Masculinity In Disney

With the rise in the popularity of television in the 50’s and the ensuing price decreases throughout the years, media has become one of the most pervasive agents of socialization in children. Currents statistics of TV ownership give credence to this fact, with 96.7 percent of all American households owning sets. (Stelter 2011) Because of the fact that the influence of video media is so widespread, it is imperative that we recognize the effect that it has on people, especially children during the phase of primary socialization. One of the largest and well known content producers in the realm of children’s media is The Walt Disney Company. Disney Is responsible for countless films that have, beginning with their first feature film in 1937 Snow

White and The Seven Dwarves, been prolific agents of socialization. Classic princess films such as Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White remain wildly popular and portray the exaggerated ideals of Hedgemonic Masculinity and Emphasized Femininity. While it has been argued by some that Disney films have become more progressive in recent years (Frozen), there remain many problematic elements conveyed through the displays of conventional gender norms, although they may have become more covert. For this reason, I chose to analyze 2001’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire, a film that I interpret as being as being a slight attempt at progressiveness but that is nevertheless underscored by it’s ascription of dominant gender norms to it’s characters.

Rather than centering around a hedgemonically masculine male, the main character is a man named Milo who embodies a subordinated masculinity.

This becomes apparent when we first encounter Milo in the second scene of the movie when, after a brief flashback of Atlantis being destroyed, he is practicing a lecture on Atlantis in an underground boiler room. In terms of physical appearance, Milo is skinny with a long pointed face, and wears huge round glasses that hide most of his face. His dorky looks, as well as his interest in discovering the mythical Atlantis suggest that he is the stereotypical non-hegemonically masculine nerd and positions him as the underdog protagonist right from the start. The subordinated masculinity that milo embodies throughout the film is necessary as he cannot physically adhere to many of the stereotypical traits of the hegemonic male. Instead of asserting his masculinity through violence, sexual prowess, or socio-economic status, he finds power in his intelligence and, on multiple occasions, his aptitude for fixing machines. At one point he fixes an exploration crew members named Audrey’s car, “It looks like the rotor is shot, well the boiler in this baby is… like the one back at the museum, the heating on this whole line has always been a little temperamental”. (Atlantis 2001) She responds by asserting her dominance over him, dismissing his attempt to “get the girl” by punching him in the stomach. In this scene Milo stakes his claim in the patriarchal dividend to enact hegemonic masculinity in a perfect opportunity to assert his power over a female companion. The fact that she is an engineer and can undoubtedly fix her own car without the help of a man is seemingly lost on

Milo.

Outside of Milo, all of the people in the expedition crew are fairly one-dimensional in terms of character development and are distinguished completely by single defining personality traits. It is interesting to note that all of these traits are traditionally hegemonic and are ones that Milo himself seems to lack. Helga, who is in charge of strategic planning is charismatic and has an aggressive nature; Audrey is a sarcastic, but quick-witted engineer; Vencenzo is a demolitionist obsessed with creating bombs and lastly Lyle, the commander of the expedition is simultaneously charming, ruthless and has the the muscular build to match his hegemonically masculine personality. On the surface, the films inclusion of Audrey the female engineer, or the overly aggressive Helga may be seen as a sign that Disney is attempting to shy away from stereotypes of emphasized femininity, but upon further inspection it turns out that these characters are mere props included to develop Milo’s character. Helga, for instance is given a tough sounding name to match her stereotypically masculine demeanor while Audrey’s superior engineering skills are meant to strip Milo of one of his only claims to masculinity.

In more ways than one, Atlantis is similar to the Disney movies that came before it in terms of it’s depiction of gender norms although it does use alternative means to reinforce these norms. Most of the supporting characters in this film are used as tools to highlight Milo’s subordination and position as the underdog. Significant parallels can be borrowed from studies of programming on Disney’s popular television station to help explain this phenomenon. In her article Cowboy Up!, Kristen Myers discusses the recent popularity of feigning broader definitions of gender in order to call attention to implied weaknesses in non heteronormative “feminine” behavior in men:

Incidents [are] largely comedic, rather than serious challenges to the gender order. Systematic analysis of the portrayal of masculinity on these programs reveals a leger de main: non-hegemonic boys [are] not heroic, but clowns, serving as foils for hegemonic masculinity. Comedy [is] centered on the ways that these boys failed at masculinity. Humor was used through- out the programs, disguising hegemonic messages as benign. (Myers 2012 p. 140)
Ultimately though, it is Milo who is set up to benefit from his depiction as the bumbling underdog and in this way the film differs from the television shows that Myers was studying. His gradual friendship with the crew members is symbolic for his acquisition of the stereotypically masculine traits that they embody, specifically the ability to be charismatic around women, to fight and to strategize. Near the end of the end of the film the crew turns on him, revealing that their ultimate motivation was money and that Milo’s knowledge was a means to this end.
Upon the team’s arrival in the heart of Atlantis, Milo meets and is immediately infatuated with the native princess Kida. This is the main turning point in the movie and signals the shift from Milo’s subordinated status to hegemonic status in a classic example of the Mighty Whitey Trope, “when [the] world [is] being explored… by Europeans for the first time, Mighty Whitey is usually a displaced white European… who ends up living with native tribespeople and not only learns their ways but also becomes their greatest warrior/leader/representative.” (tvtropes.com) With Milo in his element, it is hardly surprising that he is not only able to speak the native tongue but also read the language which Kida says has been lost since the flood many years ago. The second instance of Milo’s fixing a type of car comes when he is alone with Kida. He has no way of knowing what he is doing with the Atlantian machine but is able to fix it anyway saying, “you deserve credit for even getting this far” and framing Kida, who has lived there here whole life, as incompetent. Nevertheless, she is grateful and is depicted as the stereotypical damsel in distress through the remainder of the film. Although Kida is a warrior she does embody traits of ideal femininity, mainly helplessness and passivity. In stereotypical Disney fashion, Kira’s father charges Milo with saving her from his now evil crewmembers, solidifying the notion that women cannot save themselves and thus need a man. In the end of the movie, Milo fights Lyle in a violent battle in order to save her from death. Milo remains in Atlantis indefinitely in order to marry Kida, marking the implicit heterosexuality in the dominant masculine gender script.
In the end, Atlantis: The Lost Empire is not all that different from most other media that The Walt Disney Company produces as it perpetuates the same type of gender binary messages that it did when it started in the 30’s. The trend now is for these kinds of messages about Hegemonic Masculinity and Ideal Femininity to be presented under the false pretense of feminism, when in actuality the subordinated masculinity types depicted support the dominant gender schema by pointing out feminine characteristics that are purported as weaknesses or flaws in a man. Children are learning the same problematic ideas about gender. If anything films such as this one may be teaching them to reinforce gender norms in secondary socialization not only through overt means, but in increasingly covert ways as well.