...Women, Girls and the Media 18 August 2014 The Disney Princess Effect on Young Girls and Their Gender Role Perception The Disney Corporation has been around since 1937 when it released the first Disney Princess movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Since then, millions of young girls have fallen in love with these characters and often see them as role models. From the dresses to the tiaras, the beauty to the fairy tale, Disney Princesses have a direct effect on young girls and their behavior. The media has been a powerful resource through which many young girls develop their identity and come to understand gender roles in society. Research indicates that watching televised gender portrayals has an effect on individuals’ gender based attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors (Mastro & Morawitz 131). These are the attitudes and beliefs that young girls who watch Disney princess films would inherit. Girls enjoy watching these films and see the beautiful characters overcome difficult trials, as well as fall in love with a handsome prince in the end. The overall message is not a realistic one, leaving many girls feeling self conscious and unhappy. The idea that beauty equals good and ugly equals evil can negatively impact the way a girl looks at herself or others. Girls will ultimately learn that what is beautiful is good. Snow White and Cinderella were attractive and charismatic while the witch and two stepsisters were unattractive and vile. And in the end, the princesses...
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...Matt Williams Splitting Hairs in Disney’s film Tangled Cinderella tells us that a dream is a wish that your heart makes, and following suit dreams play a large part in the newest Disney princess film, Tangled. In the end of the film Rapunzel holds Flynn and they admit their deep secret that they had become each other’s dream, and an “awww” moment ensues. The question to ask is “Where do these dreams come from?” and “What do these dreams mean?” Taking this second question, the implications of Rapunzel and Flynn’s dream impact more than just the world of the film. The Disney Princess films have been studied within an inch of their lives by a great number of scholars in a great number of fields. One common study takes the ideas of gender development and combines them with the Disney Princess films. However, the implications of gender do not stop here as gender identity can still be impacted as the viewers age. Interpretation of the princess films has been a huge aspect of their scholarly application as the behavior of the princesses, and princes, can be interpreted and compared with gender stereotypes and norms to assess the impact their portrayals can have on the viewing audience. The film Tangled is often seen as Disney’s take on a modern princess, and Rapunzel and Flynn have a great deal to contribute to both gender development study and media interpretation of gender. Gender development is a field of study which has been impacted in a number of ways by modern theorists...
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...The fact that animated films and cartoons affect the psyche of children creates no doubt, however the effect of Disney films on children’ mind and feelings, remains in the center of heated discussions. Many argue that Disney’s enchanting, wonderfully animated stories are infused with morals and leave children entertained, while memorable characters inspire and instil only good values. The criticism of Disney movies portraying negative stereotypes, violence and unethical for young children content is, however, growing with every new film. Even though Disney is “multinational mass media corporation” and so cannot please everyone, their films are still fairytales that apart from being entertaining, contain didactic messages and, therefore should be held to high critical standards. Disney films are filled with contradicting images and contain dark and childhood shattering moments, which can deeply influence impressionable minds of children. For example in Dumbo and The Princess Frog beautifully drawn characters and nature are opposed to some seriously disturbing images of monsters and demons, like Dumbo’s hallucinations or shadow monsters in The Princess Frog. In Dumbo, the mother elephant is beaten and incarcerated and little Dumbo cannot see her anymore, and in The Princess Frog, the evil Shadow Man, murders a heroic firefly by crushing him up with his foot. Describing the influence of Disney’s films on individual identities, Henry A. Giroux and Donald A. Gross and Todd G.Shields...
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...When talking about Disney fairytales, what is the one thing that most people in America assume will happen in the movie? It would be that a “Prince Charming” will come and save the Princesses in whatever predicament that they are in. For instance, in the Disney Fairytale Snow White. She dies by an evil witch’s spell and the her “Prince Charming” comes and saves her with true love’s kiss. The trend of these movies has continued throughout the years, until a recent changed in one of their recent movies. In the Disney fairytale Tangled, it utilizes the same stereotypes where the main character, Rapunzel, has beauty, she can sing, she has an evil mother, she cleans up around the house, has an animal friend, and the list goes on. Yet the movie itself also pushes against the fairytale expectation. They say that most fairytales focus on the woman of the movie, and that the male figure is barely present. In Tangled, however, there is a focus on men who are much more developed then the typical Prince Charming character. While the roles of women have significantly changed in fairy tales since becoming popular, the roles of men have stayed the same. The heroes of these fairy tales appear to be rich and powerful but what they do lack is personality. For example, in the movie Snow White, the Prince comes out of thin air but he’s handsome, and rich, and his character hadn’t even been developed. The males tend to be royalty, handsome, and they are everything that a Princess ever dreams of. But...
