Gender Discrimination In The Millennial Generation

Lobna Abou Hussein

Extended Essay

How do American pre-21st century cartoons encourage gender discrimination in the millennial generation?

Introduction:

Gender discrimination, that is a form of prejudice, is one of the dangerous global issues facing all societies nowadays. It is considered as a civil rights violation, especially to women. That is interpreted by traditional stereotypes of gender roles which are over-generalized ideas about a particular group of individuals. It leads to neglecting people’s differences and uniqueness and to having a certain image based on one opinion or belief. Stereotypes often give a certain generalized impression that is often not entirely true, especially about gender issues. No matter how developed a country

One of the main ideas acknowledged in this cartoon is that a woman’s job is cooking, cleaning, taking care of her husband and kids. It reveals Western gender ideologies at that period and demonstrates how society idealized gender roles. Feminist critiques by Gifford-Gonzales, explain that the perspective on women and men in the society and how women’s place is at home is cumulative. In other words, she demonstrated how women’s stereotypical image concerning their role in societies is spreading even in cartoons. Moreover, the cartoons represent two different ages so we have a combination of the past and the present. For example, people did not exist at the time of dinosaurs and telephones weren’t created until the nineteenth century. In addition, some fictional elements are added such as the elephant vacuum cleaner. Therefore, confusion between eras but also between fiction and reality is created. That affects how children apprehend issues represented in this cartoon. Growing up watching this animated series, youngsters develop the idea of gender stereotypes until the belief of women as background objects. Especially that these simple characters, with whom children identify, have a great impact on them and make it easier to convey a certain message

The story was created by Charles Perrault in 1696, Brothers Grimm later in the 19th century and renewed by Disney in 1959. The story is about a young girl who was cursed as a baby born to grow in beauty and grace but on her sixteenth birthday, she’ll prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. The fairies alter the curse so that instead of dying, Princess Aurora will fall into a deathlike sleep and only a truelove’s kiss will wake her up. Eventually, the plan works and she is later woken up by Prince Phillip. The Princess is portrayed as a beautiful young girl with long golden blonde hair, violet eyes, rose red lips and fair skin. We can recognize that, like Cinderella, beauty is associated with goodness since Aurora is also described as a kind, gentle sweet, graceful and charming Princess. Moreover, her beauty is what saves her from the curse since the Prince fell in love instantly when they were