The Role Of Masculinity In Disney And Pixar

Gillam, the author switches up from the common female perspective and shows Disney’s portrayal of the traditional representation of the male gender. A lot of the Disney’s representation of the male gender includes arrogance and competiveness as the main start off with films such as Cars and The Incredibles (Gillam, 2008). However, as the movie progresses Disney begins to open up the male protagonist and display a new model of masculinity—one in which show vulnerability and emotion. Often times in society men are expected to be dominant, emotionless, and tough despite the inaccuracy of the male persona. Gillam uses the example of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast to depict the standards of the male persona (Gillam, 2008). By using the lyrics to the song about Gaston, “No one fights like Gaston. Douses lights like Gaston. In a wrestling match nobody bites like Gaston. For there's no one as burly and brawny. As you see I've got biceps to spare. Not a bit of him's scraggly or scrawny. (That's right!). And ev'ry last inch of me's covered with hair,” we can tell from the lyrics that you have to be like Gaston and have huge muscles and have chest hair—which depicts masculinity. By contrasting with Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles he is shown showing his vulnerability by weeping about his “dead” family when constricted by his enemy. By showing Mr. Incredible as vulnerable this sends the message

Stefan Babich, a blogger for Periscope Magazine, a blog for women.Wrote a online article in 2011 that Brings up an issue many of us might not have even knew existed, that there is a lack of female protagonists in Pixar films. Babich brings up many points that are important to think about, because whether we realise it or not films,books,video games, and the media in general, at times do treat women to be less than their male counterparts.

Another issue that Lippi-Green observed and commented on are, the use of gender and marital status stereotypes in Disney films. Disney denotes the idea that to be desirable, you should look a certain way and "sound white" (97). Children are presented with the idealistic view that the leading male characters in search of a mate have "bulging necks and overly muscular thighs" (95) and spoke in "Mainstream United States English." Male characters are often the stronger and rougher who need women to care and tend to them. Lead female characters who are in search of their mate, epitomize how a conventional woman should be. From the physical aspect of being "doe-eyed and tiny waist " (95), to the "homemaker" status as portrayed in Disney films. There are no romantic leads given to the "mothers," they are often widowed and less desirable. The portrayal of "fathers" in Disney films is similar to the "mothers" with the addition of the comical characterization for some.

In the article, “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Disney/Pixar,” written by Gillam and Wooden, they argue that Disney's line of animated movies depict a “new man.” Their argument is based around three movies: Toy Story, The Incredibles, and Cars. Gillam and Wooden then state that all three of the movies start with a traditional alpha male character who, throughout the movie, begins to accept his more “feminine” aspects. The idea that the two present is that the lead characters show traits of “acute loneliness and vulnerability.” From there, Pixar emasculates the character through some type of disempowerment that then leads to the overall maturing of the characters (Gillam and Wooden). Throughout the article they bring up many great arguments of which I agree to. However, Gillam and Wooden only cite the three movies mentioned above, when in fact Disney/Pixar has continued with the trend of having an “alpha male” character who throughout the film becomes more mellowed out and less dominant. The idea of emasculation can be carried into the Pixar movie “Up,” where the viewer can witness acute loneliness, slight depression, and eventually the admittance of defeat, where the character is forced to take on help and accept the “emasculation”.

In their essay, Gillam and Wooden express their revelation that Disney/Pixar is trying to teach their young viewers a new perspective regarding the characteristics of a male. The authors focus on denoting certain points in Pixar movie plots when the male protagonists underwent character growth and hence became the “ideal” character the audience learned to love. Gillam

Despite being one of the most popular, if not most popular, animated movies of all-time, Toy Story offers a limited perspective when it comes to gender because of manhood acts, homosociality, and stereotypes. The manhood acts in the film suppress women at the same time as they support the hegemonic masculinity, which is the masculinity that actively attempts to suppress women and inferior masculinities (Bird pg. 129). When the male characters in the movie do this, it approves of this negative behavior that limits the voice of the female characters. Additionally, the lack of female characters causes the film to portray homosociality, which prevents young girls from seeing a variety of representations of women in the toys. Also, the stereotypes in the movie reduce women to second class citizens. Both male and female stereotypes in the movie support the hegemonic masculinity. Ultimately, the depiction of manhood acts, homosociality, and stereotypes in the film, Toy Story, actively support the hegemonic masculinity at the expense of other gender identities.

Disney strongly portrays gendered stereotypes using their eleven official princesses. Young children, specifically young girls in this case, are extremely susceptible to being influenced by the portrayal of these gendered stereotypes. Golden and Jacoby performed research regarding how preschool girls interpret the gendered stereotypes shown through Disney Princess media, through both the young girls’ pretend play behaviors and the discussion of the princesses. Golden and Jacoby performed this research project in order to examine the perception of young girls in relation to princesses and awareness of gender-role stereotypes, a different research study found that girls who lived and accepted gendered stereotypes, in believing that women

The website is titled “Growing Up With Disney” and covers eight Disney movies produced in 1989 to 2016. Each movie gets its own webpage that focuses on the female lead character and each webpage includes a summary of the movie and a reflection of my thoughts on the character. The reflections focus on the formations of gender roles and how Disney has changed in the span of these eight movies. The audience targeted is those who share the same love for Disney movies and grew up watching them.

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

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

When you think of Disney, you think about how everyone lives their happy ever after fairytale. Most Americans grew up with Disney and have a strong connection with the brand. Yet, there is a lot more to a classic Disney film, then what the average American sees the first time viewing.

How Marxist theory is presented in Disney/Pixar films, with a focus on Toy Story 3 and Wall-E.

For decades now, Disney Corporation has been providing us with countless films made to delight and amuse children and adults alike. But not all Disney films seem particularly appropriate for their target audience. Many of these films portray violence, gender inequality, and skewed views of leadership roles that seem altogether inappropriate for impressionable young children. Better and more contemporary heroines need to be added to Disney’s wall of princesses in order to counteract years of sexism.

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.

Pixar Animation Studios as we know today, was started as in 1984 when John Lasseter, chief creative officer of both Pixar