Portrayal Of Female Heroines From Disney 's Cartoon Heroines

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

The Mickey Mouse Monopoly documentary reveals the obscure social messages behind the animated films created by the Disney Company. Although we are conditioned to believe that these movies are pure forms of entertainment, further examination has proved that there are hidden messages concerning gender, race and class that Disney is instilling in the minds of children. The speakers in the documentary argue that Disney is extremely political and hides its ideas behind innocence, magic and fun. When masked by features that are appealing to a younger audience, it is difficult to realize these ideas without taking a closer look.

Introduction: As long as there have been civilizations, there have been stories, myths that are told to children. These stories are usually the basis of the cartoons characters except some which are from creator’s imagination. This story telling is a means of not only comforting and amusing a child, but of teaching the child the societal norms of their nation. These are memorized by children and remembered forever. Children idolize their favourite character, the character they have most in common with and are best able to identify with, and try to emulate that character’s

The world of Disney it is not necessarily magic for everyone. In Western popular culture there is an endless buffet serving stereotypical ideologies for racially marked women. The media often relies on representation of articulation of ethnic women as animalistic, inferior and outside the natural. Films tend to utilize signifiers that express race, class and gender to develop characters. For this assignment, I have chosen to critically analyze Disney’s (1992) Aladdin; this movie exemplifies the racialization of female bodies through visual illustrations that reinforce ideas of stereotypical roles of Middle Eastern that have been over-looked through the eyes of children. Aladdin; is considered a modern example of Edward Said’s concept of orientalism from a Western perspective. In this paper I will examine how Disney’s Aladdin perpetuates ideas of ‘othering’ through orientalism, over-sexualized characters and reinforces islamophobia.

The Walt Disney Company dominates the youth entertainment market and greatly impacts children around the world. Disney Princesses, the most lucrative Disney franchise, grosses billions of dollars in revenue each year (Forbes). Through this franchise, Walt Disney imposes rigid definitions of gender, masculinity and femininity on children. The media plays a large role in the construct of social norms and has a heavy influence on young kids: “children as young as three were very conscious of what they played with and appeared to have mapped out in the mind which toys and activities were ‘for girls’, which ‘for boys’ and which were gender neutral” (Browne and Ross 143). Beauty and the Beast, first released in 1991, exemplifies the rigid gender roles and stereotypes that the Disney Princess franchise embodies and imparts these values on children.

Each and every child grows up viewing Disney movies, wearing princess gowns, and buzz lightyear suits. The parents of these children are the individuals purchasing these Disney costumes, toys, candy, and other related items for their children. Our society today accepts Disney and their culture of entertainment as a part of a child’s childhood experience without second thought. Elements of the fairytale of Cinderella has adapted over time to please the culture in which it is told; yet in today’s culture, adaptation to these elements is taken to where it has never been. In “The Princess Paradox,” James Poniewozik says, “You can have the girly dream of glass slippers and true love, these films say, as well as the womanly ideal of self-determination and independence and any contradictions between them are no match for the movies’ magic” (Poniewozik 324). Peggy Orenstein compliments Poniewozik’s article because she states, “The first Princess items, released with no marketing plan, no focus groups, no advertising, sold as if blessed by a fairy godmother” (Orenstein 327). Poniewozik is trying to argue that films have altered the story of Cinderella in the 21st century cinema realm due to the addition of the concept of feminism, women 's separation from men, and the traditional magic implemented within them. Orenstein marries these articles together indirectly by pointing out that Disney legitimately had no marketing plan, yet they continue to rake in money. The reason Disney

One famous and notable example of children’s films are those produced by the beloved Walt Disney Company, a company which exerts “a powerful influence on children’s media…contributing to a new “girlhood” that is largely defined by gender and consumption of related messages and products” (England, Descartes & Collier-Meek, 2011). England, Descartes and Collier-Meek (2011) also claim that Disney films are highly accessible to children and that they are a popular choice of both children and their parents. While some may see Disney films as wholesome and family-friendly, Zarranz (2007) sees something deeper—he sees past the innocent nature of the films to a deeper level, a level of “power relations and adult sexuality”. Zarranz (2007) discusses various ways that popular animated Disney films are harmful to women, from setting dangerous body-image ideals to patriarchal social structures in The Little Mermaid, to hyper-sexualisation and colonization themes in Pocahontas, to expected housekeeping duties and need to be rescued in Cinderella. These themes do nothing more than perpetuate overused and damaging

