...heroine in films since the 1990’s. But is it an accurate portrayal of women? Films have been guilty of an unfair and inaccurate portrayal of gender roles especially for women. In the early years, women were portrayed as submissive, emotional and dependent on males and males are portrayed as the lead hero in the movie, saving the day and getting the girl in the process (Gilpatric, 2010). However, in recent times, we can observe a new trend in recent movies. Films such as Tomb Raider (2000) and Kill Bill (2001) have emerged showing women in a new light. Similarly, films such as Gladiator (2000) and Finding Nemo (2003) have showed a softer side of males that is rarely shown on screen. So what is have the film industry progressed towards a fairer and more accurate of gender in movies? Literature Review In recent studies, Gilpatric (2010) uses violence as a tool of measure to demonstrate that movies are still depicting gender stereotypes in violent female action character. This is backed by Sternheimer (2003) as she argues that even though females appear to be independent, they are still dependent on males which reinforces traditional gender stereotype. Nevertheless, there has been a noticeable trend that there is a fairer portrayal of gender in films in recent years (Nelmes, 2007). Such a trend is evident in Finding Nemo as Brydon (2009) claim that even Disney, the champions of gender stereotype, has the capacity to steer away from traditional gender roles. Heroines in films have “cross[ed]...
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...Matt Williams Splitting Hairs in Disney’s film Tangled Cinderella tells us that a dream is a wish that your heart makes, and following suit dreams play a large part in the newest Disney princess film, Tangled. In the end of the film Rapunzel holds Flynn and they admit their deep secret that they had become each other’s dream, and an “awww” moment ensues. The question to ask is “Where do these dreams come from?” and “What do these dreams mean?” Taking this second question, the implications of Rapunzel and Flynn’s dream impact more than just the world of the film. The Disney Princess films have been studied within an inch of their lives by a great number of scholars in a great number of fields. One common study takes the ideas of gender development and combines them with the Disney Princess films. However, the implications of gender do not stop here as gender identity can still be impacted as the viewers age. Interpretation of the princess films has been a huge aspect of their scholarly application as the behavior of the princesses, and princes, can be interpreted and compared with gender stereotypes and norms to assess the impact their portrayals can have on the viewing audience. The film Tangled is often seen as Disney’s take on a modern princess, and Rapunzel and Flynn have a great deal to contribute to both gender development study and media interpretation of gender. Gender development is a field of study which has been impacted in a number of ways by modern theorists...
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...Stereotypes of Gender against Women Throughout history, women have been discriminated against in our society. At times, they have been considered the weaker sex and also, they have been expected to do work that only demands low responsibility. These responsibilities may include: housework, being a good wife and mother. However, the world’s perspective towards women has had significant changes, and companies like Walt Disney Production are still generating stereotypes of gender against women in their films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Mulan. Media is frequently responsible of encouraging these patterns by the way they show their information and entertainment to the audience. Laura Mulvey, a British feminist film theorist, is best known for her essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” which was published in 1975. Here, she describes the role of women in movies “as a tool of attraction for the male gaze” (Mulvey). According to Mulvey’s statement, this work aims to describe the stereotypes of gender that Disney films display throughout their past productions. It also shows how the films can affect everyday lives. Over decades, these cartoons have been criticized for illustrating the traditional American and European values, thus creating stereotypes, which are often not a clear image of the current situation in our society. One of the most discussed topics in the animated features of Walt Disney Productions is the stereotype...
