...Since its release in March of 2016, critics have weighed in on the ethics of the political agenda hidden within this Disney film. Zootopia, a movie intended for children, tells the story of a young bunny with ambitions of becoming a police officer, and a sly fox who become unlikely friends while trying to solve a criminal case. Taking place in a utopian world in which predators and prey live in harmony, Zootopia uses animal metaphors to teach children the importance of equality and kindness, while simultaneously commenting on prejudice and race relations. For children, Zootopia is a valuable lesson that the world is better when everyone is living together, no different than a fairy tale. For older audiences, however, the political nuances of...
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...very first Disney princess movies in the early 1900s, young girls are portrayed naturally falling in love with the princess characters. However, the fairy tale ideals these movies contain are only in place to mask the negative impact that they are actually having on young girls. For years these movies have been teaching girls to be sweet, emotional and a damsel in distress so that their Prince Charming will fall in love with them and save them from danger. This trend is shown in multiple Disney princess movies where the princesses are dependent on their prince, these insecure and naïve princesses are not the role models that young girls...
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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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...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] variable gender boundaries” (Brown, 2003, p. 52). In another article, Brown (2003) introduced the concept of dominatrix which the use of the strengths of masculine and feminine...
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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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...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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...The inspiring Disney movie Mulan has both men and women stereotypes that are part of our society. In the beginning of the movie the main character Mulan is being prepped to see the towns matchmaker because she is now old enough to be married into another family. This could be showing little girls once they reach a certain age it is crucial to get married to please and honor your family just like it does in Mulan. The women characters in Mulan are the subordinates compared to the men; expecting one man from each family to fight against the invaders of China regardless of age or disabilities. When Mulans father gets called even though he already fought before and was injured Mulan tries to plead with the courtier. Being told she dishonors her father for speaking out of turn shows the typical stereotype that women should not voice their opinions and speak without permission. She ends up running away and impersonating a male soldier to protect her father; which if discovered she would be killed by the Army. While training for war with General Shang male stereotypes are then shown teaching little boys what a man is. The song “I’ll make a man out of you,” describes what a man must do or be to be a real man. General Shang first asks the question if he was sent daughters and not sons further implying that the women should be...
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...Many parents 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...
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...Stereotypes are sometimes inescapable. Everyday activities, such as doctor visits, shopping, as well as others, may be interrupted by people placing stereotypes on young children. The origin of these gender stereotypes is thought to stem from the portrayal of princesses and the images they project to children. The author of “Cinderella and Princess Culture”, Peggy Orenstein, shares her frustration and claims the only way to get rid of female stereotyping is to get rid of princesses. Typically, the princess archetype goes hand in hand with ball gown dresses, a prince charming, etc.; however, princesses’ womanly figures, outfits, as well as their storylines, have begun to change. The author of “The Evolution of Disney Princesses”, Jo Bradley,...
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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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...People have been captivated by the “Disney magic” since 1937 when the first franchise movie, Snow White, was released. Over time Disney has continued to grow its audience as well as influence the lives of all ages. Often people ignore the negative effects that these movies can have on the self esteem of those who grew up watching them, especially females. The movies can mold the perceptions females have toward how they should look, act, and the people with whom they are interact. My group researched: To what extent do female high school social norms portrayed by Disney Channel movies from 2006-2010 impact their self esteem? Throughout our research, high school social norms were defined as the average daily experiences that high school students are believed...
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...An 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...
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...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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...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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...College Writing 4 December 2014 Disney Princess Films’ Influence Disney princess films often influence young girls into thinking they must conform to princess-like attributes. The films are teaching girls that they should live their lives like the fairy tales. Disney noticed the opinions that some viewers had on their past films and tried to change their old habits with their new films. Jennifer Hartstein, a child psychologist, wrote a book for parents in hopes to rid their daughters of the anxieties they develop when exposed to the consumer goods that are Disney princesses (Teitel online). Disney films are known to teach the younger female generation “everything from ‘only appearances matter’ to ‘don’t expect to rely on yourself; you'll need a prince to rescue you’” (Teitel online). Hartstein brought up the great point about what Disney films are perceived to be teaching. Hartstein believes that the typical princess is not only unreasonably airy, destitute, and vacant, but a threat to the development of girls who worship at their pink, sugary altar (Teitel online). If a young girl becomes obsessed with princess movies like Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella, she may become determined with maintaining her princess-like beauty and become indifferent in her own freedom; so kind of like a princess, herself (Teitel online). Frozen is often seen as the revolutionary movie that broke the stereotype that some viewers have on Disney princess movies. However, the males in the...
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