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gender role in Disney classics research paper
gender representation in disney princesses
how do disney films portray women
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Young children are unable to interpret female stereotypes in the television shows, or movies that they watch. When I was approximately five years old, until about age 13, I thought that Disney’s, Sleeping Beauty, was the most eminent movie ever. Until I reached age 14, I never noticed any female stereotypes or problems with feminism in this 1959 Disney classic. As I am growing up, and noticing more and more issues in different movies, I am beginning to recognize the issues in Disney films, especially Sleeping Beauty. The most problematic stereotype portrayed in the major motion picture of Sleeping Beauty, is the theme that physical appearances are a priority necessary in order to be successful. In the movie, Aurora is given three gifts, …show more content…
Additionally, the stereotypical appealing, exceptional, heroines of the story are not active at all. In Sleeping Beauty, Aurora never does anything to change her future, she is always told what to do by every other character. She does not try to take control of what could happen, but rather listens to everyone else telling her what to do. Because of this, young women are persuaded to be passive and wait for good things that may or may not happen in the future. Young women in society are against being active, because in numerous Disney movies, “the most prominent, active women in the [Disney] movies, the critics note, are almost always evil” (Bruce 2). When women are shown as active and strong-headed, they almost always end up dead, locked away, or banished. Maleficent, the villain in Sleeping Beauty, is shown with horns originally, and is dressed in all black and purple. She is not, what is typically called, gorgeous. She is different that other girls, and that is seen as not tolerable, and she is not accepted in the kingdom. At the end of the movie, she transforms into a dragon to protect herself from getting murdered and ends up getting slayed, defeated and dies. From this movie, girls could easily receive the message that if they are not pretty, they will not be successful because, clearly, Maleficent is not a traditionally pretty female, and she ends up dead. This is just one of several messages that could be picked out from Sleeping
Henke, Jill, Diane Umble, and Nancy Smith. “Construction of the Female Self: Feminist Readings of the Disney Heroine." Women’s Studies in Communication 19 (Summer 1996): 229-49.
Your sparkling eyes gazed at the television, reading the word “Cinderella” by Disney. You had all your Cinderella toys lined up, ready to grab whenever necessary. Your Cinderella pajamas on, and your tea set is all prepared.Your mom adored your love for princesses. Didn’t we all love to sing along to the Disney movies about princesses and true love? Peggy Orenstein sure didn’t. Peggy Orenstein, the author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter has a sharp opinion about how a “pretty and pink” culture is influencing girls in a negative way. The author proves this argument by discussing gender colorization, dolls, and princesses.
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.
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.
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 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.
In beauty and the beast we have for the first time a female character that is different and “ Belle likes herself and trust her own judgment” (Henks, Umble and Smith 1996, p. 237), and refuse what was planned for her. Belle was the first character not to fall in love from the first sight and occupies almost 80 percent of the movie. She has a better control on her life and choose her own destiny and she was powerful enough to save her father’s and the beast’s lives. And this relation represents a power-with the male character. The problem was that at the end, Belle ended up being one typical princess and being again the perfect girl that live with her prince happily ever
In the 1950s Disney character such as “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty” depicted women as still innocent and meek, thereby alluding to the permanence of pre-feminist stereotyping of women in popular culture (Cheu 150). In the two fi...
Once upon a time, there was a 16 year old mermaid princess named Ariel who gave up her voice, an important part of her identity, in order to be with a man who she became infatuated with at just one glance. Ariel has a very traditional gender-stereotypical role in the film, as the helpless, clueless, naive, physically weak, submissive, and attractive female protagonist that Disney films, especially the classics, portray so often (England). There is a lot of controversy surrounding this film in regards to its patriarchal ideals. The Little Mermaid, like most media, is build for the ‘male gaze’, a term coined by Laura Mulvey that suggests that visual entertainment, such as movies, are structured to be viewed by a masculine consumer. I will argue that the male gaze perpetuates harmful gender-stereotypes in The Little Mermaid.
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.
The point of many films is to convey a message to its viewers, such as morals and ethics. Consequently, films intended for adults convey messages suitable for adults; while children’s films do likewise for their target age groups, as one might expect. These children’s films, directed towards particularly younger audiences, prove useful when they contain beneficial maxims. Although at times, these films elicit less than healthy social views. Disney’s Aladdin is a prime example of a children’s film that immerses the audience in unhealthy views towards women. This film is an irresponsible in its portrayal of women - it sexually objectifies the female protagonist and enforces sexist ideologies, which directly affects the female characters within the story’s patriarchal system. The idea of sexism towards women is rampant throughout the movie Aladdin by making the following three claims: a woman’s worth is defined by men, women are incapable of making their own choices, and that women are inadequate and thus require saving by a man.
Movies like Disney have affected our minds at our youth though movies. In Paul Castillo’s writing, the negative effects of Disney on children, he talks about how Disney is this family-friendly corporation, yet he argue, “…are we looking deep enough?” (Castillo). This makes you think, if we are just scratching the surface, who knows what would be underneath? Castillo then goes on to say, “It is from these movies that children often get their first impressions of how men and women are supposed to act.” (Castillo). People said that the first impression is important, so the first movie or show will influence that person. Knowing this, you’ll now understand Disney’s power over everyone. Everyone, know what Disney is and or of them, their influence are targeting at a young age. Sleeping Beauty, a movie created by Disney and is mostly watched by children, is “one of the archetypal Disney princesses” and Castillo have shown an interesting point, “Aurora [, the protagonist,] is described as an extraordinarily beautiful woman…however, you will notice that Aurora’s figure is as impossible as a Barbie’s for humans…” (Castillo). What Castillo is trying to say is that children’s who see this is interpreting beautiful as Aurora, a young gorgeous woman, this will only lead them to
Since 1937, when Snow White was created, Disney princesses have been falsely portraying women. While their personalities have changed to keep up with society’s standards, their unrealistic body
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).
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