Young children absorb information really quickly. Even being little and watching these shows, girls insist that they are princess, while little boys imagine themselves as these strong princes who woo the princesses. Disney films portray men to be very masculine, who usually inhabits power, while females are portrayed an passive, giving the upper hand to the men. In many of their classical tales they show stereotypical gender roles and use imagery to illustrate masculinity and femininity and how it can be constructed in society.
For females, Disney depicts the female role as housekeepers and good wives and mothers who tend to their men and children and have little to say in situations. They never rule over and town nor do they get to save the prince for once. Anything that strays from this model is looked down upon. Men on the other hand, delineated as the heros and protectors. They usually save the damsel in distress and face tough decisions on how to rule their kingdoms. Children, Disney's main target, might not understand that you do not have to behave this way in society and might think boys have to be brave, while girls have to be these delicate flowers.
Portrayal of masculintiy
Portrayal of femininity
Though not all Disney movies portray this sexism and they have definitely have been changing their image slowly to more strong and independent females. But these stereotypical images are still being watched still being embedded into many children's heads. A child's brain is like a sponge and they absorb everything fairly quickly.
Great videos and relation to their subject! I have actually taken a music class where my professor has made the statement of sexism in Disney movies. Yet, his statement was how all Disney princesses don't have a mother or if they do, how the mother is portrayed as a bad influential or minor character. He then stated that the reason for this is because Walter Disney grew up without his mother. This makes perfect sense and close observation on your posts!
ReplyDeleteI always felt that the way the plots in Disney movies are structured is so that the audience that Disney is aiming for could best understand the story with little issue. Disney's main market is children. For them, the best way to make things easy to grasp is to make things very "black and white", with little deviation from what society has probably informed kids of.
ReplyDeleteWhile yes this is pretty much conforming and cementing to the stereotypes we disapprove of, we also have to keep in mind that Disney is in the business of making movies, toys, etc for making more money. I think as attitudes evolve in society, we can encourage Disney to take steps in a direction that embraces a more neutral approach on how it tells a story.
Maybe one day that sweet charming women can be tough as nails with the power to lead, and that strong tough male lead can actually have deep emotional issues, and at the end its all still good.
Disney DID make steps on making their "Disney Princesses" more diverse. In the 90's, movies such as Mulan and Pocahontas were released, showing that you don't have to be a white blonde to be amazing. It is all a gradual process that takes time.
I absolutely agree with you that Disney has portrayed stereotypical gender roles in their films. I didn't realize this until I got older of course. But it is very true that children absorb everything that they see therefore young girls are learning to want to be little princesses that are saved by a Prince Charming. Young girls need to also be taught to be strong and to save themselves. In a sense, Disney is showing girls to be dependent on men from a very young age which is not okay. There's a boundary between making women look weak and making women look too strong to show that men are not needed. Disney has to find that boundary to make men and women equal to portray this to children.
ReplyDeleteI see what you are trying to say, Ozzie12, that Disney is engraining the gender stereotypes into their audience's mind by showing the princess as needing to be saved by the strong, handsome prince. Most little girls want to be a princess when they are young and they get the idea in their head about finding their prince charming later on in life, but their views can obviously change when they see the real world. I think that this is the case in which the female in Disney movies and books are portrayed as delicate and the men as strong and heroic is because when Disney first came out with the stories and books, the norm was just that, women at home and being portrayed as delicate. I do not think that in the 1920s, many women were seeing anything wrong with their daughter seeing the princess as their favorite thing.
ReplyDeleteI do not see the princess interpretation as having been done intentionally harmful or to add to the stereotype that allows men to have the upper hand, I think that it might have been done to show kids a nice story they could enjoy.
RosieFlower, cool fact about Walt Disney! I did not know that about him and I did not realize this about the stories and movies.
I really like this post and the issues it raises, and it goes so well with the direction Professor Pok's discussions in class have gone in so many times. I think you've got a great point, Disgruntled Reporter. Even though I can see where the problems arise when it comes to the gender roles that are fed to children through these movies, I also see the progress being made in the more recent releases and I think Disney's headed to a good place when it comes to portraying the stronger females and diversity.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that you posted this because a few semesters previous to this one a professor highlighted the sexism found in the classic Disney movies. Obviously these movies haven't changed but with knowledge the sexist connotations become more evident. A vast majority seem to press for this domestic type of work as a female characteristic almost. But I do like the direction in which the movies are headed showing women as more then house wives and maids but as heroic, ambitious, and thriving women.
ReplyDeleteYES! Such a great post, it is something so "normal" to me that I never even thought about it. All my life, I have been watching Disney movies and wanted to be the princess and never really thought about the sexism that is so prevalent in every film. I now think back to loving the movie Mulan, over all of the other films I had seen and realize now that maybe it was because Mulan was different than all of the typical Disney females. She was tougher and showed everybody that she could do what was thought to only be a man's job. I also agree with some of the other commenters in that Disney is moving to eliminate some of the stereotypes seen in many of their films, but I doubt that their portrayals of the classic-type fairytale will ever change completely. I took a children's literature class in which we focused on fairytales, and stereotypical characters were portrayed in all of them.
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