...Femininity in Disney film "Alice in Wonderland" Leanne Lo Does 'femininity' show what it means to be as a woman in Disney film? The issue of gender does not necessarily show the original meaning of femininity in the Disney film "Alice in Wonderland" in 2010. This film is an American computer-animated and live action film by director Tim Burton, which gets its ideas from the British novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll in 1865 and its 1871 sequel "Through the Looking-Glass". The story tells about the latest adventure of the main character Alice Kingsleigh to Underland, where she visited thirteen years ago when she was six. At that time the Underland (or Wonderland as Alice calls it) was the White Queen's reign, but now being controlled by her easily-irritated sister the Red Queen who hates animals and uses them as servants. Alice is foretold to be the only one who can slay the dragon-like creature Jabberwocky which is controlled by the Red Queen who terrorizes Underland's inhabitants, and finally with her courage restores the White Queen to power. The film Alice in Wonderland has showed different meaning of femininity by the three main characters Alice, the Red Queen , and the White Queen, who play other than traditional gender roles of women as expected by the society. Like Alice who is brave to confront the society's expectations of a young woman by being strong and courageous to choose her own life. Also, the Red Queen and the White Queen have shown...
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...publicly rejecting the societal conformations to gender roles, specifically those of women, and also function well in providing a connection between the characters of the stories and the readers. Esperanza, the main character, seems to be invested in a fantastical view of the world that she alludes to in describing her experiences and telling her stories. In the course of the development of Esperanza’s character, it can be seen that while she first admires and aspires to be the Cinderella that she feels like when the shoes given to her fit, she grows into a person that uses stories as a means of escape—her recital of “The Walrus and the Carpenter” to Ruthie—and finally, in her allusion to Rapunzel when she describes Rafaela’s marriage, it seems that Esperanza comprehends the clichéd gender roles and realizes women accept their lives as helpless objects in need of rescue. Besides these instances, various other women, such as Marin, “Waiting for a car to stop, a start to fall, someone to change her life” (27). Also, any reader who has experienced Western culture in her upbringing would either relate to and be affected by Esperanza’s changing attitude toward fairy-tales and children’s stories. Although Esperanza’s connection to such tales might be naïve and not a transformation at all, they are sure to agitate readers to the blatancy of male oppression. The theme of women admiring such patriarchal portrayals as Cinderella or accepting the role of Rapunzel, and the like, who need to be rescued...
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...Yayoi Kusama: The Modern Alice in Wonderland Being a pioneer in the minimalism and feminist art movement, Yayoi Kusama is constantly pushing boundaries in the realm of culture and art. Every element in Kusama’s artwork, such as repetition, pattern and accumulation, questions the viewers to rethink social and political norms of society in the hopes that it would inspire change to gender equality. Her installation, Walking Piece, serves as an exemplary example of dissolving boundaries between human, art and environment. Dressed in a traditional pink kimono and holding an umbrella decorated with traditional Japanese flowers, Kusama wanders around the city of New York against a grey sea of houses. This performance, through the association of...
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...How does the concept of ‘innocence’ affect our understanding of childhood and children’s lives? Introduction Everyday lives challenge the construction of childhood as a time of innocence Explain the idea of innocence – romantic discourse of childhood and how it shaped our view of childhood Barnados and ‘Painted babies’ Representation of childhood innocence in sexuality and criminality, and the roles, the age and gender play in portraying children as innocent of guilty Innocence Children enjoy dressing up and experimenting with clothes and make up as part of their play – a way to explore gendered identities and expectations. There is suggestion that ‘painted babies’ something more sexualized and provocative is going on promoted from a commercial venture and encouraged by parents Adults are quick to dismiss any loss of innocence or links with sexuality in the girls dressing up or performance. Although childhood innocence is a very powerful discourse...
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...generation has prospered into a typical and popular routine for today’s generation. Everyday citizens are consuming tons of information, and this information alters the way they think and act; this statement being the main topic of David Gauntlett’s chapter titled "Some Background Debates" in the novel Media, Gender and Identity: an Introduction. With continuous changes in technology, things can be broadcasted faster, in a wider range, and to larger audiences. It seems that everyone is being exposed to the media thus making anyone susceptible to the ways media has influence. Media gives audiences several stereotypes that represent gender roles. For example, an engaging study taken from chapter two of Gauntlett’s book is from Williams and Best. In 1977 they created a “sex stereotype index” by their experiment where, a large list of adjectives were shown and based of that list participants would pick which gender the adjective was associated with. The findings were, “over 25% of men had self-descriptions that were more stereotypic of women than the average women’s stereotype” (40). Moreover these results were identical to the women’s self-descriptions of themselves and when both genders were asked to pick adjectives describing others, the results yielded stereotypical characteristics. Consequently, this shows that we might not apply stereotypes to ourselves, but when it comes to others we apply them frequently. Another part of the chapter that was fascinating was the debate between...
