Sexism and Disney

In Henry Giroux’s book, “The Mouse that Roared” he argues that Disney animated movies lead to the end of innocence in children. He focuses mainly on the images that Disney portrays towards gender roles and gender stereotyping. He primarily targets the issues that women are portrayed as being subordinate to men and are viewed as property and objects of desire instead of as human beings. Giroux is unconvincing in his argument because he writes above the level of thinking and comprehension that most children who are exposed to Disney films would posses; by focusing on specific scenes, while ignoring the overall morals throughout the rest of

The Disney princess films are some of the most common in the world today. Because of their popularity, these works speak and evaluate, in significant detail, by various scholars. Numerous people disapprove these films for their seemingly sexist and oppressive gender messages. They find fault with the princesses serving as role models for young girls. Though, when one attentively scrutinizes the movies and compares the individualities of the princesses to the progressive woman of their time, one may obviously see the positive messages.

Snow White is a naive person and is willing to trust people immediately. This can often put her in very dangerous situations. This comes to light when the Queen disguises herself as an old woman and Snow White accepts her gifts which ends up causing her demise. However her naivety also allowed her to trust the huntsman and the prince when she first meets them. And if it was not for the dwarfs, she would not have had a place to live. Snow White’s naivety allowed her to not fear the people who helped her but also costed her life.

However, as those who are familiar with the story know, this was not the end of Snow White. When the Queen finds out Snow White escapes death from the huntsman and ends up living with seven dwarfs, she still considered Snow White a

In the end, the goodness of ashputtel shines through leaving behind her biggest burden, her family. In Snow White the importance of family and how some people lack strong familial bonds is exemplified. Snow White was born the most beautiful child with hair as black as ebony, lips as red as blood, and skin as white as snow, as she grows up, she becomes the worlds most beautiful woman according to her step mother’s magic mirror. The envy corrupts her step mother when she asks her mirror who is “the

Bartyzel’s wide array of evidence to support her claim that princess culture narrowly defines what femininity means to young consumers makes her argument compelling. She used Disney’s unfitting princess makeover of the character Merida from Brave - who desperately fought against princess ideals in the movie - as an example of how Disney has a habit of backtracking their own progress. Bartyzel also provided accounts from mothers who support her claim by expressing that their daughters’ behavior had been shaped by princess culture. Additionally, Disney routinely overshadows the darkness of traditional fairy tales with overly idealistic narratives and has a history of depicting harmful racial stereotypes, problematic female characterizations, and unrealistic storylines (Bartyzel, 2015). Bartyzel examined these stereotypes and problematic characterizations with the design alterations made to Disney princesses; specifically, princesses of color. Finally, Bartyzel reinforced her argument by conveying that women are diverse and to overlook these differences affects how young girls view themselves. Bartyzel’s professional presentation, the various forms of evidence, her counter-arguments, and her examination of the different issues tied to princess culture helped convey a strong argument.

In Disney films, there is a lot of misogyny amongst female main characters. Many people in our society have noticed a significant difference in the speaking roles between male and female characters that Disney created, as men had way more lines than the women. Because these movies were mostly created in the mid-late 1900’s, this was the time that there was plenty of prejudice against females. Now, in the year 2017, females are getting a little more equality than before to the point where many females now have jobs that were only for males in the 1900’s. Most Disney movies for that matter involve some sort of misogyny, even the ones that recently came out such as ‘Brave’ and ‘Frozen’. Examples of various levels of misogyny can be noticed in Disney films such as Ariel in ‘The Little Mermaid’ (1989), directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. The movie is about a 16-year-old mermaid who wants to live on land with a human Prince named Eric but is only able to after making a dangerous wish with ‘Ursula the Sea Witch’ to be a human for three days. In this movie ‘Ariel The Mermaid’, prejudice can be seen in Ursula, by a female having too much authority, Ariel cannot speak, and Ariel uses her appearance to attract others.

In Disney's version of Snow white, Snow White is an isolated princess who lives with her evil stepmother who is the queen of the land. The Queen became paranoid that Snow White will become more beautiful than herself, so she forces Snow White to work as her maid. Every day the queen would ask her magic mirror “who is the fairest one of all” and the mirror would respond, telling the queen that she was. One day, the mirror responded saying that Snow White was now the fairest. The queen, jealous of Snow White, orders her personal huntsman to kill snow white and bring her heart back as proof of her death. The huntsman, unable to bring himself to do so,

Fairy tales are stories that range from originating folklore to more modern stories. The same story of the fairy tales can be found in the different version in various languages throughout the world. Those stories inspire people, especially the children, even though the stories made up false, but it builds up based on real life story. Going back to history, when women had no real power, the Brothers Grimm version of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” tells a story about women who have no control over lives, or how a child can be neglected by the adults or what can be done for the legacy/status. This fairy tale story, “Snow White with the Seven Dwarfs,” talks about an evil Queen who is expecting to “fairest them of all,” who is Snow White; she is an innocent beautiful girl, who loves to sing and interact with people.

