The two movies I chose to watch this week was “The Road to El Dorado” and “The Emperor's New Groove” as my choice of animated films to analyze. The animated film, “The Road to El Dorado” stereotypical representations of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality are added in children’s films. I see sexuality played out most of the time in these Disney films. There is only one woman, and her name is Chel. There are many single female characters in otherwise male dominated movies who are portrayed as sexy. It is unfortunately very common and reinforces the idea of women as tokens, and the audience will not find stories interesting unless their focus is men’s issues and lives. As soon as Chel appears she is immediately characterized as an object that
the men will fight over. They know nothing about her other than how she looks basing wanting her by her physical appearance. I mean me myself thought the same thing. I saw her figure and I was immediately thinking, wow. This is as an adult analyzing the film but what about children watching. They might feel if I’m not pretty no one will acknowledge me and the boys are suppose to fight over women which is sending our children the wrong message. The men never considered Chel’s desire if any. She is shown to be clever, and even confident in her sexuality which the appearance of her character reflects that. Chel can’t walk without switching her hips in an anatomically unlikely frequency, and her proportions look realistic but not ideal. I feel a white female character would never be portrayed the way Chel was, curvy and even in just the way their relationship progressed. Miguel and Tulio, the duo are con artists. Having won a map to the legendary city of El Dorado, then being caught for cheating, they become careless stowaways aboard Cortes’ ship bound for the New World. After finding the city, the high priest Tzekel-Kan, sees them as the embodiment of the prophesied coming gods. As a means of saving their lives and of obtaining the desired gold, they quickly embrace the facade of God's carried on by the help of Chel, a devious bright eyed native girl who strikes a deal with the two and by the clever assistance of an ally armadillo.
The Alamo portrays the historical battle between Santa Anna controlling the Mexican Army and the Texan Defenders who are defending The Alamo, a mission located in San Antonio, Texas. The film is heavily concentrated on the year 1836, specifically the months February and March, and the year 1835. The film stars Dennis Quaid as Sam Houston, Billy Bob Thornton as David Crockett, Jason Patric as Jim Bowie, and Patrick Wilson as William Travis. The Alamo is a historically accurate movie that involves history, war, and immense amounts of drama.
The movie “Cotton Road” is about the way American grown cotton that is sold to China and then made into products that are sold back to America for the publics use. The movie also shares the perspectives of multiple people involve in the “Cotton Road” from the growing of the cotton to the transportation to China, and the transformation from raw cotton to clothing products. The cotton is grown on a farm in South Carolina, and there are perspectives given of that farm owner and the main farm worker. When in China there are perspectives given from dock employees, transporters and cotton factory works such as the cook, fabric imperfection checker, and main clothing maker. I was shocked to see what happens and the hardships that occur in this
“There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK!” (Sunset Boulevard). The film Sunset Boulevard directed by Billy Wilder focuses on a struggling screen writer who is hired to rewrite a silent film star’s script leading to a dysfunctional and fatal relationship. Sunset Boulevard is heavily influenced by the history of cinema starting from the 1930s to 1950 when the film was released.
After watching the film “Mickey Mouse Monopoly,” I believe that Disney films and other programs may subconsciously influence the thoughts and behaviors of kids in society by promoting stereotypes of racial groups and domestic abuse. Unfortunately, there are many racial stereotypes that are represented in Disney films, such as the perception that latinos are dirty due to the creation of the character Alonzo; who misbehaved and looked dirty and disheveled throughout the entire film, which is known as Oliver and Company. In another film, Disney has influenced children’s behaviors by displaying what femininity looks like and by showing that it is okay to badger woman until they agree to go on a date. For example, in Beauty and the Beast, the broom
For several years now, Disney seems to be determined not to offend anyone in order to keep its audience; indeed we are confronted with animation films full of compromises; they are not as degrading for women as Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), but they are nonetheless still filled with clichés. Films such as The Princess and The Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Wreck-it Ralph (2012), have in common the sense of being progressive and however we can notice the resurgence of harmful gendered stereotypes on the subjects of the social scale, women’s role in society, or the status quo. Frozen comes in and turns out to be no exception. Though it includes several encouraging and gratifying elements, it contributes insidiously to spread numerous
England, Dawn, Lara Descartes, and Melissa Collier-Meek. "Gender Roll Portrayal and the Disney Princesses." N.p., 10 Feb. 2011. Web.