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...cultures see twinning in positive terms [divinity, fertility], many see the phenomenon in negative terms [infanticide of one or both twins, death of the mother, banishment of the family, exposure of the twins, starvation of one or both twins, death to girls and life to boy twins]. Stewart also discusses the importance of support groups, such as MELD, to help parents strategize and cope with raising multiples. Interestingly, the Yoruba of Nigeria have the highest twinning rates in the world. Stewart spends a lot of time noting the occurrence of twins in literature, from Shakespeare, Rogers and Hart, Mark Twain, and Alice in Wonderland. They also appear prominently in films such as The Dark Mirror, The Parent Trap, Dead Ringers and Twins. She points out that twins research is often used to deduce the impact of nature vs. nurture, the extent to which the environment plays a role in our lives. The medical research model or the twin clinical model is divided into four cases: both twins affected in the same environment, only one twin affected in the same environment, both twins affected in a different environment, and only one twin affected in a different environment [p. 41]. The most interesting chapter to me dealt with measuring twinship or the psychology of...
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...Marketing Research and Communications 2 Table of Contents Company Background 3 Introduction 4 Communication Objectives 5 M&S Christmas campaign into SMART terms: 5 Identify target audiences 6 Communications Mix 7 Communications tools 8 Evaluation of effectiveness 11 Marketing Research Techniques 12 Conclusion 14 Reference List: 15 Appendix 16 Company Background Marks and Spencer is one of the biggest public trading company in the world. In the last 129 years, M&S has been transformed from a single market stall to a successful international multi-retailer. Their business is now spread in more than 50 countries and employs almost 82,000 people. M&S now operating in many different markets including Beauty; Food; Drinks; Technology; Clothing; Energy; Banking; Cosmetics and Perfumes…etc. In 2005, they used a tag line “this is not just any food…” This tag line convinced the consumer that they are not just buying high quality of food; they are also buying a high quality of life. Each of these values has helped M&S to become a personal product to their customer. * Please watch Appendix 1 on YouTube for 150 seconds video advert Introduction Every year Christmas is one of the most important festivals in the western society. All retailer business invest large amount of money into advertisement to promote their company. M&S have giving the public an image of “old fashioned” in the past decade. This year they are tying to turn thing...
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...The Fluidity of Disney. Gender Norms & Racial Bias in the Study of the Modern “Disney” The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media corporation headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the world's second largest broadcasting and cable company in terms of revenue, after Comcast. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, and established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television, and theme parks. The company also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio, then Walt Disney Productions. Taking on its current name in 1986, it expanded its existing operations and also started divisions focused upon theater, radio, music, publishing, and online media. In addition, Disney has created new corporate divisions in order to market more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-oriented brands. The company is best known for the products of its film studio, the Walt Disney Studios, which is today one of the largest and best-known studios in Hollywood. Disney also owns and operates the ABC broadcast television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, A+E Networks, and ABC Family; publishing, merchandising, and theatre divisions; and owns and licenses 14 theme parks around the world. It also has a...
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...exhibits the point I wish to instill: the necessity of imaginative freedom in myth. Let Absurdity Reign Erich Fromm interprets the story of Little Red Riding Hood as the “expression of a deep antagonism against men and sex” (TFL 241). Men (who are represented by the wolf) are seen as “ruthless and cunning animals, who turn the sexual act into a cannibalistic ritual” (CFT 7). A man is a heartless animal driven by the two most primary animal faculties: lust and hunger. Susan Brownmiller contrasts this position with her interpretation of the same tale as a “cultural story that holds the gender bottom line by perpetuating the notion that women are at once victims of male violence even as they must position themselves as beneficiaries of male protection”(CFT 8). Thus, according to Fromm, it is the wolf himself that symbolizes men, whilst for Brownmiller the story itself perpetuates a message of gender prejudice and stereotyping. On top of these two interpretations one could heap psychoanalytic interpretations of womb envy by the wolf (Anne Sexton), the succumbing of a young innocent youth through lies and trickery, thereby straying from the idealized Christian path, the loss of virginity and innocence as symbolized by that pivotal symbolic breaking of the bottle and so on and so on and so on. Interpretations...
