...Disney’s Portrayal of Women and Simplification of Morals For most people, the first image that comes to mind when the subject of Walt Disney’s animated movies comes up is the studio’s popular princesses. Ever since Snow White made her debut in 1937, Disney has cornered the market on princesses. One primary topic that critics have discussed in Disney’s films is the way princesses are portrayed. The roles of the female characters are especially drawing the interest of academic critics. Jack Zipes, author of Breaking the Disney Spell, believes that the Disney princesses have regressed. On the other hand, Libe Zarranz, author of Diswomen Strike Back? The Evolution of Disney’s Femmes in the 1990s, and Rebecca Do Rozario, author of The Princess and the Magic Kingdom: Beyond Nostalgia, The Function of the Disney Princess, believe that the Disney princess has progressed. Another aspect of Disney’s movies that catches the eyes of critics is the moral simplification in the films. They believe that the morals from the original fairy tales are being manipulated and simplified in the Disney films. A. Waller Hastings, author of Moral Simplification in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and Finn Mortensen, author of The Little Mermaid: Icon and Disneyfication, both agree that Disney’s simplification of morals is giving viewers the wrong depiction of life. Disney’s portrayal of women and simplification of morals are giving viewers the wrong impression of life and women. Many critics call the process...
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...The small figurine of The Sleeping Lady is one of the major highlights that one can find at the National Museum of Archaeology at Valletta. It is one of the unique prehistoric artworks that were found in a pit at the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, dating back to approximately 3600-2500 B.C.E. This figurine represents a corpulent woman lying on her right side on top of a couch. The apparent size of the female that of being a corpulent woman, may be a representation of the godess of fertility. If we link this artwork with the time it was made, we can actually find that fertility was a very important issue for the people in general as it not only represents the re-generation of people but also their standard of living. Re-generation of people was a vital asset for them, as to have ancestors which will continue to flourish their culture. Being corpulent could also be considered as a symbol of prosperity, that there was food and that therefore people were strong. Additionally we can connect fertility with agriculture, which means that there’s a good crop season. It was also believed that being a corpulent woman was easier to give birth. Sleep can symbolise the eternal sleep, in other words- death. This is in fact very relevant as the figurine was found in a place which was used as a burial place. Moreover if we look closely to The Sleeping Lady we can see that her facial expression evokes serenity. It could also be a representation of a period of time when there was lack of fertility...
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...Cheyenne Savoie April 11, 2013 HIST 203 The Pullman Strike The Pullman Strike started on May 11, 1894. It was a conflict that was going on all across the nation. It included the American Railroad Union (ARU) and other railroads that occurred in America at that time. Beginning in a town called Pullman Illinois, with over four thousand employees that worked for the Pullman Palace Car Company. The strike started because the employees were upset with their current changes in reducing their pay. George Pullman was the president of the Pullman Palace Car Company. He designed the passenger railroad car, which included comfortable seats as well as sleeping cars for people to travel. He also takes credit for creating the “model” community of Pullman, Illinois. In 1894 there was a depression that led to the Pullman Palace Car Company cutting wages to almost forty percent, and lay off tons of workers. As the workers got more and more angry as bad things kept happening in this depression, they decided to join the ARU and start a strike against George Pullman as he decided to not increase his wages. Throughout the strike there were two major newspapers that kept up with the recent gossip and incidents that were occurring. The Chicago Times supported the union, and the Chicago Tribune opposed the ARU boycott. During the time of the strike both newspapers differed in regards to the violence that was happening, while the Chicago Tribune was focusing on the violence of the...
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...jerk and twitch. What is more, a punctured forehead, nose and cheeks, detached half of the arm and torn locks of hair left no chance to Nancy for a bright future among the Abby’s toys. And nobody wanted to get insight into her trouble, everybody was occupied by other things and mostly by her elder sister, who had recently given birth to a child, and all the household was constantly talking about her and her baby, getting ready to their soon discharge from the maternity hospital. In response to Abby’s complaints everyone only instinctively nodded and pronounced: “Not now, honey, not now”. Full of sorrow and resentment the girl had been crying for a long time before she fell asleep with her eyes being red and swollen . At night while sleeping Abby felt her mother come into the room, kiss her forehead and cover her carefully with a blanket. Next morning Abby woke up because of the sounds of fuss, whispering and exclaiming somewhere in the house, and after a while the noise broke off. Getting up from the bed the girl caught sight of Nancy. Bitter feelings came over her again and tears welled up in her eyes. Full of intention to share her distress with the family Abby left the room. Coming along the hallway she heard someone whispering in the kitchen and she quickened her steps. The door of her sister’s room was slightly open and passing by she glimpsed something strange in it. Curiosity drew her into the sister’s room. The little cot, which was kept there for about two months...
