, these movies were not solely intended for an audience of an age that can be counted on both hands. They were intended to speak to “an intelligent and active audience” (Sumera 40). However, there are many people who disagree with the ways of the Disney Princess movies. The disagreements lie within the portrayal of women gender roles in these movies. It is argued that Disney portrays women as a being nurturing individuals without any control over their identity. The women are unable to think for themselves, because they are uneducated, and they are quick to fall in love with the first man that pays them any attention. However, this is not completely true. The people that are against the portrayal of women in the Disney movies are failing to recognize the underlying concepts in these movies. For example, Belle, in Beauty and the Beast, was well educated, Mulan went to war despite the consequences, and Merida, in Brave, stood up to her mother in refusal to marry. The Disney Princesses desired intelligence, bravery, strength, and independence—not true love’s kiss.
They play a role in putting emphasis on themes such as a woman’s passive nature and their beauty. Fairytales are a mode of enhancing the difference between the genders and supporting the dominant gender. Disney films and children’s fairytales put a high amount of emphasis on the theme of feminine beauty ideal (Baker-Sperry & Grauerholz, 2003). It is a social construct that believes that the greatest asset a female has is that of her physical attractiveness and a female should strive to achieve and maintain it. This leads to one believing that females are oppressed, devalued and objectified, particularly in a patriarchal society (Baker-Sperry & Grauerholz, 2003). According to Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz (2003) women find beauty to be empowering and like to engage in rituals that enhance their beauty. Bordo (1993) believes that woman and adolescent girls achieve a high social status and maintain their self-esteem by engaging beauty rituals through the course of the day (as cited in Baker-Sperry & Grauerholz, 2003). The importance of female beauty ideal and physical attractiveness in society is emphasized in many Disney films and children’s media. According to Chyng (2001) many films emphasize the importance of sexuality and often-female characters are portrayed as overly sexual (as cited in Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund, & Tanner, 2004).
...ic to think the mind set of past sixty years can alter in the blink of an eye. Our patriarchal society will always push unrealistic body image on women, and it is highly doubtful that it will change anytime in the near future. Disney has made some developments in a new direction by taking the initiative to adjust the role of their heroine characters. Although they are still unrealistically thin, leads like Pochoantas, or Mulan step way from the redundant model of the “Disney Princess”. Majority of the responsibility now falls on parents to teach children how to become independent females relying on their hard work instead of looks. The hope is that children can learn and realize that the character in their favorite movies, or even their beloved dolls are not real women and with the correct mindset and encouragement these young girls will become confident young girls.
Disney movies are generally known for defining gender roles. The characters in Disney movies are depicted differently based on their gender. Male characters are mostly defined as trustworthy,
In “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect,” Stephanie Hanes covers the sexualization of young girls and women in every aspect of the media that influences children and teens. She explains that girls see media figures, movies, and sports being sexualized, and how this is causing children to associate looking and acting a certain way to being ‘the perfect women’. Hanes believes the hypersexualized media is causing girls to obtain a negative body image and it’s killing their self-esteem. The author proposes what she believes society should do about overcoming this obstacle, and how people can crush the stereotypes about women; to her everyone is responsible and should aid in fixing these problems. She explains that the media
When the movie begins you are introduced to the two main characters, Elsa and Anna. Elsa is the oldest sister who has a power that she can’t seem to control. Anna is the young sister who goes after Elsa, who ran away after everyone discovers her powers. These two alone play really good beside each other. There is also a guy, Kristoff. No, Kristoff is not a prince. He’s an average joe who helps Anna on her journey and works along side his buddy the moose, who really serves no purpose in the movie. And finally there’s Olaf, the snowman. He’s the silly character that brings everyone together and keeps everyone laughing. Olaf is a really important character in the movie because he represents the relationship that Anna and Elsa have once had. Of course these are not the only characters throughout the whole movie, but they are the main ones, and like every great movie there is a villain. It wasn’t just the characters that had my attention but the story itself was great.
Of course, this could be justified by the target audience, as it is a Disney princess film after all. However, this relationship between two sisters is special enough to be analysed. Indeed, female friendship is often depicted as conflictive, in films such as Bride Wars for instance, whereas male friendship is made more valuable, as seen in most Seth Rodgen films. Here, the feminine solidarity is the core of the plot in Frozen, which motivates each protagonist’s designs and solves central issues of the
...aves Princess Jasmine multiple times and falling in love at first sight. They also live happily ever-after together, just as every other Disney prince and princess in every other Disney movie. Parents should be aware of the subliminal messages that their children view in the Disney movies they are watching, and grow up to believe that is how life goes. The children that are growing up watching Disney movies with such strong gender stereotypes are learning things they may factor into their own futures, and think that acting the way of the Disney roles is the only way for them to live their life in a happy manner. The way Disney animated films assign gender roles to their characters effect young children’s views of right and wrong in society. It is wrong, and they should not be exposed to such material growing up because it is harmful to their future expectations.
Since they are formally known as princess movies, people tend to focus more on the feminist issues and a blind-eye is directed towards the masculinity issues; nonetheless this does not confirm their absence, even in recent Disney films. In the first Disney Princess film, the men (Prince Charming and the dwarves) were always the ones to do the saving, implying the strength of men. Strength and masculinity always come hand in hand with Disney films to this date. In Mulan, there is an entire song about what it means to be a man. Allegedly, what it means to be a man is to be as “swift as a coursing river”, with the “force of a great typhoon”, and have the “strength of a raging fire”. Even in their most recent Disney princess film, Kristoff is in the business, which requires him to move the ice around a lot. Ice is a hard and heavy substance and Kristoff’s ability to move...
Back in Ardenelle, Anna realizes that Hans has bad intentions towards her. When confronted, Hans lock Anna in a bedroom, as he gets his strategies in order to kill the sisters. Olaf notifies Elsa that she is dying, and only the love of family can cure her. Elsa finds her way back to the village, regains courage, but ends up locked as well. Kristoff and Olaf must find a way to get the sisters reconcile, and the cure for all.
In the article Construction of the Female Self: Feminist Readings Of the Disney Heroine, Jill Birmie Henke, Diane Zimmerman Umble, and Nancy J. Smith are looking at the female self and how it was developed based on two theories: Standpoint by Parker Follet and the psychological development of girls by Gilligam. That by examines gender identity especially girls and how media exposure affects them through analyzing five of Disney movies: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahontas. They segmented the article into three titles: The Oxymoron of Power and the Perfect Girl where they introduced the two theories in which they built their critic on, Construction of the Female Self where they talk about the evolution in the female character from Cinderella to Pocahontas, and Construction of Self in Relation to Others where they talk about the evolution of the self in relation to others from power-over to power-with until power-to. Finally they concluded that even if the female character in Disney’s movies was changing to become more