Essay on Media and the Antifeminist Agenda
825 Words4 Pages
Media and the Antifeminist Agenda
The cinema conveys representations of race, gender, and class that indicate the development and cultural ideologies of society. Motion pictures illustrate and are depicted from real life settings, and it is for this reason that the cinema plays a vital role in shaping and sustaining cultural normalcies. Socialization of gender and identity are mirrored through sexist media depictions that convey the relative positions of women and men in modern western democracies. There are substantial quantities of motion pictures that ascribe traditional gender roles to both men and women that continue to perpetuate social constructs of inequality. Contemporary media places men and women in defined categories, and…show more content… On a lighter note, Disney’s animated feature Tangled (a take on Grimm’s fairytale Rapunzel) is funny and visually stunning; however, it rekindles the same plot and recurring theme across all genres. As a woman, you can be one of two things, either a princess awaiting rescue from her prince or an evil stepmother (witch). On the contrary, as a man, you get all the action, and in many aspects, the world is handed to you. Rapunzel, imprisoned within the tower since a child, is a meek like female with green eyes, blonde hair, and a teeny waist who sings about doing chores and wonders when her life will begin. Rapunzel is stereotypically overly emotional, swinging from one end of a mood swing to another, overly preoccupied with being saved, and of course, is beautiful. Beauty, with respect to this context, equals white, blonde, thin and young. In a modern day perspective, this is problematic because her body represents the celebration of White femininity and disregards other ethnicities. Not only does this movie portray females from a stereotypical frame work, but it induces a false perception of beauty, one that we must all attain or strive for.
Carrying on Disney’s tradition of problematic representations of race, of the 15 Disney princess’s movie franchise ever produced, only four have been non-white