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...In my paper, I discuss the purpose that motivates how antagonists in Disney movies are portrayed visually and behaviourally, and how these portrayals are intended to engage and assist the audience’s perception of such characters. Many Disney productions are adaptations of traditional fables and fairy tales which can often be traced back to Victorian times. In particular, stories from “Kinder -und Hausmärchen” written by Jacob and Wilheim Grimm are commonly employed in producing Disney films which adapt and elongate their storylines for the big screen. Consequently, much of the original storylines are altered for theatrical and practical purposes when adopted by the Walt Disney Company, and creative liberties often distort the intended portrayals of the characters that were determined in the original stories. For instance, in Walt Disney’s film “Cinderella” (1950), Cinderella’s stepsisters are portrayed as unattractive, with boyish figures and rectangular frames as well as facial features which may be considered ‘manly’. The discrepancy between the physical traits of the stepsisters featured in Disney’s film versus Grimms’ original description, which characterized them as having “beautiful features but proud, nasty and wicked hearts” (69), illustrates how Disney employs physical attraction to convey moral shortcomings. Specifically, Putnam, author of “Mean Ladies: Transgendered Villains in Disney Films”, notes that Disney’s “…villainous female characters are masculinized in...
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...Critique of “Cinderella and Princess Culture” In Peggy Orenstein’s article, “Cinderella and Princess Culture”, she emphasizes the thought that every little girl does not have to be a princess or like the “trends” that society has titled as “girly.” Orenstein states that little girls often do not get a choice in what they like because society has created the princess trend. She does not like the fact that playing princess can cause young girls to feel pressured to be perfect. Orenstein writes about her own experience with her daughter, asserting that girls should be given a free choice in what they like and dislike, but does not recognize that she is limiting her own daughter’s choices by closing off the idea that she might actually want to be a princess. Orenstein’s article, though effective, does not provide a clear stance on where she stands with the princess debate. She switches back and forth between accepting princesses to being against them. Orenstein speaks about the moment that caused her to be in outrage over the subject of princesses. She writes that the last straw was in a dentist’s office, when the dentist told her daughter, “Would you like to sit in my special princess throne so I can sparkle your teeth?” (326) Orenstein was already fed up with checkout clerks telling her daughter “Hi, Princess” every time they saw her, a waitress calling her daughter’s pancakes her “princess meal”, and when a lady handed her daughter a pink balloon instead of letting her pick one...
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...Once upon a time… but exactly when is that time? The time is past present and future. Oh how times have changed since the time of Snow White and Cinderella now we have Rapunzel and Moana. If you have ever seen these movies then hopefully you see the differences I see not only in the quality of the movies made, but the way they portray the characters in each movie. Gender roles have changed throughout time which is clearly seen in everyday life. Women are finally able to do many to most of the things that men do. We also see a huge difference on the way Disney portrays love in their older movies compared to now where a male love interest in not even included in the story. Disney is even beginning to give credibility to the LGBTQ community through smaller roles to slowly introduce these characters and people are beginning to accept this change. For example in Finding Dory (2016) a lesbian couple is shown for a short period time and can we not forget the main character, Ellen Degeneres, is gay. This diversity is helping other people feel accepted. Coming back to how gender roles have changed let us first look at Cinderella and how she was treated as nothing but a maid until she found a man who would be her prince charming that would free her from living with her evil stepmother and stepsisters. I am going to compare this story to Tangled (2010) a tale of a young rapunzel locked in a tower waiting for her prince charming to save her. She has learned to fend for herself because her...
