Little Mermaid Stereotypes

In the world of film, there is usually a stereotypical role for each gender. For example, the man is usually portrayed as the hero and the woman is in some sort of distress and needs to be saved. Women in movies are generally shown as weak and needing a man to survive. For example, in the Disney movie “Cinderella”, Cinderella lives a horrible and unhappy life until she meets Prince Charming. When Prince Charming rescues Cinderella, they fall in love, she becomes happy, and they live happily ever after. There are a few movies out there, though, which show the opposite. Both “She Done Him Wrong” and “Scarlet Street” are films that portray the main female characters, Lady Lou and Kitty March, as strong and independent women, both acting how

Gender is a sociological idea, in which it is not based on biology. While there is some biological differences between the sexes, the “meaning” of being male or female is based on social norms. Like race, these “biological” differences provided a system of enabling inequality between the sexes. History offers many examples of the gender norms over time. Women, for centuries, are few as the homemakers and often viewed as intelligent. Despite living in the twentieth century with greater equality, one does not need to go far to see how society and media influence our perception of gender. Advertisements in various media persuade its audience to buying their products. However, the means of attracting and persuading the audience can have underlying messages. Even in entertainment for young girls these underlying messages are prevalent. One example is the popular film, The Little Mermaid, in which the main protagonist is a young female. The protagonist gave up her identity to satisfy her lover. Even traditional gender roles are at work; the film showed young girls that to be happy and successful one had to find a husband and must relinquished one’s identity (Wood 1994). The generalized perception of male and female are polar opposites. Males are viewed as masculine, strong, authoritative, powerful, and devoid of emotions. Females are viewed as beauty, fragile, nurturing, emotional and sole purpose is to please men. These ideas can lead to sexism, which can have negative effects on

Throughout the Disney films, traditional feminine and masculine characteristics are exhibited by each respectively through behaviors and decisions (Graves, 1999). Thompson and Zerbinos(1995) conducted a study consisting of 89 children (ages four to nine years) to analyze their interpretation of how female and male characters are presented in Disney movies. The results displayed that boys were more active and aggressive, while girls were viewed as loving, domestic, and concerned with their appearances (Thompson and Zerbinos, 1995). In Cinderella, for instance, Cinderella is portrayed as a “slave” to her step-mother. She is mainly found doing domestic work, such as cooking and cleaning, without complaint. She even sings and smiles throughout. Domestic work is used as an act of submission to the superior of the female character and is shown as a method to gain love from others. Charlotte, from The Princess and the Frog, is constantly shown doing housework as well. Her mother is even known as “the finest seamstress in New Orleans,” as sewing is highly associated with female characteristics (Towbin et al, 2008). As can be explained via the cultivation theory, the ideology demonstrated by Disney films that domestic work is a female chore causes girls and boys to form that particular social standard and follow it just so. Even today, the role of the woman was shown to be motherly and house

Most of the princesses portray women to be weak and in need of saving from a prince from a faraway land. Cinderella is one of the most well-loved and famous Disney princess but its story also serve as a classic example of how gender roles dominate Disney films. According to Mahooney, “Cinderella demonstrates the female need for a male to form her identity.” Cinderella, while shown to be kind and lovely, never did show any trace of strength in standing up for herself at all, a coincidence most of Disney princesses have in films. In light of physical appearance, one of the most controversial themes almost every Disney princess films have is the existence of “Prince Charming.”

Some quick things I have noticed in some of the Disney Princess films: In many of the films like Beauty and the Beast, there is a main female character, who is the princess and a male character who is romantically connected with the princess. There is also a portrayal of the social construction of gender. In Beauty and the Beast, while Belle is small, gentle, and kind, the Beast is portrayed as large and prone to angry outbursts. Even though the Beast was an actual beast, his personality compared to Belle’s infers that a person’s literal body size affects moods. This teaches children that people that “the social differences that define “woman” and “man” … individuals… act and react in expected ways”

Certainly, gender roles are fixed expectations of how people should feel, speak, or interact in society according to their sex. Women are expected to play subordinate roles to their male counterparts. Despite the societal assumption that women are not as strong as men mentally because they are not as strong physically was an advantage for women to achieve goals privately in the following dramas. In Trifles, Antigone, and Dollhouse the women who played submissive roles in public, exhibited powerful acts of bravery for themselves and others. These women are powerful characters despite societal expectations and proved they are stronger than the men believed because they used passive methods to reach tough objectives.