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...When talking about Disney fairytales, what is the one thing that most people in America assume will happen in the movie? It would be that a “Prince Charming” will come and save the Princesses in whatever predicament that they are in. For instance, in the Disney Fairytale Snow White. She dies by an evil witch’s spell and the her “Prince Charming” comes and saves her with true love’s kiss. The trend of these movies has continued throughout the years, until a recent changed in one of their recent movies. In the Disney fairytale Tangled, it utilizes the same stereotypes where the main character, Rapunzel, has beauty, she can sing, she has an evil mother, she cleans up around the house, has an animal friend, and the list goes on. Yet the movie itself also pushes against the fairytale expectation. They say that most fairytales focus on the woman of the movie, and that the male figure is barely present. In Tangled, however, there is a focus on men who are much more developed then the typical Prince Charming character. While the roles of women have significantly changed in fairy tales since becoming popular, the roles of men have stayed the same. The heroes of these fairy tales appear to be rich and powerful but what they do lack is personality. For example, in the movie Snow White, the Prince comes out of thin air but he’s handsome, and rich, and his character hadn’t even been developed. The males tend to be royalty, handsome, and they are everything that a Princess ever dreams of. But...
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...Disney characters : the reflect of women's place in the society Walt Disney, under his real name Walt Elias Disney was born in 1901 in Chicago. He founded in 1923 the famous Walt Disney Company with his brother Roy as the Disney Brothers Studios. After three years, the studios take the name Walt Disney Company. Their first animated film came out in 1937 "Snow White" inspired by a famous children's story by the Brothers Grimm. Thereafter follow many animated films like Cinderella, Mulan, or Rebel. One of the most important question in recent years is : What image Disney returns with respect to the role of women and the role that women play in society in the twenty-first century? In fact, Disney is primarily a media and integrate media stereotypes and habits of society to which they belong in their history or animated movie. Disney is the reflects of the habit of society to which they belong in their history or their short films. Thus heroines like Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora are submitted to wish than others, especially men, have chosen for her. They are docile women who spend their time dreaming. They are always save by men from a evil spell and are submit to the will of men. Instead, the heroines of the late twentieth century are beginning to take their lives and rebel against the male authority . In the twenty-first century heroines are increasingly rebelling and advocate of feminist principles : women are the equals of men. This analysis allows us to see a marked increase...
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...Feminism in 1990s Princess Movies In the late 1980s and 1990s, with the third wave of feminism introducing women to take actions to obtain their goals, the Disney Company experienced a renaissance by returning to its most successful genre—fairytales. After the huge success of The Little Mermaid in 1989, the Walt Disney Company released another well known story, Beauty and the Beast, in 1991. With the enormous success of the film, many scholars criticized that these princess films actually promoted an anti-feminist message and were worried that the films would influence the thoughts of young girls and women. However, these films in the late 80s and 90s evolved from previous films. In fact, Linda Woolverton, the first female Disney animation writer, was the script-writer of Beauty and the Beast. The Walt Disney Company always cared about what the fans wanted and thought. By hiring a female script writer, Disney could make audience better understand feminism, especially at the time of third-wave feminism. The 1980s and 1990s movies, especially Beauty and the Beast, convey a feminist message because of the themes of inner beauty, progressive gender roles and freedom of choice. Beauty and the Beast presents the importance of personality and ambition over physical appearance. Some people argued that the message that being pretty is very important in princess movies is anti-feminist. They thought the pretty princesses suggested to young girls that women’s appearances were the most...