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...“For who could ever learn to love a beast?” Quoted from the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. It best describes what Beauty and bell has to choose in both the film and the fairy tale. The story Beauty and the Beast was first created back in 1756 by Jeanne-Marie Leprince De Beaumont. The fairy tale was modified and recreated by many authors after her. However, one of the most notable adaptions to the original Beauty and the Beast would be Disney’s film created in 1991. It is said that Disney “sanitizes and simplifies“ fairytales to make it more appropriate for a child audience. When comparing Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast to Disney’s the differences are obvious, and the fairy tale is loosely represented in the film. The Disneyfication of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast is quite evident in all aspects in the movie, the most relevant, is the changes in the characters and the circumstances they deal with. Disney is forced to change aspects of fairytales to fit the theme they think parents and children want to see. In the film Beauty and the Beast many character were added and removed. To begin, the brothers and sisters of Beauty were not present at all in the film. The brothers were not a big part of the fairy tale, however, the two sisters were an important aspect that was not incorporated. The sisters are the one who hated Beauty in the story, they envied her and how much their father loved her. They devised a plan to get the Beast to eat Beauty, that eventually led to...
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... There is a story that is known as “A Tale as Old as Time”, and although this is a story that has been around for centuries the modern world had to find a way to incorporate this story into the 20th century. Over all there has been four versions of the tale of The Beauty and the Beast. The best known version of the tale is the Disney cartoon film of it that was released in 1991. However, 2017 was also presented with a live action film of the tale. Both are very similar in the way they were produced, but they do have some differences that can be picked out without even watching the film, one could probably tell by the movie posters presented to advertise both films. In 1989, Disney had just released the film The Little Mermaid, the film ended up being a huge success for Disney and the producers. Therefore, when Disney wanted to produce another princess movie so soon after, they really had to do it thoroughly and perfectly to ensure another Disney success. The 1991 film of Beauty and the Beast was advertised with a beautiful representation of the film. The movie poster is very colorful and simple. As soon as you look at the poster you are overwhelmed with the colors gold and blue, evidentially because of the iconic big and beautiful gold dress, Belle, the main character and princess in this film, wears. The color blue is also the color of the suit that the Beast that Belle falls in love with, wears. It pictures Belle and the Beast hand to hand dancing in a ball room. The side...
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...In “Cinderella and Princess Culture,” Peggy Orenstein debates the rising phenomenon of princess culture in today’s society, its financial success to the Disney corporation, and the potentially destructive effects it has on young women. Orenstein uses rebuttals and real-life examples to persuade the audience that princess culture is harming the progress made by feminism. Orenstein begins the article by giving numerous real-life experiences of how her daughter was referred to as “princess” or treated in a feminine manner, offering the reader with several specific instances of this occurring. Orenstein uses these examples to justify the inevitable eruption she has as a result, detailing an altercation in her daughter's dentist office. This retelling...
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...Transformation is a central concern when studying 'The Bloody Chamber' and 'The World's Wife'. How far would you agree with this observation? Transformation is a prominent theme in the 'The Bloody Chamber' and 'The World's Wife', with the transforming beast, the changing of man’s ideal of perfection and finally physical transformation occurring throughout both volumes. These 'transformations' are brought about via the chains of a patriarchal society which are imposed upon the female protagonists which causes them to have to leave their assumed role in society and assume a more independent and masculine role. Both authors use revisionism throughout their tales so as to allow both their feministic values to be expressed and to allow the female narrative voice to be heard and thus emphasise the sense of female empowerment and independence which permeates both volumes. As Sarah Gamble writes, both writers use the fairy tale as a vehicle for the perpetuation of female oppression in culture.[1] Transformation is a traditional theme of the fairy-tale with it being a key aspect of Carter's 'Cat tales.' In 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon', the love of Beauty is a catalyst for the metamorphosis of Mr Lyon which causes a transformation from his strong bestial qualities with his “unkempt” looks and his “rough, hot, stiff stubble” into the stereotype of the gentleman who walks calmly in the garden with his wife. Her enduring love for Mr Lyon develops him from the “leonine apparition” into...