Walt Disney productions have created a line of popular film franchises starring a princess heroine, it is a common formula for Disney films to create a perfect role model for young viewers. Disney heroines are often portrayed young, pretty, virginal, sweet-natured, and obedient, viewers can relate to Disney films without knowing the messages it sends to the audience. The portrayal of heroines of Disney films, as Kathy Maio describes, "Disney heroines haven 't changed very much since Snow White: they are all happy housewives." Disney has a sad history of stereotypes (from gender to racial) and placing gender roles under every character . Every Disney film has sent a discreet message of stereotyping and gender role to the audience. For example,
At a young age, I can recall watching Disney Channel regularly; I remember the countless movies from The Little Mermaid to Zenon. As a child, I saw the ideals being presented, but I did not recognize or understand the message that was being sent through the characters in these movies. I did not understand why I questioned my darker skin tone or four-foot frame or tomboyish ways until I was in my late...
Do you believe that males and females are different, or variations of the same thing? How do you view gender? The authors of “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Disney/Pixar,” Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden, and the author of “Why Do We Make So Much of Gender,” Allan G. Johnson, explore what “male traits” and “female traits” are in each of their respective pieces of writing. The Disney princess model is, what many would argue, what has kept Disney so popular and influential in the ever changing and complex cultures of modern humanity. Writing stories and films about princesses is not all that Disney does, though. Gillam and Wooden take a deep look into Disney’s male character development since their early days or princesses and
Most of society defines masculinity as strong, non-emotional, independent, and competitive. Femininity is typically thought of as weak, nurturing, soft, and emotional. Most media has begun to redefine the way society thinks of typical characteristics of men and women. Disney/Pixar seem to be a big part of this redefinition as Gillam and Wooden point out in their article “Post-Princess models of Gender: The New Man in Disney/Pixar.” An example of this happens in Disney’s “The Pacifier” when Lieutenant Shane Wolfe defies his masculine role by showing his nurturing side while taking care of the Plummer children, becoming Lulu’s den mother, and helping produce Seth’s musical— “The Sound of Music”.
Summary of Media Studies, Post-Princess Models of Gender: The new Man in Disney/Pixar. By authors Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden both professors at Missouri State University. Gillam and Wooden demonstrate how masculinity may be embedded in younger millennials heads as a certain persona that may no longer be the same as it was 2 decades ago. The “new Man” as the authors call this theory is what they describe as emasculating failures of the role of the male figure in children’s films to portray value of achievement. Pixar and Disney promote the thought of sexuality and authority differently because it’s much more appropriate to reshape the definition of what a man has the ability to feel. Where the plot in films ultimately create various developing
For the past seventy-eight years, Disney continued to create Disney princess movies, a phenomenon which swept the world, with a worldwide gross of up to six hundred million dollars, with young girls adoring each and every movie. Girls from the age of two watch and enjoy these chauvinist movies, spending hundreds of dollars of their parents’ money on outfits so the little girls can resemble their most idealized princess, which include but not limited to Snow White, Cinderella, Tiana and Mulan. However, the stories of the Disney princesses and the princesses themselves do not cater Both detrimental influences on young girls, the official Disney princesses promote light skin over dark and reliance on a man through explicit and implicit means in their allegedly inspirational movies.
Disney’s 1998 film, Mulan, attempts to tell the heroic tale of a Chinese woman fighting for her family and country while defying gender roles, but looking into details such as song lyrics enforcing both male and female gender stereotypes, and bland visualization of characters, one can see that this film in fact enforces gender role inequality.
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.
The expectation of what is male and female is taught to us from a very young age. These ideals are learnt from our parents, books, movies and the broader society. Unfortunately, most of these representations have negative connotations, especially those of women. For example, the Disney princess film The Little Mermaid tells the tale of a young mermaid who is fascinated by human ‘artefacts’ and falls in love with a young prince after saving him from drowning. She trades her voice for a pair of legs and goes onto land in a search for true love. Although The Little Mermaid does have a variety of positive messages, its representation of women as people whose only happy ending is marriage and true love and only need