Stereotypes In Disney Movies

Walt Disney over the years has impacted the lives of millions of children with his animated films. His Disney movies have evolved in the last years and have moved from the traditional damsel in distress theme. Specifically, the classic movie Cinderella gives the wrong idea about what it is to be a woman for young girls. The movie portrays a young woman facing emotional, mental, and physical abuse by her evil stepmother and later falls in love with a charming prince. However, if viewers take a closer look, Disney’s anti feminist message is firmly emphasized. The story of Cinderella is sexist due to it’s lesson to girls that beauty and submission will award them a rich bachelor. This is seen through Cinderella’s submissive behavior, Prince

Not only do Disney princesses result in bad self esteem, they also encourage passiveness and reliance on others. The feminine and vulnerable side of these princesses, reflect the reliance on their hero and true love. The Disney princess stereotype insinuates that girls should be sweet and submissive, and should fully rely on a male-counterpart. Conversely, new characters, such as Elsa (Frozen), Rapunzel (Tangled), and Merida (Brave), do not express this passive characteristic. At the same time, these princesses continue to need assistance to reach the desired solution. For instance, Princess Rapunzel still needed hero Flynn Rider, in order to navigate her to her parents throughout the movie. None of these princesses independently found a solution to the main conflict in any of these Disney films.

Just like what John Musker says, “We thought it would be very appealing to do a female empowerment story that didn’t center on any sort of romance” (Berman 2016). The hearts of their stories focused less on finding true love and more on journeys, selflessness, and self-discovery. The first thing to point is that nobody of these leads’ – except for naïve Anna – core story aims was to fall in love. Tiana (The Princess and the Frog 2009) driven hard to become an effective business holder, Rapunzel (Tangled 2010) desired to discover the outside world, Merida (Brave 2012) wished to evade being married off in the name of practice, and Anna and Elsa (Frozen 2013) were looking to save each other, reconstruct their relationship and keep their empire from being overhauled by an outside threat. This period in Disney cinematography also took the time to highpoint relations between women for the first time. Just like in Brave, the chief bond is revolving between daughter and mother. There are plenty Disney movies to have explored love, but this one stands out and is experienced by most teenagers – the altering scene of the mother–daughter bond. Similarly, Frozen mainly focuses on the sisterly bond between Anna and Elsa. Jennifer Lee states that “She wanted to create characters they both could relate to, and felt the bond between sisters would be more accessible to a young girl than the lure of romantic love” (The Columbian 2014). Again, Disney took steps to discover something foreign to its earlier movies. By representing firm women and the inner workings of their relations, the last few Disney animated films showed a more precise reflection of the world. Based on the past of Disney Princesses above, we are sighted stronger role models creating their way into children’s

Kids are growing up with racial prejudices created from Disney movies. For example, Disney princess are commonly thought of as white because of several films that came out early in young kids lives. Causing them to grow up with the idea that all princesses and upper class citizens are white. However, when these princesses are not white, they are hypersexualized. For instance, the Arabian princess, Jasmine, from the film Aladdin uses a seductive motion to gain her way. So not only are these movies teaching racism, they are teaching young girls to take advantage of their body to acquire what they want. The opposition may claim that few movies display this racism. However that is too abundant already. The children who watch those films will have racist fundamentals implemented into their brains. The Society For Research In Children Development wrote an article explaining how racism affects children. After researching and interviewing kids, they came to the conclusion that,”When children become aware of these types of bias about their own racial or ethnic group, it can affect how they respond to everyday situations, ranging from interacting with others to taking tests.”(Society For Research In Children Development 1). This explains how racism can affect kids when they are growing and developing through life. Disney should create films that do not produce racist fundamentals to

Heroes are found everywhere when Disney is involved. From a prince or princess to secretive toys to the smallest forms of life on earth, a hero can be found in anyone. Being attached to one or a few is entirely common. These certain characters may be the ones they look up to. Young girls often choose to look up to a princess, although, they are not what they were over 50 years ago. The very first Disney princess, Snow White, is purely a damsel in distress. The same goes for Aurora who appeared in Sleeping Beauty years later. As the years have gone on, that weaker vision of a princess has faded. The modern day princesses are anything but damsels needing to be saved by a man. Rapunzel chooses to give up her freedom in order to save Flynn Rider’s life. Tiana works hard to provide for herself so she can chase her dream. Merida rejects what everyone else thinks she should be and is true to herself. Elsa only needs the love from her sister. This list will only get bigger as Disney continues to create these young female heroines. If anything, Disney is preaching to young girls everywhere to be strong in a world that may play on their faults or weaknesses. During a time strong feminist movements, Disney manages to satisfy demands by allowing the girl to be the hero. Though Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are still timeless classics, the princesses of today set a better example for young girls everywhere and that is why they seem to be more attractive than the originals.

Apart from the stereotypes, recent Disney princesses have been counteracting the stereotypical images of a Disney princess. They are no longer waiting around for their prince to come and be with them. Instead, they are using their intelligence to achieve their dreams and aspirations. Also, they can be independent and that they don’t always need a man (Bowser n.p.). The portrayal of love in these films are different from the others. The characters are not focused in waiting for their prince. Rather, they were trying to achieve their dreams. In "The Princess and the Frog", Tiana pursues her dream in becoming a restaurant owner. She didn't need a male counterpart to be able to feel happy but only wanted to fulfill her dream to feel happiness.

