Gender Roles In Disney's Cinderella

Women are dependent on men and can not save themselves. For example In Cinderella the opening narration explains to us Cinderella's life “cinderella was abused, humiliated and finally forced to become a servant in her own house and yet through it all cinderella remained forever gentle and kind, for with each dawn she found hope that someday her dreams of happiness would come true” This explains to us that Cinderella believed that although all she ever did was clean the house and run after her stepmother and ugly step sisters, her prince would come and save her from this mess, she never thought about leaving and starting a life of her own or going and finding a better way of living, she just carried on being a maid in her own home because

she knew her prince charming would come save her from her horrid life.

It puts across a message that all women will get saved by their prince no matter how bad the situation, that women should not try make a better lives for themselves that they shall only wait for a man to come and rescue them from their distress. The critical text History of Animation, Gender roles in Disney Animation by A Yerby, S Baron, Y Lee supports my example because Yerby, Baron and Lee stated that “she is left to stay in the same enforced servitude for the rest of her life until she escapes by marriage.” implying that she submits to being a servant until her prince saves her, which again puts across a message to the viewers which tend to be young girls, that it is normal to believe that all your happiness will come from finding love and being saved by a man. Disney makes us believe that it is okay not to make a life of your own if you are a woman and that depending on a man is your only means in

life. Another example of this is in The Little Mermaid. In the film Ariel signs away her voice so she can become a human for a man she has met once but never talked to. She decides to leave behind her whole family because she will be miserable, beside herself and not able to go on without this man. This gives a message to the little girls viewing this film that it’s okay to give up everything if you love a man, even if you have only met them once. Disney creates an image that if you sacrifice the things dearest to you, you shall meet the man of your dreams and he will fall in love with you sweep you of your feet and invite you to live in his castle in a matter of days.

This is a very unhealthy message to be putting across to young girls because the will see this and believe that this is what is going to happen to them and that they should spend their whole lives waiting for their prince to come save them, when in reality this is not going to happen. The critical text Becoming a Princess: The Transition From Individual to Sex Object by Ali Wachutka supports this example because in the critical text Wachutka clearly states her view on these movies and how princesses are shown to be. Wachutka believes the portrayal of disney princesses show that “they lack the ability to save their own lives” and that in the film The Little Mermaid Ariel sacrifices herself from under the control of one man straight to trying to win over another. Wachutka follows up her views by stating that “Ariel transitions from being under the control of her father directly to being Eric’s wife, she is never independent.” It shows us the women are portrayed as dependent on men, in most disney films the main female will more than likely be saved by a handsome prince and they will live happily ever

after. They very rarely show a woman who is not interested in love or being swept of her feet, They tend to believe and put across a message that women do depend on men and that us women would get nowhere in life without a male figure to rescue us at our beckoning call. This is very unrealistic as we see in society we have very many authoritative females that have got where they wanted to be by their own strength and will. These representations are created because Disney alters Hans Christian Andersen's original novels to make the women play a more sexist role. Ali Wachutka states in her text Becoming a Princess: Transition from Individual to Sex Object that “While both instances depict females in a sexist role, Disney does so to a greater extent…” This gives us the evidence that Disney is changing the original stories to show women in a more sexist manner to make the women seem like they should do chores and look perfect all the time and then the man of their dreams will come running to save them from their monstrous life that they can not escape from themselves because there are incapable. These examples show us that Disney portrays women to be very dependent on men and incapable of saving themselves from any harm, They put women across as weak and worthless without a man which portrays males to be the superior sex and that we can not be equals.Women have to look less superior.