Summary Of Heterosexuality In Disney Movies

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

According to Stephanie Hanes’ article titled “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect," she covers the story of Mary Finucane and her daughter, whom she observed and realized that she had changed abruptly from her usual playful self to a serious and more mature looking character despite her young age (509). Later she came to discover that this was because of the effects of the Disney programs that her daughter had begun watching. Hanes covers the issue of young girls growing up in a highly sexualized environment. Her article explains the influence that the media have on sexualizing the environment for kids through the biased images of women on the internet, books and even television. To support her notion, Hanes applies some

He adopts an ambivalent tone in order to examine the conflicting views of high school genre films. Denby’s purpose in writing this essay is to show how the overuse of these stereotypes results in few original teen films. Original movies expose their viewers to a diverse range of people and ways of thinking. Adolescents often mirror or find inspiration in the characters they see in media, so it is important to depict a variety of people in media targeted towards them. People of various sexual orientations should be represented more prominently and truthfully in media targeted towards children in order to promote acceptance and provide role models for those exploring their identity.

For my final paper where we had to pick a topic from current popular culture, I decided to write my paper with the focus on Disney movies. More particularly with the focus on the Disney princess movies. When it comes to the Disney movies they have always been and will always be such a huge part of our society. While growing up most children grow up watching these movies and get the idea that that is what they want to be when they grow up. When you ask a young girl what she wants to be when she is older there is a good chance that she will say that she wants to be a princess when she grows up. I have always been such a huge fan of Disney movies and I have a feeling I always will be. I found it very interesting this semester when we spend the short class period talking about the Disney female and male characters. It is rather interesting and something that I can say that I really never noticed before but the fact that the majority of all the female characters all had the same face shape. Whereas the males there were none two that were the same. However for this paper I will be looking into the relationship to cultural meanings about gender and other identity markers, such as race, sexuality, and cultural norms as seen in some of the more classic well known Disney movies.

Stephanie Hanes, a correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, discusses in her article, “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect,” how media can affect the way little girls think and behave later on in life. Hanes article acknowledges significant dilemmas parents and their daughters face while growing up in a hypersexualized society. Intentionally, Hanes uses logos and pathos to appeal to all types of readers. By relating to people, the author makes readers more likely to be responsive to the information given out in the article.

The portrayal of Feminine aspects within Disney movies has been widely criticized, however the way masculinity is portrayed in films is also very controversial but infrequently discussed. My goal for this research paper is to look at two Disney films through a feminist lens and queer lens to decipher any stereotypical aspects of masculinity that are shown within the main characters. I am hopeful to find a film that breaks the norm of having a masculine main character that is hyper masculine like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast or Jaffar from Aladdin. I would also like to analyze the damsel in distress situations in films where the male role seems to always be the heroic figure even when they aren’t the main character in the story. Even though

Paasonen, S., Nikunen, K., & Saarenmaa, L. (2007). Pornification: Sex and sexuality in media culture. Oxford: Berg

Stephanie Hanes’ “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” first appeared in the Christian Science Monitor in 2011. Hanes aims to convince her readers that little girls are being exposed to high amounts of sexualized content at a very young age. With strategic organization, supporting evidence, a specific purpose and intended audience, Hanes is able to produce a convincing argument.

The sexualization of young girls and women in society is a prevalent theme in mass media. Presently, the sexualization of females is commonly seen in various consumer items like clothes, dolls, and even in Disney movies, according to “The Sexualization of Girls Is Harmful” article. The author says that sexualization occurs when “a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior; a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness with being sexy; a person is sexually objectified- made into a thing for others’ sexual use; and sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person (AboutKidsHealth).” Furthermore, the author provides statistics on how girls are being sexualized by the products they see and use

Sexuality and sex in America is a complicated subject in that there is little consensus on the topic of sex in, and the American media sends many mixed messages regarding sex and sexuality to everyone, not just to adolescents. Americans are aware of sex primarily through advertising (print media, commercials, etc.) as sex is used to sell anything and everything. The media also bombards Americans with sexuality and sex on television and in films. The sexuality of teenagers is not a straightforward issue in America either. Many parents do not discuss sex or sexuality with their children. There have been ongoing debates as to whether sexuality should be taught as part of school curricula because there are such a great deal of adolescents participating in reckless and/or dangerous sexual behaviors, largely because they are grossly uneducated about sex. The paper will reference the film Juno and other texts as a meditation on the relationship between adolescent sexuality and the media.

Learning that his adolescent son is watching a cartoon about ponies, this parent draws the conclusion that his child is gay. His assumptions demonstrate how members of society regard masculine space because enjoying ponies relegates young men into an effeminate position. Thankfully, there are number of people who answer his question by explaining the fandom to him. Questions of sexuality are the largest

In the world of movies and imitation the extremes become the normal, in many cases girls wanted to be free like the characters of the movies they saw, they wanted to experience what they were not allowed to do even if what they wanted to imitate were wild things or inappropriate, and just because they saw it on TV they thought it to be true and to be the norm that should be followed. The young girls wanted privileges similar to those in the movies, and they rebelled against the restrains they claimed to be subject to. The movies have taught young girls a great deal of things that they shouldn’t have learnt as shown by the confession of a girl student who states “almost all of my knowledge of sex came from the movies” (Forman, 166). But apparently

In Bazzini et al. study, the researchers assessed whether children can be influenced by a single exposure to animated Disney films that are either stereotypical in its portrayal of characters or non-stereotypical in its portrayal of the physical attractiveness stereotype, and if the physical

Children’s programming is beginning to raise a concern among many parents due to sexual content being involved along with other touchy subjects like violence, offensive language or verbal abuse. Due to the recent technological advancements, children’s media exposure has increased causing more children to be bombarded with shows featuring sexual innuendos, activity or adult subtext. Not only is the sexual content being included frequently in programming, children are facing the content in advertisements as well. An example of this is the advertisement poster for The Lion King. The film poster features the face of Simba in which many analyzers and parents are pointing out the nose and between the eyes looks like the “butt of a naked woman” creating a sexual image children could pick up on (Citation). Sexual content in the programming can have both positive and negative effects on the children watching and understanding what is going on in the show or film. While parents have a concern about sexual content being included into programming for children, positive effects should be noticed along with the negative effects being discussed. Much of the sexual content goes unnoticed due to the small hidden images in art or subliminal messages and sexual innuendos. Due to many children being unaware of the effects of media and the content involved, parents should become informed about the types of content in programming, the effects of

Our sex saturated media is also generating conflict in young girls’ development. The portrayal of women as sexual objects is discussed in the article “The sexualization of Girls is Harmful” by Olivia Ferguson and Hayley Mitchell Haugen. The article cites statistics of “prime-time television shows popular among children” remarking that “12% of sexual comments involved sexual objectification toward women” and “23% of sexual behaviors involved leering, ogling or catcalling at female characters”.(par 6) The feature provides www.aboutkidshealth.ca/ as an “online resource for information about areas of children’s health and family life”. (Par 1) This web site states “depression, low self-esteem and eating disorders” as consequences for media sexualizing women. (Par 2) The research defines “the objectification theory as a psychological theory explaining the