Cinema has been a part of our global culture for years,beginning in the late 1890’s with the Lumiere Brother’s short film “L'Arrivée d'un Train en Gare de La Ciotat” which had people so immersed they found themselves running for their lives (Cooper,2015). Commercial films have captured the hearts and imaginations of people of all ages,genders,creeds and colours. As such, an industry that’s so intersectional and cross-cultural should cater to every audience. Much has changed since the Lumiere Brother’s time, with the advent of the internet,the coming and going of the second World War, and the beginning of third-wave feminism. North American society as we know it is growing and changing as an increase in urban living and immigration draw new people towards city centers, and, consequently to the movies. This essay will analyse the gender representation in films released by Walt Disney Pictures, and will pose the question: Does the animated film industry- and the princess archetype -provide sufficient

The Disney Renaissance era from 1989 to 1999 (Kearns) was the time when Walt Disney Animation Studious produced successful well-known stories into animated films that brought a lot of critical and public interest to the Walt Disney Company. One example is the article written by Laura Sells “Where Do the Mermaids Stand?” In the article she quarrels and critiques the narrowness of the representation of women in society and how they are assigned value based on the traditional practices of women and not accepting change or new ideas of new acceptable positions for women in the American culture (Sells, 176). She based the article on the Disney movie The Little Mermaid. Susan Jeffords focuses on another Disney movie “Beauty and the Beast” in her article “Curse of Masculinity”. Jeffords says that for a man to change into a good guy they must lose their hyper masculinity and transform their masculine heroisms. They need kindness, love and affection from loved ones to motivate change in a man (Jeffords, 163). After careful reading and analyzing these two movies, Walt Disney has a powerful force to send a message across about representation of gender roles and gender stereotypes on men and women depending on their looks, education and power in a form of entertainment that is fun to watch and never needs to be questioned. Children are raised on Disney and learn from these Walt Disney films how they should think, act, dress, speak... how to

Title: The Mouse that Roared; Disney and the end of Innocence Author: Henry A. Giroux Length: 170 pages Precis: Henry A. Giroux argues that Disney is “anything but innocent”, that the true aim Disney is setting is educating children to become active consumers. Describe the realities of Disney films, the racism, gender roles and stereotypes. I. Ten Facts I’ve learned reading this book 1. Innocence is a key factor in the Disney Company’s attempt to market its self-image to the American public. Pg.34 2.

The typical paradigm of a princess is to be gentle, nurturing, beautiful, and dependent upon somebody else to guide their fate and to also find their “one true love or prince charming.” Examples include Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and Sleeping Beauty. According to Orenstein (2011), she reinforces this model that “the first thing that culture told her about being a girl [was] not that she was competent, strong, creative, or smart but that every little girl wants – or should want – to be the Fairest of Them All” (p. 3). It was not until recently when the standards of social or gender norms have been challenged by modern princesses where the princesses wield a trait or some traits that exemplify strong attributes. Being a strong princess would be defined as a princess that controls her own actions and controls her own life, regardless of what is dictated by social or gender norms.

Animated movies are, broadly speaking, known for introducing children to the amazing world of fantasy. They can help jumpstarting the young minds into learning. The problem is the harmless characters and themes are not entirely harmless as through these movies children step into learning about morals and values which are, to some extent, stereotyped. Consequently, children’s idea about these ideologies becomes distorted and damaged. The viewpoint of the child who is growing up watching these films can be affected and the child may have racialized idea of beauty imbedded into his/her mind by Disney.

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

Disney tales portray gendered messages in their films that suggest that some gendered characteristics are not acceptable for the prince or princess to portray. Feminine behavior and characteristics that imply loss of power and hopelessness that includes beings ashamed and crying are not permissible for the prince to show. In contrast, the princesses hardly possess characteristics related to gaining position of power, which includes being a leader, inspiring fear, being unemotional and performing a rescue. Disney films specifically have been shown to portray some stereotypical depictions of gender. In Ursula’s song, Poor Unfortunate Souls, the expectations of the female gender are described. Ursula explains to Arial that it is acceptable for

Even though Belle loves to read, her favorite chapter is the one where the woman meets her man. She dreamt to get out of her town for adventure but her drive is to find her “Prince Charming” and eventually marry him. The community still values masculinity and maleness while devaluing femininity and femaleness, Gaston treats Belle as though she is a just a commodity, a gold to have an analogy for him to get. In this movie, violence was also present. The Beast was horrifically abusive but as a girl, and his prisoner, she has to change the Beast into a Prince, from being abusive to kind hearted. Being in control and in an abusive relationship has been romanticized because in the end, there will come out a man that will care for her. This movie shows that a woman must accept the fact that men are dominant.