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...Gender Roles and Disney The Disney princess has become one of the most iconic symbols of Walt’s ever growing empire. The disney Princess’ franchise first began in 1937 with the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs making Snow White the first princess in the now infamous princess lineup. The franchise continues with the most recent disney princess movie Tangled ( Rapunzel) which came out in 2011. Disney and their filmmakers caused great controversy with their princess’ such as race. Disney broke their european tradition by adding their first African American Princess to the line up. Princess Tiana of The Princess and the Frog in 2009 which still caused controversy. Another one of Disney’s biggest controversial topics was gender roles and how women and men are portrayed in these disney films. Gender roles are separate patterns of personality traits, mannerisms, interests, attitudes, and behaviors that are regarded as either "male" or "female" by one's culture. They are what is considered the “ Norm” for the male and female sex. There are stereotypical behaviors normally associated with either gender such as Women are suppose to be more passive aggressive, overly emotional, and illogical, just to name a few characteristics. While men tend to be more tough or in control, leaders, Not crying or wimpy and a womanizer As suggested in Kimmel’s “ Bros before Hos”: The Guy Code in Language Awareness (469). These same messages are often presented to children through the media they...
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...Analysis of Gender Roles in Disney Princess Films Jasmit Singh 213749361 Traditional and Popular Culture – 1900 9.0 Susan Niazi – Tutorial 6 Whether it’s the colours they wear, the activities they engage in or how they behave, men and women are known to play different roles in society. These established gender roles “are not innate or natural but a product of society”. Children, adolescents and adults all learn gender roles through the environment they’re surrendered by. One of the many huge influencers that help shape gender roles is media. Although “there has been a lot of change over the years in terms of what is considered appropriate societal roles for men and women, this change is not reflected in contemporary film”. The ideology of mainstream media continues to focus on the males being the heads of society, which in result, shows an unequal representation of the females. From an early age, media puts an image into young minds, informing them how males and females should think, act, behave and appear. In many television shows and films, one can easily see the distinct difference between the role of a male and a female. Often films are enforcing stereotypical gender roles where the male is seen to holds more importance in society than the female. Amongst many film producing companies, Walt Disney Pictures for decades have been enforcing stereotypical gender roles in their princess films. Though it may not be outright obvious, Disney productions play a huge role in fostering...
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...Media is a powerful agent when it comes to entertaining children. It influences the youth in our society that they have to act gender appropriate, and act a way that the youth are socialized to learn. Media uses the gender socialization to their advantage just as how Disney production does. Movies like Cinderella, Snow White Disney movies target particularly the youth and their thinking as well as putting ideas into their head about what is to be proper man and proper women. Growing up, a lot of young children love to watch Disney movies, but they don’t realize that they are affecting them. Young girls look up to the different princesses hoping that one day when they grow up, they will meet their prince charming the way Cinderella met as...
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...Angel Pelaez Mrs. Larsen AP Language, Period 3 21 November 2014 Disney Research Paper In society, gender roles (a set of social and behavioral norms that are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex) are everywhere. For a long time men and women had to do certain things throughout their lives. It was expect that men would be the ones that had to work, while their wives had to stay home to take care of the house, the kids, bills, etc. Over time, these gender roles have changed. Females now take on tasks that only men were supposed to do. Gender roles appear in places that one wouldn’t expect: Disney movies. Disney movies do a great job at showing how gender roles were portrayed at the time the movie came out. Most notably, in these movies, males fulfill a certain appearance stereotype (tall, muscular, handsome, etc.). The same stereotype applies to females as well (makeup, being slim, posture, etc.). In Disney movies, the male protagonist is almost always good-looking, muscular, tall, etc. An example of this is Prince Eric from the Little Mermaid movie. In the movie, he’s tall, light-skinned, muscular, and handsome. He’s almost “perfect”. In the essay ....Happily Ever After (Or What Fairy Tales teach Girls about being Women) Alice Neikirk states “the hero, often a prince, is generally described as brave and handsome.” Over time, the appearance of the male protagonists have changed. For example, Flynn Rider from Tangled is just a slim, not...