Because of Disney’s stereotyping of gender, that little girl grew up wanting to become a perfect princess. Princesses in Disney’s movies and films gives young girls unrealistic ideas of the real word. However, some may believe that Disney princesses are a good influence on young girls and are able to show a them how to act eloquently. Gender roles, eloquence, and the beauty of the princesses are all topics that influence young girls. Even though some might believe that princesses are good role models for their child, princesses show young girls how they should interact around boys and other girls never mind the girls own opinions. An article about Children’s Responses to Gender Roles in Fairy-Tales written by Ella Westland writes, “The girls

Disney makes over $3 billion on their Disney Princess products every year and now have over 25,000 items in their princess collection (Orenstein 2). Disney has played a big role in shaping not only societal viewpoints on what young girls should like, but also what little girls believe they should enjoy as well. Gender stereotypes have been around for a long time, but now with technology advancements, such as media in western society is able to play a bigger than ever role in influencing people’s perspectives. Not only do we see gender roles and stereotypes in television shows, but also in advertisements and in children’s toys. Although many readers of Peggy Orenstein’s “What’s wrong with Cinderella” have argued that the princess culture is corrupting today’s young girls and making them more dependent on men, a closer examination shows that many girls grow out of the princess phase with no negative repercussions and choose whatever passions they want.

In many motion picture the representation of female characters are about the same. The females are usually the damsels that are dependent on their male companion and on the sidelines; from early ages children are shown this from the movies they watched. If you watched a lot of Disney movies growing up you can see how many of the female characters are the same. In the movie “Cinderella”, femininity is strongly shown. The movie is a about a girl named Cinderella who lives with her wicked stepmother and two stepsisters, she does all the domestic work in house and gets mistreated by all of them. Cinderella, her stepsisters, and her stepmother get invited to a ball held for the prince but Cinderella’s stepmother doesn't allow her to go. Cinderella stepsisters even ruined the dress she was going to wear, and she was devastated. While she cries Cinderella's fairy godmother appears and makes her look beautiful and not like a servant so she can go to a royal ball. At the ball Cinderella's beauty catches the attention of the prince who she dances with till midnight. Once midnights hit she runs away because she

“ Every time she finds a minute, that's when they begin it, Cinderella ! Cinderella ! Cinderella !” Cinderella, a domesticated woman, a slave to the scrubbing brush, and the kitchen. “ Look at this stuff, isn't it neat ? Wouldn't you think my collections complete ? Wouldn’t you think I’m the girl, the girl who has everything ?” Ariel a girl who sings about all the domesticated items she has collected. “Well it’s my favourite! Far off places, daring swordfights, magic spells, a prince in disguise.” Belle the girl who reads fairy tales and expects life to be like the stories. These are only three of the many messages these stereotypes are sending young viewers. As a little girl watching these Disney films you want to do anything and everything to become like these princesses. You want the glitz, the

Moving onto gender roles and ideas, these characteristics in genders are needed in any sort of story to suit the values and attitudes of the people of that time. Gender stereotypes are a major piece to the puzzle of a film. Women are generally seen as less dominant, pushovers, the cares of everyone and that they have no independence. Whist men are seen as the more dominant, masculine, heroes, brave and courageous. This is across all genres of movies, the girl is the damsel in distress and the boy ends up saving her at the end of it.

Aside from how Disney Princess films portray femininity, the mindset that Disney princesses are created with negatively impacts young American girls as well. The need to always display femininity is not the only gender role stereotype that females experience. In fact, there is stereotype that says that women should be inferior to men, and it is represented throughout several Disney Princess films. For instance, Princess Ariel loses her voice after the evil witch, Ursula, takes it away from her. The only method that works to retrieve her voice back is to get the prince to kiss her.

Cinderella, like any other princess story, portrays the traditional masculine and feminine characteristics on each gender. These fairytales tend to portray stereotypical characteristics. An evident stereotypical characteristic that is seen in the film,

Since the beginning of the Disney princess era in 1937 with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney princess films have been a part of children’s lives for almost a century. According to Robinson, Callister, Magoffin, and Moore, media, specifically television and films present children with images and ideas that may create, alter, or reinforce how they portray stereotypes (203). From the classic Disney princesses such as Snow White and Aurora, to today’s modern princesses such as Elsa, Anna, and Tiana, the roles of Disney princess have changed significantly since the beginning of the franchise. The evolution of gender stereotypes in Disney

Disney movies have an iconic image in the American culture and are a huge factor in the children's learning. “Since the 1930’s Disney has implemented heterosexual ideologies, patriarchy, hegemonic masculinity, reinforced our societies gender binaries, heterosexual normativity, and displayed conservative values in their films and company structure” (Budd and Kirsch 2005, Byrne and McQuillan 1999). Disney has a great impact on the society by representing certain thing a certain way and the ways they are represented tends to change with time. The prevalence of domestic work is an important theme in the Disney Princess movies and a substantial change that Disney incorporated over time was the temporary discontinuation of domestic work as a symbol of femininity. In their first few movies the princesses frequently were shown performing domestic work, but later the rate of domestic work gradually dropped as it is not very acceptable by the society today.