A group of children watch their favorite movie The Rescuers, frame per frame they see something in the background of one their favorite scenes; they pause the movie and look closely they see a woman’s naked torso. The children’s reaction to the explicit material is only one example that Disney uses offensive references, and visuals. Disney has a negative impact on society because of their explicit content, stereotypes, topics and visuals they edit into their feature films. Those who closely analyze the history of Disney footage in front of them are the ones who can prevent Disney’s explicit content. What is Disney and what does it do? Disney was an American motion-picture and television producer famous as a pioneer of cartoon films and as the creator of Disneyland. Making famous
They tend to just scream and write “Tell me who I am” on their face in marker
(Smosh 2016) She is not independent. This shows that Disney thinks that all females are not strong enough to take care of themselves.
Disney popularizes the use of drugs in this movie.
Alice and Wonderland, a famous children’s movie, is full of references to drug use. One character who does it the most is of course the caterpillar, who is constantly smoking on a Hookah pipe.
Alice eats mushrooms, shrinking from big to small (referring to the highs and lows of drug use) and the Mad Hatter’s behavior mimics the reactions of someone under the influence of drugs.
Mickey Mouse used to be a drug dealer in the 50’S. In ‘Mickey Mouse and the Medicine Man’, Mickey and Goofy try a new medicine called ‘Peppo’, representing a brand of amphetamine (speed).
Disney promotes Sexism in Mulan. When the Chinese military begins to draft men, including Mulan’s elderly father, to fight against the invading Hun army, Mulan pretends to be a man and takes her father’s place in the army. This is important because this shows that Disney men do not see women as equals. Disney popularizes the use of drugs in this
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and many other Disney movies all have one thing in common, they feature a female lead who needs a male figure to save them. However, things started to change after the release of Mulan in 1988. Movies that were only representing female leads as weak and always needed to rely on someone, started to feature females who showed off their more masculine side. Mulan was one of the first animated films that had started to dive into that, not to mention it was based on a true story, making it even more powerful. In the article “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Pixar/Disney”, authors Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden explore Pixar movies show male characters who were not afraid to show their emotions
(4) Conventional is easy. Whenever an idea is generally perceived by society as standard or traditional it becomes very easy to display to the public without the raise of an eyebrow. This is the basis on which stereotypes appear in films. You’d think in the 21st century where what once were radical notions like same sex marriage and recreational drug use are being legalized that something uncalled for like the constant portrayal of character stereotyping would come to an end. Alas, stereotypical characters continue to emerge in film and unfortunately have become a staple of Hollywood because they’re simple and straightforward, requiring little effort on the part of the writers or thinking from the audience.
Mulan immediately remembers that she needs to be quiet, charming and timid to meet the expectations of a perfect daughter. This mirrors how we have to always prompt ourselves as women to act out our gender roles according to what civilization thinks is right, bearing in the idea of gender stereotypes. Disparity often result in unwanted outcomes. In the instance of Mulan, her actions worries her father, who passionately prays that she will awe the matchmaker even with her masculine
Many of us have seen a Disney movie when we were younger. Disney movies captured our attention with their good morals and successful conclusions of finding their true love. The animations and music transform us into a land of magic where anything is possible if we just believe. Disney movies wrapped us in the idea that good always triumphs evil, that happy ever after exists. We have become the generation of Beauty and the Beast, 101 Dalmatians, Dumbo and Snow White as children now have not heard of these or have watched them. Some of these movies have been recreated and released in high definition and on DVDs in the past few years, but the structure and themes of the movies stays the same. However, we never stop and think about the undertones in Disney movies. They contain abuse, violence, dysfunctional relationships, and gender stereotypes, which is not appropriate for children. They may not understand what abuse, violence, dysfunctional relationships, alcohol or gender stereotypes are at their ages but do we want them to think that it’s normal. When we think that little girls watch these movies where the female characters are controlled by man or need a man to watch over them, they are not creating good role models for them. Would we not want them to have a better understanding that women do not have to have a prince charming to be happy, women can be independent and have careers and yes find love but not give everything up so their prince charming has the control.
Introduction “Mickey Mouse, either by name or by image, is better known in more places on this mud-ball earth than any human being in all history. In their day neither Caesar nor Napoleon were half so widely known” (Wallace, 1949). The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney has created the iconic Mickey Mouse image that is known all over the globe, demonstrating Disney’s power in the media. The Walt Disney Company has been the world’s most dominant story telling company, making it highly responsible for constructing representations of childhood culture. Disney’s representations have, inadvertently or otherwise, shaped early childhood perceptions of codependency, body image and stereotypes.
Disney films are known as classics, these films were, and continue, to be watched by millions. Disney films are held high and are viewed as enjoyable films, filled with joist stories of heroics, love, adventure, and many more. However, Rosina Lippi-Green, 1997, has a different view of these movies, in which she views these movies as being discriminative, which Disney movies can be, however, children do not see that.
