Disney's Princess Movies : Changing Gender Roles In Disney And Female Stereotypes

Disney movies have been the leading outlets for child education and social learning. Due to such power of influence controversies have been raised which include the following, but not limited to, gender roles and stereotypes, issues of independence, and misrepresentation. Many people argue that despite the morals and messages that occur within such films there are still underlying messages that deal with beauty standards and norms. However, others may argue that Disney is evolutionary and evolved the imagery of male/female standards. The controversy then becomes: are Disney films doing more harm than they are good? Due to certain themes brought on by such movies, it has left younger audiences with both positive and

Stephanie Hanes, a correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, discusses in her article, “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect,” how media can affect the way little girls think and behave later on in life. Hanes article acknowledges significant dilemmas parents and their daughters face while growing up in a hypersexualized society. Intentionally, Hanes uses logos and pathos to appeal to all types of readers. By relating to people, the author makes readers more likely to be responsive to the information given out in the article.

Disney strongly portrays gendered stereotypes using their eleven official princesses. Young children, specifically young girls in this case, are extremely susceptible to being influenced by the portrayal of these gendered stereotypes. Golden and Jacoby performed research regarding how preschool girls interpret the gendered stereotypes shown through Disney Princess media, through both the young girls’ pretend play behaviors and the discussion of the princesses. Golden and Jacoby performed this research project in order to examine the perception of young girls in relation to princesses and awareness of gender-role stereotypes, a different research study found that girls who lived and accepted gendered stereotypes, in believing that women

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

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.

If the company’s largest seven films are observed, namely the classic Disney princess films, the gender stereotypes become quite apparent. A study done on sex roles of Disney princesses by Dawn Elizabeth England had examined reoccurring similarities in all of the Disney princesses. The first being the physical: these namely address the unrealistic proportions, such as the thin waists, delicate limbs, full breasts and fair skin tones. (Dawn Elizabeth England) These unattainable characteristics may lead young girls into being unsatisfied with their looks and may lead to self-esteem issues. In her book, The Sexualization of Childhood, Sharna Olfman explains the various images Disney princesses convey to children. She argues, “The female ideal is a rich white girl who lives in a big house with servants who do the work” (Olfman 40). This may give young girls the idea that the only way to get noticed or to get attention from the opposite sex is to have effortless beauty and to capture the males heart with looks alone. Young girls are thought that looks should be one of the primary methods through which a woman’s attitude and personality should be rated. This gives a shallow perception of what it takes to actually obtain a spouse. This teaches girls to be superficial and not to depend on their own personalities and mental capabilities in order to be

From a young age, princess culture has impacted the lives of numerous people. Some individuals may have spent their childhood in the attire of their favorite Disney princess while they put on their best rendition of the character they admired most. Other children went seemingly unfazed by the phenomenon, as their peers remained spellbound by the magical world of princesses. With Disney’s debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, princess movies provided the defining factor of the Disney entertainment empire for years to come. From this, fairy tales embarked into a territory that would touch the lives of many in a new way. However, since princess culture has considerably grown, opponents, such as Monika Bartyzel, question if princess

Parents believe these movies are giving positive messages to their children, but this is not the case. For example, in the movie Beauty and the Beast the moral of the story is that beauty comes from the inside. While this is the message that parents believe their children are receiving, there is a more deep-rooted message that young children cannot quite yet understand, but still effects their mindset as they age. Since many of the Disney princess movies were developed in the later half of the twentieth century, they often convey the stereotypical gender role messages of that time period (Bishop 2). According to author Amy Blackstone from the University of Maine, “Gender roles are the roles that men and women are expected to occupy based on their sex” (336). Therefore, during this time the gender roles were that men were dominant individuals, leading the home. On the other hand, women were depicted as fragile that were only capable of domestic work in the

Since childhood, we are taught what norms are appropriate and meant for depending on the gender we are ascribed to. Ferris and Stein (2014), define norms as “the rules and guidelines regarding what kinds of behaviors are acceptable and appropriate within [a certain] culture (84). These gender norms are passed down to us through the culture our parents and ancestors belonged to.

For decades now, Disney Corporation has been providing us with countless films made to delight and amuse children and adults alike. But not all Disney films seem particularly appropriate for their target audience. Many of these films portray violence, gender inequality, and skewed views of leadership roles that seem altogether inappropriate for impressionable young children. Better and more contemporary heroines need to be added to Disney’s wall of princesses in order to counteract years of sexism.

At the beginning of this class, I had very little confidence in my ability to convey my ideas through writing. Now that I have reached the end of this course, I have learned many techniques and skills that have helped me with my various writing projects throughout the semester as well as my final research project. The first course outcome that I really worked toward throughout the semester is being able to engage with texts critically and to incorporate the ideas from those texts into my own work. From essentially day one of this course there were assigned readings of Giroux’s The Mouse that Roared. After each reading, there would be an analysis of the dense text during the following day of class. In addition to Giroux, there were also several

Indeed, in the first essay, “Girls on Film: The Real Problem with the Disney Princess Brand” by Monika Bartyzel, an experienced freelance writer and editor regarding women in film who began the Alliance for Women

Disney is one of the most successful and largest companies in the world. They have their hand in nearly every form of entertainment as well as media, and broadcasting. Disney is best known for their animated films, unique cartoon characters, catchy musicals, and fairy tales that most of us were first introduced to as children. They are one of the few entertainment companies in the World whose primary demographic is children and teens. Nearly everybody is familiar with the Disney name and its brand, and its realistic to suggest that nearly everybody has experienced a Disney film and animated character at some point in their lives; which may have helped to influence them or their behaviors or even their

Cramped in a small Los Angeles office, Walt Disney drew a few larger than life cartoons. After Disney’s big hit Alice Comedies and cartoons of Mickey and the gang, he moved his office to Burbank, California. There, Walt and his brother, Roy, came up with their most famous movies such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Alice in Wonderland. Now with two American amusement parks, three international parks, multiple cruise lines, multiple resorts, over five hundred films, and over thirty academy award, it’s hard to not heard of Disney. Every boy or girl has at least seen or heard of Disney movies. It’s such a big part of society today that it becomes influential in a kid’s childhood. This project will look at the underlying effect of the Disney princess phenomenon and how it shapes a young girls’ perspective of herself and how she’s “supposed” to be.

Princesses, especially Disney princesses, are usually a big part of a little girl’s childhood. With new princesses, we are getting a more active and much less passive group of young adult girls. However, the old movies, because they are beloved movies, often from parents’ childhood, are still shown often. When just shown, with no explanation that these are old, outdated values, children can start get the wrong message. Snow White, Cinderella,