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...Women, Girls and the Media 18 August 2014 The Disney Princess Effect on Young Girls and Their Gender Role Perception The Disney Corporation has been around since 1937 when it released the first Disney Princess movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Since then, millions of young girls have fallen in love with these characters and often see them as role models. From the dresses to the tiaras, the beauty to the fairy tale, Disney Princesses have a direct effect on young girls and their behavior. The media has been a powerful resource through which many young girls develop their identity and come to understand gender roles in society. Research indicates that watching televised gender portrayals has an effect on individuals’ gender based attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors (Mastro & Morawitz 131). These are the attitudes and beliefs that young girls who watch Disney princess films would inherit. Girls enjoy watching these films and see the beautiful characters overcome difficult trials, as well as fall in love with a handsome prince in the end. The overall message is not a realistic one, leaving many girls feeling self conscious and unhappy. The idea that beauty equals good and ugly equals evil can negatively impact the way a girl looks at herself or others. Girls will ultimately learn that what is beautiful is good. Snow White and Cinderella were attractive and charismatic while the witch and two stepsisters were unattractive and vile. And in the end, the princesses...
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...Gender Roles in Disney Movies It is undeniable that the company that is leading to many generations in their child age is Disney. Who does not remember Mickey and Minnie Mouse?, Who has not thrown a tear when Snow White was poisoned by the evil witch?, Who did not want to ever be in the place of handsome John Smith or Pocahontas herself to revive their love story?, that tender these films, is not it, for example the Little Mermaid and Sebastian the crab song, who does not remember that song from "under the sea”? Has anybody ever wondered why the dwarves themselves did not do the housework when they came home once Snow White "moved in" with them? Or why an Indian as Pocahontas, falls for a murderer of thousands of his countrymen as was John Smith? Or why witches are always bad? Or why women are always in the background in these films (Hubka, Hovdestad & Tonmyr, 2009)? The world of Disney Princess began in 1937 when Snow White entered the world with the Seven Dwarfs (McRobbie, 2008). Since then it continued to add princesses in this world and the most recent movie was Tangled (Rapunzel) in 2011. In the past years, due to the lack of portraying ethnicity, Disney movie makers were highly criticized by their audience. Therefore, Pocahontas appeared in 1995 and after three years in 1998 came Mulan, which created a racially diverse collection of Disney princesses. After a decade The Princess and the Frog was released in 2009. It is important to understand that Disney plays an important...
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...that adaptations and sequels are automatically lesser works in and of themselves. You can make a tremendously original or even groundbreaking film out of an adaptation such as The Dark Knight. You can just as easily make an uneventful mess out of an original idea as seen in Transcendence. Some sequels are among the best films ever made while lots of legendary duds were original ideas. Here’s the thing though, no matter how many perfectly good movies we’re getting out of Hollywood’s current obsession with adaptations, sequels, and reboots, too much of it is bad for the soul of a movie culture. New things, new experiences,...
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...feel that Disney animated films are pure and wholesome, and they are perfectly suitable for children to watch starting at very young ages. On the surface of Disney movies, they are quite wholesome and they try to teach life lessons, but do these movies really portray positive images of men and women that will help a child become an individual, or do Disney movies place ideas in children’s heads, at early ages, telling them how they should act, feel, and live. In an article printed on December third 1966 in Time magazine, the author proposed that Disney films were just as much for adults as they were for children. “Disney always maintained that he made films not for children but for "honest adults."”(time.com). Anyone who has seen a Disney animated film can see that most of these movies are based on adult situations that involve the union of man and women in one way or another. For as long as Walt Disney animated films have been around, spanning eight decades, they have made a great impact on the way children view themselves and others, and they help shape how children view the opposite sex in a negative way. Most people were exposed to the wonderful world of Disney animated films when they were still toddlers. And since people are exposed to this material at such young ages, these films tend to give children an early idea of how men and women, according to Walt Disney studios, interact with each other. They also show children at an early age how people of their gender should act...