Some childhood movies and television shows have multiple stereotypes, but being young we don’t really notice what is happening or being said, even when things are being put into our mind by seeing the things certain main characters do in the show that is being watched, whether it is a boy or girl that the child is focusing on, certain stereotypes are being put in their mind without even realizing it. In the television series,” Scooby Doo: Where Are You” it shows two females known as Velma and Daphne, Daphne being the more beautiful character, having bright red hair, a skinny waist and a good body type, while Velma was the type that is portrayed to be more of the ugly girl, being short and more on the heavier side, wearing thick round glasses,
The point of many films is to convey a message to its viewers, such as morals and ethics. Consequently, films intended for adults convey messages suitable for adults; while children’s films do likewise for their target age groups, as one might expect. These children’s films, directed towards particularly younger audiences, prove useful when they contain beneficial maxims. Although at times, these films elicit less than healthy social views. Disney’s Aladdin is a prime example of a children’s film that immerses the audience in unhealthy views towards women. This film is an irresponsible in its portrayal of women - it sexually objectifies the female protagonist and enforces sexist ideologies, which directly affects the female characters within the story’s patriarchal system. The idea of sexism towards women is rampant throughout the movie Aladdin by making the following three claims: a woman’s worth is defined by men, women are incapable of making their own choices, and that women are inadequate and thus require saving by a man.
Another critical issue Disney has voiced and influence on was the topic of gender roles. Gender roles are known as how a person behaves or what their roles are in society based on what is appropriate for their gender. Before the 1970’s, women were forced to be known as household wives, which meant the men would go to work and the women would take care of things at home. Women were depicted as fragile and feminine, while men were strong and masculine. For a long time, this was the belief everyone abided by. Overtime, women grew weary of these stereotypes and began to fight back against the norm. With Disney’s few movie films, such as Cinderella or the Little Mermaid, women were depicted as naïve and priorities of a lady were to be married to
Overall, the Disney movie, Mulan, demonstrates gender roles, socialization of gender roles, and consequences of breaking the gender roles. By Mulan going to war for her father, in China, many things were at risk, life, honor, and the country of China, itself. Displaying the characteristics a man had was the only way for Mulan to survive, granted, she was not great at displaying woman characteristics in the first place. Being caught in war, as a woman, meant death, but Mulan was lucky for her bravery when saving Captain Li Shang, for he spared her life, which allowed Mulan to help save China and the emperor in the end. Even though China had very strict gender roles, Mulan broke them to save her father’s life and became the person she was meant to be.
Although Disney is commonly associated with childhood innocence, giving young children the possibility to dream and fantasise, it is important to question the ideology and values that Disney promote. Although largely positive values arise from Disney Animation, there has also been a backlash of criticism against Disney. This negativity could stem from some of the inaccurate gender interpretations, conservative values and ideologies the films promote. ‘Such characters warrant critical attention because they are not just representations of individual people but are encodings of ideology and embodiments of ideological values’ (Fiske, 1987, cited in Lacroix, 2004, p.217). Therefore the aim of this dissertation will be to investigate the potentially prejudicial representations of gender in Disney’s feature animated films, focussing on the representations of the leading female protagonists.
In the Disney film Mulan, the character for Mulan plays an important part to support the example of a woman not satisfied with her state of being and subordinated position in society and therefore, takes action to show others her true capabilities and qualities. This prototype is scarcely depicted in today’s cartoons and films so that children rarely identify with this image. “Mulan” helps to promote this role model of an intelligent woman and could be the first step in breaking gender constraints. In addition, it might teach children that they have to find their own state of happiness rather than trying desperately to fulfill society’s expectations.
Mulan pushes gender inequality by reinforcing masculine and feminine stereotypes through the songs that it presents throughout the movie. The roles of what it means to be a man is simply laid out within the influential song, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You.” This song occurred when the fresh new soldiers appeared to be very weak and unfit, so Captain Shang sang of how they must become strong like real men should be. Captain Shang asks the question, “did they send me daughters, when I asked for sons?” (Mulan), implying that women are unfit for the conditions of
Constant traditional themes seem to surface regarding women in various Disney animated films. A current study completed by Towbin et al. (2003) concerning a thematic analysis of gender roles in Disney featured animated films found similar themes. She found that four themes emer...
Over time we see that now fairytales leave a different message about women’s gender roles in society. We notice how women are strong, most importantly independent. We see now that women have hope for strength, perseverance, and confidence in themselves. These new twists on stories or movies with women being the heroes show children and females that women are strong enough to do anything, empowering them to become their own individual’s selves. As a little girl I watched my parents get divorced, it was a hard time in both my mothers life and mine. My mother had a full time career and not only had me to take care of but my newborn sister as well. My mother showed strength even though deep down she was hurting.