Disney Corporation: A Cultural and Economical Behemoth

The Disney Corporation is one of the biggest companies that our society has seen develop. Disney products are everywhere; they produce “children’s books, cartoons, computer software, and toys” (Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund and Tanner, 24). In 1937, Disney released its first full-length animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Since then, this business, in regards to media, has been on an economic roller coaster that only goes up. In a study published by the Journal of Feminist Family Therapy entitled Images of Gender, Race, Age and Sexual Orientation in Disney Feature-Length Animated Films Professors Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund and Tanner from various universities, looked in depth at Disney movies. In the article, the authors

make a point that, “Disney movies are one of the few forms of media that can be shared intergenerationally and are quite likely a part of most children’s lives in the U.S.” (24). In this study, they looked at twenty-six movies released between 1937 and 2000. In regards to gender, they found five themes that reappeared in these movies for the male gender and four that reappeared for the female gender. It was found that there were significant stereotypes that were reoccurring in the movies that they looked at. However, this article was published in 2003 and lacks data on more recent movies that have been released post-2003. This paper takes a look at gender, based off of the themes that were found in the previously mentioned article, in a more recent movie, Frozen. Although there has been a distinct change in gender stereotypes among this recent Disney movie compared to the past, the constructs of the Disney villain differs in a way that is angled towards emotional abuse.
As noted earlier, there were five themes found for the male gender in Disney movies and four for the female gender. The five reoccurrences for characters that are portrayed as male are “(1) Men primarily use physical means to express their emotions or show no emotions; (2) Men are not in control of their sexuality; (3) Men are naturally strong and heroic; (4) Men have non-domestic jobs; and (5) Overweight men have negative characteristics” (28). In regards to this paper, further explanation is relevant for two of these themes. The first theme of relevancy is that “men primarily use physical means to express their emotions or show no emotions” (28). This is the idea that characters that identify as male in the movies that were studied have a tendency to be physical or violent when it comes to times of conflict instead of using words to figure out the situation. The idea that “men are not in control of their sexuality” (28) reflects the idea that in the movies that were looked at in this study, a good majority of the characters who identified as male would become dazed or forget everything when around a beautiful girl. The four themes found for characters who are portrayed as female were that “(1) A woman’s appearance is valued more that her intellect; (2) Women are helpless and in need of protection; (3) Women are domestic and likely to marry; (4) Overweight women are ugly, unpleasant, and unmarried” (30). In regards to this paper, none of these themes for the female gender need to be further explained. These were the themes that were used to compare the movie Frozen, which was released in 2013, to movies that were released pre-2003.
The movie Frozen is about a young princess Anna who goes on a journey along with a iceman named Kristoff to find her sister Elsa who has run away, trying to keep their kingdom safe from her ice powers. Unfortunately, in the act of trying to keep the kingdom safe, Elsa accidentally traps the kingdom in a bone chilling winter. Back at the palace, Anna left her newfound love Hans in charge, thinking that when she returned with her sister, Hans and her would be married. At the climax of the movie, Elsa is captured and Anna has to face the fact that her newfound love doesn’t love her and is actually trying to take over her and her sisters’ kingdom. In the end, Anna saves her sister with familial love, totally forgets about Hans, and realizes that Kristoff is really the guy for her (“Gender Stereotypes and Performativity in Frozen Disney Movie”, 4-14).
When the movie Frozen is compared to older movies on the basis of the themes pointed out by Professors Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund and Tanner, there are distinct differences in every section. Although there was a change towards more modern gender roles in every section, the changes in the themes regarding the male gender seemed to have the biggest differences or conflicts. Therefore, this paper will focus predominantly on the two themes of male gender that seem to have the biggest change.
In C.J. Pascoe’s book Dude, You’re a Fag, Pascoe looks at masculinity and sexuality in high school. Towards the beginning of the book Pascoe points out that, “People are supposed to act in ways that line up with their presumed sex. That is, we expect people we think are females to act like women and males to act like men. People hold other people accountable for ‘doing gender’” (13). This is connected the theme that men primarily use physical means to express their emotion. Professor Jennifer Hardacker, a professor at Pacific University in a lecture talked about the ‘male gaze’ or men looking at women in a way that objectifies them. This is connected to the theme that men are not in control of their sexuality. Under this idea, men are ‘entranced’ by a beautiful woman and begin to see them just for their beauty, even if there is more for them to offer. In the pre-2003 movies, Disney went with the idea that our society expects guys to be emotionless or violent in times of conflict and also that women are supposed to be able to ‘manipulate’ men with their beauty. However, the movie Frozen approaches this theme in a different light. This theme doesn’t necessarily happen in the traditional sense when it comes to Hans’ character. From beginning of the movie, Hans pretended to love Anna so then he could manipulate her when the time came. Unlike in many Disney movies previously, Anna was not able to ‘entrance’ Hans. The way Hans uses his emotions to take advantage of Anna is different than any other Disney villain has done before. In a blog post entitled “A Point on Frozen and False Feminism” by Jim C. Hines a fantasy novelist highlighted
There’s another message [in the movie Frozen], and it isn’t just about falling for a man you just met. It’s about the fact that the charming fellow you just met — the man who flatters you, says all the right things, and makes you feel so amazing — turns out to be flat-out evil.
Welcome to the reality of domestic violence. Unlike most Disney villains, batterers don’t come with their own foreboding soundtrack. They don’t sneer like Scar and Gaston, or twirl their mustaches like Jafar. They’re not openly slimy like Clayton.
They’re charming. They’ve learned how to don that mask, how to flatter and manipulate and say just the right thing. They look completely normal. They deliberately seek out victims they think they can control … and what better target than socially awkward, isolated, hopeful Anna? (Hines, 1)
Hans, as a villain, emotionally manipulates Anna in a way that, by some definitions, can be seen as domestic violence. The idea that the Disney villain is changing from someone overtly evil in every sense to someone who can manipulate and bring someone down from the inside out is a completely new look at what a villain is.
In moving forward, it is important to define domestic violence. However, based off of the scholarly work Domestic Violence at the Intersections of Race, Class and Gender by Sokolof and Dubont, both professors at separate universities, “there is no one size-fits-all explanations for domestic violence”(50). One must take into account the culture, race, class and intersectionality of a person to be able to under stand what they may see as domestic violence. Something that may be seen as domestic violence to a rich white woman in America may be very different from what a poor woman in India describes as domestic violence. Even though the definition of domestic abuse changes based on wherever one may be in life, it is obvious that in Frozen Hans uses his emotional connection with Anna to trick her into thinking that he actually loves her. Which, my many definitions, is emotional abuse and manipulation.
To summarize, Disney is one of the largest media providers in the world.

Disney movies are intergenerational, in a sense that families with people of all ages have can find a common past time in them. Based off a study done by Professors Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund and Tanner, Disney movies produced from 1937-2000 have five common themes for the male gender and four common themes for the female gender (24). In regards to this movie, two themes from the male gender themes were looked at when applied to the movie Frozen, which was released in 2013. The Disney feature-length animated film Frozen has very different gender roles presented than that of Disney movies from pre-2003. When it comes to the villain, Hans, critics have realized that he is different from other Disney villains in the sense that he pretends to love Anna, the princess character, and uses that power to manipulate her. This type of blind emotional manipulation is unique to Frozen. Since Frozen was the only modern movie looked at in this paper, it is possible that this manipulation could only be a one-time thing for Disney. However, going off of the study done by Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund and Tanner, the Disney Corporation does not see any problems in using past themes

continually.