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...Sleeping Beauty Once upon a time there was a Queen who had a beautiful baby daughter. She asked all the fairies in the kingdom to the christening, but unfortunately forgot to invite one of them, who was a bit of a witch as well. She came anyway, but as she passed the baby's cradle, she said: "When you are sixteen, you will injure yourself with a spindle and die!" "Oh, no!" screamed the Queen in horror. A good fairy quickly chanted a magic spell to change the curse. When she hurt herself, the girl would fall into a very deep sleep instead of dying. The years went by, the little Princess grew and became the most beautiful girl in the whole kingdom. Her mother was always very careful to keep her away from spindles, but the Princess, on her sixteenth birthday, as she wandered through the castle, came into a room where an old servant was spinning. "What are you doing?" she asked the servant. "I'm spinning. Haven't you seen a spindle before?" "No. Let me see it!" The servant handed the girl the spindle ... and she pricked herself with it and. with a sigh, dropped to the floor. The terrified old woman hurried to tell the Queen. Beside herself with anguish, the Queen did her best to awaken her daughter but in vain. The court doctors and wizards were called, but there was nothing they could do. The girl could not be wakened from her deep sleep. The good fairy who managed to avoid the worst of the curse came too, and the Queen said to her, "When will my daughter waken?" "I don't...
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...Kirsten Yu – March 5th, 2014 Reading the Brothers Grimm to Jenny Context Response As I read this poem the first time through, I assumed that whoever was talking was a male. The reason I believe that it is a man retelling this is because the title of the poem says “Reading the Brothers Grimm to Jenny”. However, no matter the gender, it is someone that Jenny looks up to. It is evident in the line “you insist I have the golden key” that Jenny admires the author. However, the author believes that he hasn’t done a good job of preparing her for the future. The author believes that they’ve forced her in to thinking of a pleasant and fantasized world where nothing can go wrong. However, she will eventually have to understand that life is not so and has to face reality. The author understands that she has to “live with power and honour circumstance[s]”. Jenny’s heart is pure, and the author is afraid of how she will react when she is exposed to reality. She’s been penetrated with thoughts that life is perfect, and when mistakes are made, they are fixable. Some examples of tales that have been told to Jenny include: “birds speak the truth”, “beauty proves a royal mind”, and that “death is a small mistake, where [a] kiss revives”. At the end of his list of tales, he says “Jenny, we make just dreams out of our unjust lives”, which clearly means that we only make up fantasies to fulfill a bit of hope and happiness because we suffer through stressful lives. Overall, I...
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...kids, Disney films have grown to nurture their escalation into developing as a child. Children have viewed different characters in different colours and patterns, whether idolizing them, favouring them or even despising them; those characters succeeded in impacting the mentality of those children, marking a point of interest that I would like to thoroughly investigate in this research assignment. Bearing that in mind, I have centered the aim of my research on the pink innuendos flaring from the very similar roles of the helpless princesses of Disney – the same innuendos that are now mostly looked as the societal norms of the Disney world. Some particular films that I have studied include ‘Cinderella’, ‘Snow White’, ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Beauty and The Beast’, ‘Tangled’, and ‘Mulan’. Through the utilization of those films, I have carried my study in an order that would allow me to scrutinize the similarities assigned to the ‘pink’ customs fitted to Disney princesses, and any other differences that could break the code followed through years on the films – hence an investigation in the representation of conventional Disney princesses. Disney films have allowed children to compose a preconceived idea of women or female roles in the films or even in life altogether, as helpless, and in need of an external party (usually male – or the Prince Charming) to come in and switch their lives into the better. These stereotypical roles assigned to the princesses are usually...
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...who help the wild campers find the best locations so by far there is no competitors in the market. Let’s look at a few statistics about prices, occupancy and overnight stays in casmpsites in Scandinavian countries: Camping prices by countries (2008): Seasonal variation in occupancy of collective tourist accommodation, monthly data, 2009: company description Our company is an organizing company which is similar to the travel agencies. What do we provide is: * book your flight to the desired country * arrange your transfer from the airport * giving you useful information about the possible spots where you can wild camp in the desired area * a qualified tour guide who is from your destination * ensure the tent, sleeping bags, camping furniture, coolbox, cooking accessories, tent lighting and other additional accessories if needed * for your convenience we can offer some extra services which is connected to the place and/or your preferences such as horse riding, skydiving, rafting In our homepage the travelers can easily piece together their own package and we will calculate the price based on that. Over...
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