Gender Role Portrayal And The Disney Princesses

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Children were running around inspecting the entire store while their parents watched over them in hopes they wouldn't break anything too expensive. In all this confusion, I had lost sight of my younger sister who was now busy looking at the collection of princess dolls, with a few other girls. As I made my way towards my sister, I couldn't help but notice that many of the dolls had been glamorized and put into extravagant dresses, emphasizing their princess status. Mulan no longer had short hair or armor but long flowing hair, dressed in a traditional Geisha dress completely dismantling her warrior status, emphasizing her feminine qualities instead.

As children, many of us grew up watching Disney's films idolizing many of the characters as it was the biggest not to mention still is the most popular form of family entertainment. But by taking a closer look into these films we begin to realize that the Disney princess line, through their story lines and characters are setting up gender roles for children, essentially educating them on what society deems appropriate for their gender. Many of their movies often portray some stereotypical representation of gender, consistently depicting the heroine as the victim who needs help saving, playing the typical damsel in distress. For many years, the Disney Corporation has created a gold-mined with their princesses franchise by relying on gender stereotypes for many of their female heroines. When looking at the history of Disney animated films there seems to be a common trend that is prevalent in most of their films and the roles that their female characters play. In the first three movies produced by Disney in the 1930's and 50's (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, ...

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...alse sense of freedom.

Bibliography

England, Dawn, Lara Descartes, and Melissa Collier-Meek. "Gender Role Portrayal And The Disney Princesses." Sex Roles 64.7/8 (2011): 555-567. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

Maio. K. (1998. December). Disney's dolls. New Internationalist. (308). 12-14.

Samar Attar and Gerhard Fischer "PROMISCUITY, EMANCIPATION, SUBMISSION: THE CIVILIZING PROCESS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A FEMALE ROLE MODEL IN THE FRAME-STORY OF 1001 NIGHTS"Arab Studies Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 3/4 (Summer/Fall 1991), pp. 1-18

Published by: Pluto Journals

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41857990

Yerby, Amanda, Samantha Baron, and Youjin Lee. "Gender roles in Disney Animation."

Yzaguirre, Christine M. "A whole new world? The evolution of Disney animated heroines from Snow White to Mulan." (2006).

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