Everyone knows that when the queen discovers that Snow White’s beauty is greater than hers, she asks the huntsman to kill her. Finally, we all know that the dwarves take care of her until her death, at which point the prince comes to the rescue and awakens her with a kiss. These are all elements of the story that we come to expect when we hear the name Snow White.

She cannot resist the temptation when she is offered the ‘lace’ and ‘comb’ from the evil queen which is the sole reason that she loses her life as the dwarfs are unable to save her. Each time it is an old woman knocking on the dwarf’s door offering her goods. Not only does she not figure out that it is the queen who is disguising herself as an old lady but she does not listen to any instructions given by the dwarfs. Her lack of control over her emotions and temptations lead to unavoidable consequences. Therefore, similarly, to Sleeping Beauty, she must wait for a prince to be saved. Children are therefore shown that love for superficial goods and vanity is punishable. Moreover, Snow White is never given any ambition or thoughts of judgement

Clarification of her beauty is there to aid the reader in understanding that she is good and valuable. Furthermore, her hair not only symbolizes beauty but fertility and sexuality; proving that she is an object. Once she loses her hair, it is evident that she also loses what makes her of value to men, which in this case is the innocence of her untouched beauty or her virginity (pg. 35). In addition, the story “Little Snow-White,” presents an initial description about Snow-white centered around her beauty: “as white as snow, and as red as blood, and her hair was as black as ebony” (pg. 124). Because of this description, the reader defines Snow-white’s importance with the base of her pure white skin, passionate red lips, and seductive black hair. These three characteristics show the value of Snow-White to the prince, who begs the dwarfs for her coffin. While persuading the dwarfs to give over Snow-white, he attempts to trade objects to compensate the dwarfs (pg. 130). To young women, values defined in fairy tales depict a horrid, demeaning view of

What young girl does not dream of becoming a princess and living in a castle happily ever after? Virtually every young girl identifies with princesses and has watched at least one Disney Princess movie. From the first movies of Snow White and Cinderella, to the later movies of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, to the most current movie Moana, Disney Princess movies permeate not only the movie theaters, but also our culture. In fact, “becoming a princess is as easy as purchasing a tiara and hosting a princess-themed birthday party or buying a Halloween costume and playing pretend” (Garabedian, 2014, p. 23). Nonetheless, as declared by Princess Merida in the movie Brave, “there comes a day when I don’t have to be a princess. No rules, no expectations. A day where anything can happen. A day where I can change my fate” (Andrews & Chapman, 2012). In other words, does the life of a princess measure up to the expectations of little girls everywhere? The Disney Princess brand has grown incredibly popular, especially with young girls. In spite of this, the franchise has also become extremely controversial due to potential gender stereotypes in the films. “Gender is one of the most discussed topics in today’s society…[it] represents and also reproduces certain attributes, expectations and roles which are associated with male and female…influencing the views and opinions of future generations” (Maity, 2014, p. 31). Yet, is the Disney Princess brand harmful to young children due to gender stereotypes? Two essays that contemplate the Disney Princess brand and gender stereotypes with opposite viewpoints on this controversial issue are “Girls on Film: The Real Problem with the Disney Princess Brand” by writer Monika Bartyzel and “In Defense of Princess Culture” by writer and mother Crystal Liechty. However, Liechty’s essay “In Defense of Princess Culture,” is the most effective article in convincing the audience of her point of view due to the claim, support, warrant, language, and vocabulary employed.

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

Over the years, Snow White’s story has been told in numerous different versions then its original version in 1812 by the Grimm Brothers. The main basis of the story has remained the same. Only a few minor tweaks to the story have changed. The three versions of the story that are going to be analyzed are the original story “Little Snow White” by the Brothers Grimm, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by Disney, and “Mirror, Mirror” by Disney also. They each were created in very different times and the original story has changed over the years to appeal to the audience of that time. No matter how many versions there are Snow White is considered, one of the most cherished fairy tales of all time. They each use different methods to get their