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...From glistening ball gowns, to fairy godmothers and singing animals- Walt Disney has little girls everywhere growing up, with aspirations of being the next “Anna”. What the mirror on the wall did not teach us, is that the gender portrayals in these movies are not the fairest of them all. Since the first moment that Snow White bit into that succulent red apple, it was obvious that Disney was entrenched in misogyny that dates back to the mythology of Adam and Eve. Don’t get me wrong: I too was a doe-eyed Disney devotee and it took me a while to realise that it was better to depend upon charming chocolate than a Prince Charming. However it is now the 21st century and times have changed; Disney is no longer ‘Frozen’ in antiquated gender stereotypes. Notice the pun? Quite literally, “Frozen” (2013) has shattered princess stereotypes with a beautiful and funny adventure that’s a sure-fire Disney classic. “For the First Time in Forever” says the main song of the movie, and I kind of felt like singing the words too because for the first time in forever, the main characters of a Disney picture are independent females that don’t appear to rely on a guy, or a prince, that solves everything with a smooch. It’s true that Frozen is the rectification of a more modern woman role because there have been- in the past- some Disney movies with strong female protagonists such as Mulan (1998) and Pocahontas (1995). They didn’t need a man to be the saviour of the picture! This movie empowers...
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...Media in the Socialization of Children and Young Adults The media today are a powerful tool in modifying the behavior of children and young adults. This behavior can be seen as negative or positive depending on the situation. Children’s development is influenced by many factors but as Lund (2003) noted the significance of the mass media cannot be overstated: “The accumulated experience of media exposure contributes to the cultivation of a child’s values, beliefs, dreams, and expectations, which shape the adult identity a child will carry and modify through his or her life.” Studies investigating Social Learning Theory, done by Baker (2007, p.26) have consistently reported that children can model roles and behaviors seen on television. Media play a significant role in the socialization process, body image, and moral judgments in children and adolescents. Cartoons on television are some of the first factors of socialization in a child’s life. Although many adults feel that cartoons are obviously fantastical, unrealistic, and therefore harmless to children, the research evidence proves otherwise. “According to developmental literature, children before the age of ten years often have difficulty differentiating between reality and fantasy”(Baker, 2007, p.25). Anderson found (as cited by Lund) that students who had regularly watched educational television as children had higher grade point averages than those who did not. Other research has found a more negative influence...
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...Disney characters : the reflect of women's place in the society Walt Disney, under his real name Walt Elias Disney was born in 1901 in Chicago. He founded in 1923 the famous Walt Disney Company with his brother Roy as the Disney Brothers Studios. After three years, the studios take the name Walt Disney Company. Their first animated film came out in 1937 "Snow White" inspired by a famous children's story by the Brothers Grimm. Thereafter follow many animated films like Cinderella, Mulan, or Rebel. One of the most important question in recent years is : What image Disney returns with respect to the role of women and the role that women play in society in the twenty-first century? In fact, Disney is primarily a media and integrate media stereotypes and habits of society to which they belong in their history or animated movie. Disney is the reflects of the habit of society to which they belong in their history or their short films. Thus heroines like Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora are submitted to wish than others, especially men, have chosen for her. They are docile women who spend their time dreaming. They are always save by men from a evil spell and are submit to the will of men. Instead, the heroines of the late twentieth century are beginning to take their lives and rebel against the male authority . In the twenty-first century heroines are increasingly rebelling and advocate of feminist principles : women are the equals of men. This analysis allows us to see a marked increase...
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...Not until I started researching racism in Disney films did I understand this was even an issue. As a little kid you most likely don’t pick up on these things but as an adult being aware of it, do we allow our children to continue watching such films? My dice identity role was in perspective of an African American person. Disney does a great job of stereotyping against this race in several movies, the Jungle Book being just one. In this particular movie, they have portrayed gorillas and orangutans to sound like black people. In their slightly ever more popular film, The Lion King, they made the hyenas speak in a clear street manner such as an inner African American dialect. (“Stereotypes”) Another issue came into light once the film The Princess and the Frog was released. Why had it taken Disney so long to come out with its first African American princess film? This film’s original story line had the princess character named Maddy who was a chambermaid. This caused uproar about the character starting the movie as a slave and having the name Maddy that sounded too much like Mammy and changes were made. Mammy is defined as a black woman engaged as a nurse to white children or as a servant to a white family. (Evans) When it comes to gender, Disney does another awesome job of drawing a distinct line between female and male characters. The female characters were typically shown in a position of queen, homemaker or princess such as Cinderella who goes from a maid to a princess. Male...
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