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...Every little girl wants to feel beautiful. She dresses up in sparkly costumes and stumbles around in her mother’s high heels because this is what has been ingrained in her mind as beautiful from her favorite Disney movies. From infancy to adulthood, we cherish the princess movies that we feel connected to. We all wanted to be part of Ariel’s world or be rescued from Maleficent’s evil grasp. However, we never question the value of these Disney Princesses influence on young girls. Are these princesses setting a good example for the aspirations of today’s children? The grasp of Disney Princesses reaches incredible lengths. They’re international symbols that are recognizable all over the world, but perhaps they are not the best role models to idolize. Disney Princesses do not represent positive icons for young girls because they glamorize unrealistic concepts of beauty and promote naïve life choices. Disney released its first Disney princess film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, in 1937. Since its release, Disney has created twenty-three other animated Disney films that could be considered princesses. These princesses bring in billions of dollars of revenue through Disneyworld merchandise, attractions, characters, and movies (Disney...
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...Gender Roles and Disney The Disney princess has become one of the most iconic symbols of Walt’s ever growing empire. The disney Princess’ franchise first began in 1937 with the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs making Snow White the first princess in the now infamous princess lineup. The franchise continues with the most recent disney princess movie Tangled ( Rapunzel) which came out in 2011. Disney and their filmmakers caused great controversy with their princess’ such as race. Disney broke their european tradition by adding their first African American Princess to the line up. Princess Tiana of The Princess and the Frog in 2009 which still caused controversy. Another one of Disney’s biggest controversial topics was gender roles and how women and men are portrayed in these disney films. Gender roles are separate patterns of personality traits, mannerisms, interests, attitudes, and behaviors that are regarded as either "male" or "female" by one's culture. They are what is considered the “ Norm” for the male and female sex. There are stereotypical behaviors normally associated with either gender such as Women are suppose to be more passive aggressive, overly emotional, and illogical, just to name a few characteristics. While men tend to be more tough or in control, leaders, Not crying or wimpy and a womanizer As suggested in Kimmel’s “ Bros before Hos”: The Guy Code in Language Awareness (469). These same messages are often presented to children through the media they...
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...Becoming a Princess: The Transition From Individual to Sex Object (Ali Wachutka( rince Charming did not kiss Snow White to wake her. Ariel never really loved Eric. The Beast was not angry and violent. Mulan never fell in love with her general. At least not in the original versions of the stories; all these changes were added by Disney to make a more interesting movie, or to forward a sexist agenda. A multitude of sexist messages are present in Disney movies teaching young girls that they are expected to fill a submissive role in society. The fairy tales are symbolic of women’s lives being shaped by male influences. Over time, the sexist message in Disney movies has become less apparent, but it has never disappeared; it is merely buried within a classic fairy tale that the “magic of Disney” has transformed into a sexist lesson. Naturally, these movies must not have a traumatic affect on little girls. Parents are not actually harming their daughters by allowing them to indulge their fairy tale fantasies. Not according to Jack Zipes, leading expert on fairy tales and German professor at the University of Minnesota, the movies have “a type of gender stereotyping . . . that has an adverse effect on children, in contrast to what parents think . . .. Parents think they’re essentially harmless – they are not harmless” (Giroux, “Roared” 103). Maria Tatar, Harvard folklorist, also sees harm in the movies since “[Disney] capitalizes on the worst part of fairytales”...
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...The Allegory of the Cave and Disney Movies The Allegory of the Cave is one of many vivid and complex stories in Plato’s book entitled “The Republic”. The Allegory of the Cave is a story about the unseen truth of the outside world. The story takes place underground in a cave where prisoners are forced to watch a show that they believe is what life only consists of. There is a blazing fire set back behind them and a wall where puppets are displayed so that it casts images on the wall in front of the prisoners. Their heads are chained so that the only thing that they are able to see is what is being projected on the wall. For the prisoners, this is all that they know about life and all they have ever known. A prisoner later escapes and finds his way out of the cave and into a world that he did not believe existed. He was blinded not only by the light but blinded from what he missed out on for so long. He was so happy of what he has seen but discouraged at the same time of what the cave has made him believe for such a long period. He traveled back to the cave to tell the others of such a beautiful place above them, but to his dismay, the prisoner’s scolded him and didn’t believe a word he said. For the prisoners, the cave was all they knew and they were angry that someone would try and tell them otherwise. The prisoners didn’t want to believe they were being hidden from the truth. Plato used many metaphors in the story, For instance, I believe that the cave is used...
