Disney Portrayal Of Women

Not many companies can influence the childhood development of many Americans like the Walt Disney Company. Disney, named after their founder, began as just an animation studio called The Walt Disney Studios, which the company describes as “the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company was built”. Today, Disney produces various items targeted at children like toys, clothing, and animation (“Company”). In the paper, Images of Animated Others: The Orientalization of Disney’s Cartoon Heroines From The Little Mermaid To The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Celeste Lacroix of the College of Charleston assesses the portrayal of female heroines from Disney animated films that depicts human main characters, examining the sexualization of non-European or the “exotic” others, and brings to light Disney’s strategy to instill an attitude of consumerism in children. Despite my memorable sentiment with Disney animations as a child, I agree with Lacroix’s assertion that Disney impose consumerism onto children, especially with DVD commercials, tie-in products and “apps” on smartphones and tablets.

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.

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

In the past, there have been countless princess movies or so-called “Cinderella” films. However, the general message that each one of these movies have given has changed as time has progressed. With this change, expectations placed on the princesses have been modified as well. This change in expectations has been thoroughly discussed by two authors, James Poniewozik and Peggy Orenstein. Poniewozik, a media and television critic for Time magazine, wrote an article entitled “The Princess Paradox” where he discusses this evolution of expectations. As well as him, Orenstein, a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, wrote an article with the title of “Cinderella and Princess Culture” where she also discusses the development of the expectations on girls. Even though Poniewozik and Orenstein discuss the evolution of expectations portrayed on girls, Orenstein is able to illuminate the more complex ideas that Poniewozik is attempting to express based on the expectations of girls.

Disney makes over $3 billion on their Disney Princess products every year and now have over 25,000 items in their princess collection (Orenstein 2). Disney has played a big role in shaping not only societal viewpoints on what young girls should like, but also what little girls believe they should enjoy as well. Gender stereotypes have been around for a long time, but now with technology advancements, such as media in western society is able to play a bigger than ever role in influencing people’s perspectives. Not only do we see gender roles and stereotypes in television shows, but also in advertisements and in children’s toys. Although many readers of Peggy Orenstein’s “What’s wrong with Cinderella” have argued that the princess culture is corrupting today’s young girls and making them more dependent on men, a closer examination shows that many girls grow out of the princess phase with no negative repercussions and choose whatever passions they want.

Growing up watching Disney movies you never notice how sexist they really are. I always watched The Little Mermaid, but watching it now is very different. When you are younger you just watch things because you like them, you do not necessarily understand them. As you get older you realize what you were really being taught. Walt Disney’s movie The Little Mermaid displays a lot of sexism and displays how society should see women and how women should act.

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

Cassandra Stover explains in her Journal Damsels and Heroines: The Conundrum of the Post-Feminist Disney Princess, the dramatic shift with Disney princess at the peak of the late 1980s and early 1990s. She explains that the shift can derive from feminist movements and how the change can be directed to the third wave of feminism. She examines the original Disney princesses and decribes them to be more passively aggresive and unindependent, while the new princesses are more independent and brave. The author then explains if the shift from the old to new princesses are actually better, and not just different. Stover analysizes that Disney princesses evolve and are a part of the worlds change on feminism.

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!

Although in society today, many individuals have preconceived notions as to what male and female are, there are however, ways in which they are viewed in films. These ways namely derive from the societal standards that have been previously set. In the Disney movie Cinderella, it tells the story of a young girl who got to be a princess for a night. That one night was, as most like to call it, “the time of her life.” Her dreams were granted into reality, and Cinderella got to live out her dream come true—that is, until midnight when the spell wore off. This film is a Disney fairy-tale based on the images of gender roles, and with its release in 1950, it exhibits both the female and male perspective that later on created stance for other films with similar circumstances. Widely subjected to as a controversial notion, society has influenced the portrayal of gender in the movie Cinderella, through the preconceived impression of females, the preconceived impressions of males, and the two impressions still being present in society today.

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

However, many believe they are characterized as weak and are controlled by the male superior. Many children, especially girls, look up to Disney princesses as their role models, but Disney likes to make them feel like they need a man to be strong. In early Disney animation princesses were shown as the damsels in distress who needs rescuing by their prince. Disney’s Cinderella is a example of this; “She is left to stay in a forced servitude for the rest of her life until she escapes escapes from her step mother and finds her prince (Yerby).” Cinderella and many others, like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, were unable to help themselves to get out of their own troubles. Disney portrays their princesses as happy homemakers, for example in Snow White, the first ever full length Disney animation, she is seen as a young and pretty girl who takes care of her men and

Gender roles being a critical part in the society has been affected in the ways it has been portrayed in this media, thus influencing how the viewers will compare themselves to the rest of those who are around them. Disney has been credited with displaying the roles of men and women in their films mirroring the cultural beliefs and social norms and expectations of identity and gender roles. Its representation of gender roles has evolved over the years adapting to the changing trends and developments in cultures and values. The role of women, especially their princesses, has evolved over the decades in relation to the surrounding culture thus showing time frames that reveal a change or

Cramped in a small Los Angeles office, Walt Disney drew a few larger than life cartoons. After Disney’s big hit Alice Comedies and cartoons of Mickey and the gang, he moved his office to Burbank, California. There, Walt and his brother, Roy, came up with their most famous movies such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Alice in Wonderland. Now with two American amusement parks, three international parks, multiple cruise lines, multiple resorts, over five hundred films, and over thirty academy award, it’s hard to not heard of Disney. Every boy or girl has at least seen or heard of Disney movies. It’s such a big part of society today that it becomes influential in a kid’s childhood. This project will look at the underlying effect of the Disney princess phenomenon and how it shapes a young girls’ perspective of herself and how she’s “supposed” to be.