What images come to mind as one reflects upon his or her childhood? Playgrounds, blackboards, and soccer balls may be among the fondest of memories. Yet, for many, mermaids swim their thoughts, princesses get swept off their feet, and lions roar to their royal place in the animal kingdom. Disney films have captivated the American culture for years and have become a pivotal part of popular culture as well as a form of education. However, these films have devoured the youth of America and, in the process; have perpetuated an institutionally racist society based on harsh stereotypes. Minorities are often underrepresented, and even completely left out, of many Disney films such as Dumbo (1941), The Lion King (1994), Aladdin (1992), and

As earlier talked about with Disney movies the more current ones released, Brave and Frozen, focus more on the heroine saving herself rather than waiting to be saved by someone else. This shift towards more self-sufficient and strong women characters is doing wonders as the Disney princesses are known to young girls worldwide as role models and the addition of some who can fight for themselves is a welcome change. This quote, “The focus on the relationship between Anna and Elsa, not about finding a man, as a welcome and refreshing development” (4) from the Staff at KPopStars, a movie and entertainment reviewer site, talks about the state of the Disney line up of movies before these two came out and how the new releases are a welcome change to the formula. The main focus of the previous movies has not been on how they are growing as people, more about how they could marry the prince charming at the end of the movie. Not only Disney movies however have been changing towards better gender representation, more movies have recently been having female main characters and consequently employing the female gaze for the audience. What this means is that when the main character of a film is a man the camera employs a male gaze, which is looking at and focusing on what a man would. As the

Growing up, all I ever did was watch Disney movies and the Disney channel. Now as I’m older, I can’t help but realize that all the movies are exactly the same. The princess is stuck in a dilemma and then a perfect prince comes along and saves her and then they marry in the end. Other than a similar plot, all the movies have very similar character traits. England, Descartes, and Collier-Meek in Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses explain the characters, “traditionally masculine (e.g., athletic, brave) and traditionally feminine (e.g., helpful, nurturing) characteristics exhibited by the prince and princess characters through

Despite being the protagonist, Snow White is never given a chance to lead her own life. From the very beginning of the film, she is always owned by someone else. First her stepmother controls her life, then the huntsman orders her to leave, then it is the dwarfs (sic) who control and care for her well-being, and then it is the prince. Never once does she resist or attempt to go out on her own. By the end of the film, she does not even protest a near stranger kissing her as she sleeps. In fact, she figures that 's reason enough to run away with him!

Disney princesses are fun for all ages, but their target audience is young children and “as children grow and develop, they can be easily influenced by what they see and hear”. Therefore, what they see and hear in Disney movies leaves an impression on them. The first princess, Snow White, was created in a time where each gender and race had a specific role in society. Recently, many believe that Disney has come a long way in regards to gender and race since Snow White, as several multi-cultural protagonists have been introduced subsequently, and gender roles do not appear to be as stereotypical as they once were. However, many of the apparent innocent messages about race and gender in these movies, can be exposed as otherwise. Despite

What’s important to understand is that the characters that Walt Disney created over the years, for example Mickey Mouse became icons, which had a lot of cultural significance, especially with children. The characters and their stereotypical body images, mannerisms, and behaviors were merely aspects of Walt Disney’s biased and vivid imagination and did not accurately reflect society or the culture for which they were created, but intern negatively influence his audience. Obviously, Wald Disney did not create the stereotypes, but it was the use of those stereotypes in his films that gave children the wrong impressions, specifically regarding gender roles or what it means to be a male and societies expectations of men.

Disney’s new movie “Frozen” has caught the eyes of viewers and has surprised us all, reaching No. 1 in the box Office and have pass over $300 million of tickets sold, this movie has no sign of slowing down any time soon. “Frozen’ is one of the few recent Disney films to capture the classic Disney script, like “Cinderella” or “Snow White”, it’s a heart warming and loving story, guaranteed to thaw a frozen heart. Unlike the usual Disney princess story line where the girl has a poor life or things just don’t turn out like there suppose to, they wish upon a star, fall in love, then bibbidi-bobbdi-boo they have a happily ever after. Frozen strayed off from tradition and decided to go for more of a different approach. True love has always been a

As a child, most children become infatuated with the newest Disney movie. Although Disney movies target children, watching them as an adult, we start to notice hidden messages and themes in our favorite childhood movies. A category of Disney packed with secret meanings is the Disney princess films. We watch in awe a young girl living, for the most part, the perfect fantasy life. She sings to animals, her hair is always perfectly in place, and there is always a prince to come and save her. In reality, there is much more to the princess persona than we realize. In 2014, Disney’s Frozen took the world by storm and became the highest grossing animated film ever. Frozen takes us on a magical journey with Princess Anna to find her sister, Princess Elsa, whose power to create ice has forever trapped their homeland, Arendelle, in eternal winter. Elsa is haunted by the memory of almost tragically killing her younger sister Anna because of her icy powers. Isolating herself from the world, Elsa dedicated her life to concealing her powers and learning to control them. The movie Frozen teaches the importance of social development among children.

The sisters meet again, but Elsa still refuses to come back to Arendelle and accidentally strikes her in the heart. Unless Anna finds a true love 's kiss, she will remain frozen forever. Kristoff takes Anna back, who hopes that Hans will kiss her. He does not, instead revealing his