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...Marriage”, she gives insight on how marriage has evolved throughout centuries and the norms within them. In the article “Paradise Lost”, author Terry Hekker writes of her own personal testimony concerning her marriage and how societies view on marriage has shifted over the years. She explains what she expected marriage to be when she was married in the fifties and how it panned out with examples from outside testimonies as well. In the online article “The Problem with Modern Marriage”, Dr. Erica Slotter discusses common issues with today's marriages in the United States with examples. In Catherine Orenstein's article “Fairy Tales and a Dose of Reality”, she illustrates the connection between fairy tales or princess culture and how it affects modern views on marriage through media. Princess media, to an extent, sets unrealistic expectations and tainted views of romantic relationships and...
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...“Behind the Fair Façade” Representations of Femininity in Three Walt Disney Animated Features Bachelor Thesis Bethany Schouten, 3278972 Media en Cultuurwetenschappen Genderstudies Supervisor: Domitilla Olivieri May 31st, 2011 “Behind the Fair Façade” Representations of Femininity in Three Walt Disney Animated Features Bachelor thesis by Bethany Schouten, 3278972 Index Introduction 3 Methodological and theoretical Framework 4 Corpus 9 The Research: SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS 11 The Research: THE LITTLE MERMAID 18 The Research: THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG 24 Findings and Interpretation 31 Identity Formation 35 Conclusion 38 Literature 41 Media 43 Introduction The Walt Disney Company’s cultural products have been a great influence on popular culture since the 1930s and an inspiration for generations all over the world ever since. For many, including myself, the Princes, Princesses and fantastical creatures of Disney’s animated fairy tales have become symbols of their youth. Seeing the films gives rise to a feeling of nostalgia, they become a memento of one’s childhood world. But what kind of world is this? What kind of realities do Disney’s fantastical representations construct? In my thesis, I will analyze a specific element of Disney films: gender roles constructed through the representation of femininity in their animated...
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...form of motion pictures, we are exposed at an early age, to idealized, gender-appropriate images that are eventually embedded in our minds. Even child-oriented Disney films such as Mulan and Beauty and the Beast display similar projections of the ideal male and female. The ideal male in such films is handsome, physically fit, and charismatic to attract the female protagonist while the ideal female is beautiful and captivating enough to attract the male protagonist’s attention. Such glorified projections are subtlety made but easily manipulative to prescribe to all the way to fit the role of an ideal male or female. Over the years, the media has been slowly evolving but it has become more pervasive and changed the way people perceive about their image. Many times the influence comes from what we see in innocent films but we do not recognize what the meaning is behind them. For instance, in Disney movies, the male characters come off as if they are more knowledgeable and capable of doing more than a female character can. Mia Adessa Towbin claims that men primarily use physical means to express their emotions or show no emotions, and that men are not in control of their sexuality. Men are naturally strong and heroic, men have non-domestic jobs, and overweight men have negative characteristics (Towbin 29). Disney films depict a lot of these male characteristics in characters such as Li Shang from the movie, Mulan and Beast from the movie, Beauty and the Beast. The male...
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...Disney and the American Princess: The Americanization of European Fairy Tales [pic] Marina Alexandrova Student number 3021874 MA Thesis, American Studies Program Utrecht University Course code 200401064 23943 words 12 August 2009 Contents Title page………………………………………………………………1 Contents……………………………………………………………….2 Introduction……………………………………………………………3 Chapter 1: European Fairy Tales and Values about Gender and Class………………………………………10 Chapter 2: Disney Animation and American Culture…………………24 Chapter 3: Disney Animation and (Gender) Commodification…………………………………………..55 Conclusion…………………………………………………………...73 Bibliography…………………………………………………………78 Introduction Among the various aspects which define contemporary life, popular culture – and in particular, American popular culture – is undoubtedly one of the most ubiquitous and long-lasting. Throughout the twentieth century, people around the world have enjoyed film, music, animation, and written works by various authors and artists. One of the most famous and significant American entertainers of the lot has been Walt Disney, introducing millions of children and adults to his world of limitless (or so is widely believed) imagination and magic, from the earliest short cartoons produced in the 1920s, to full-length feature animations such as Snow White and the Seven...
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