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...domesticity. The habitual comfort of tea, ac- cording to Sigmond’s tea treatise, does not draw attention; it is quiet and familiar and thus goes unnoticed. Tea is represented as dependable, a frequent part of everyday life that forms a com- fortable, secure basis for the rest of life’s responses, decisions, and actions. As Sigmond declares, the English tea drinker is “in- capable of appreciating [tea’s] value” (1). What the typical tea drinker fails to recognize, Sigmond suggests, is the crucial role that tea plays in forming the foundation of everyday life. Despite Sigmond’s attempts to rectify the humble status of tea in nineteenth-century English culture, tea has remained a 1 2 introduction relatively unrecognized aspect of Victorian life. Just as Sigmond implies that the beverage’s mundane role precludes the tea drinker from appreciating its importance, the continued significance of tea in twentieth-century British society seems to have prevented scholars from adequately analyzing its role in British culture and national identity. As Anthony Burgess has speculated, “Perhaps tea is so woven into the stomach linings of the British that they cannot view it...
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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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...arrangements; the second category captures those whose narratives work instead to identify inequality and disrupt it. Building on Griswold’s methodological approach to literary fiction, this project examines how children’s novels describe, challenge, or even subvert systems of inequality. Through a sociological reading of three sampled texts – Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, A Wrinkle in Time, and Hitty: Her First Hundred Years – readers learn how these analytical categories work and how the sociology of literature might be enriched by attention to structural forms of inequality within literary fiction. This essay investigates children’s books in order to reinvigorate the discussion and use of novels by sociologists. Keywords: childhood, fiction, gender, literary analysis, literary narrative, power relations, social inequalities, Sociology, Sociology of literature Acknowledgments: I...
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... 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 features. I will study how this representation changes over time: has Disney’s highly criticized construction of gender roles changed over time, and if so, what realities do contemporary Disney discourses construct? I propose to research how femininity is represented in Walt Disney‘s animated features, how this representation changes over time and what kind of effects this has on the...
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...is autobiographical and may be nonfictional (see Common Literary Forms and Genres below). Third-person narration: The narrator remains outside the story and describes the characters in the story using proper names and the third-person pronouns “he,” “she,” “it,” and “they.” • Omniscient narration: The narrator knows all of the actions, feelings, and motivations of all of the characters. For example, the narrator of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina seems to know everything about all the characters and events in the story. • Limited omniscient narration: The narrator knows the actions, feelings, and motivations of only one or a handful of characters. For example, the narrator of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has full knowledge of only Alice. • Free indirect discourse: The narrator conveys a character’s inner thoughts while staying in the third person. Gustave Flaubert pioneered this style in Madame Bovary, as in this passage: “Sometimes she thought that these were after all the best days of her life, the honeymoon, so-called.” Objective narration: A style in which the narrator reports neutrally on the outward behavior of the characters but offers no interpretation of their actions or their inner states....
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...A VISUAL GUIDE TO ESSAY WRITING Dr Valli Rao, Associate Professor Kate Chanock, and Dr Lakshmi Krishnan use a visual approach to walk students through the most important processes in essay writing for university: formulating, refining, and expressing academic argument. ‘MetamorTHESIS‘ Your main argument or thesis is your position in answer to the essay question. It changes and develops as you undertake your reading and research towards the essay. how to develop & communicate academic argument “I love the way the authors explain what an argument is. I also love the way they justify holding opinions in an academic context … A Visual Guide to Essay Writing shows you excellently how to communicate with your marker by employing your ‘authorial voice’.” - Dr Alastair Greig Head, School of Social Sciences The Australian National University Valli Rao Kate Chanock Lakshmi Krishnan “This is a great book ... clear, useful, beautifully conceived and produced ... an intriguing approach, one that will make sense to students and really assist their essay writing skills.” - Brigid Ballard & John Clanchy authors of the international best-seller Essay writing for students: a practical guide How effective structure supports reasoned argument in essays1 Discipline/field Topic Underlying question Introduce discipline/field/context and topic Roughly, 10–15% of essay length Why is this topic interesting from the perspective of the discipline/field...
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