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Gender roles in children's literature
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With evolution of visual media and animation fairy tales has evolved with the course of time to cater to different types of audience around the globe. Popular animation houses have created and re-created both the popular and unheard fairytales into beautiful motion pictures which has transformed once read tales into a visual celebration. The conventional stereotypes have been broken and new refreshing tales has evolved, tweaked and twisted to appeal to the new age audience. The front runner in the fairytale business Walt Disney has tried to break conventions and came up with movies like Brave, Tangled and Frozen in the past decade. Then and again the question which remains is that whether these new age fairytales really manage to untangle themselves …show more content…
Disney has tweaked the story in order to make it more about familial love than the romance. Kids along with adults fell in love with the strong independent snow queen ‘Elsa’ and her anthem of independence ‘Let it go’. Anna and Elsa who are portrayed as strong female characters with a mind of their own swept the hearts globally with their will and wit. They were the new age princess people could look up to. The movie eliminated the cliché of true loves kiss and instead the younger sister Ana is brought back to life with her own sacrifice for the elder one. The prince charming who have played a vital role in most of the old fairy tales is a con man who tries to trap Ana into marriage in order to gain hold in their kingdom Arendelle. But in the end of the movie the kingdom is ruled by Elsa, a woman breaking the patriarchal conventions. The movie is filled with girl power, feminism and familial love. The audience who were tired of seeing helpless damsel in distresses rooted and cheered for Ana and Elsa thus making them one of the most loved about princesses in the new …show more content…
But the question arises when one analyze the movie closely and pick out the conventional fairytale wrapped and presented in an impeccably masculine blue bottle. In the movie both the sisters Ana and Elsa are seen making irrational and illogical decisions just based on their emotions. Let it be Elsa running off to a mountain and creating a Himalayan winter for the whole country or Ana who falls in love too easily and then runs off after her sister into the mountain without proper gear or even clothes to keep her warm. This is a clear depiction of giving power to women is power in wrong hands and conforming to the age old concept that women are incapable of logical and rational thinking, and they are always over flowed with emotion. Whole lot of the logical thinking is done by Kristoff who later becomes Ana’s love interest – Characteristics of prince in poor
Of course, this could be justified by the target audience, as it is a Disney princess film after all. However, this relationship between two sisters is special enough to be analysed. Indeed, female friendship is often depicted as conflictive, in films such as Bride Wars for instance, whereas male friendship is made more valuable, as seen in most Seth Rodgen films. Here, the feminine solidarity is the core of the plot in Frozen, which motivates each protagonist’s designs and solves central issues of the
Explanation: Queen Elsa exemplifies a dynamic character, because she is ashamed of her magical powers and shuns herself from her family; by the end of the move, Elsa became open with her powers. Elsa does not like herself for having magical powers. She is also seen as disowning her sister because of the choice she has made. By the end of the story, Elsa changes her mind and is more receptive to her powers.
The protagonist Ana, in Frozen, goes on a journey in which she is in great jeopardy of her sister’s ice powers. Elsa, Ana’s sister, has just become queen in an opulent coronation when her ice powers go out of control. She runs away and Ana goes on a very dangerous journey to find her and change the weather back. Ana nearly loses her life in the end because of Elsa. Although Ana’s journey to find Elsa lacks parts of the hero’s journey, she still embodies the classic and Hemingway hero archetypes, follows the hero’s journey for the most part, and learns a valuable lesson that love heals relationships.
In the movie of Frozen, they show a King and Queen of a kingdom have two princesses, Ana, who was a normal girl, but Elsa, who has magic powers of ice. One day the kingdom was crowning Elsa as queen when she had a breakdown, revealed her powers to the kingdom, and ran off to be free as her sister went out to fight battles to bring her back. Throughout this movie, the archetypal they used was the journey showing that we as humans value our family more than anything, even though there could be tough battles to go through to show family
The movie is centered around the life of Ella, the daughter of an affluent Merchant. Ella is portrayed as a compassionate, carefree individual who befriends all the animals on her estate. However, her life is turned upside down after the passing of her mother, and the consequential, remarriage of her father. Ella does not only gain a step mother through marriage but also, two step sisters. After the sudden passing of her father, Ella is forced to take upon all the domestic responsibilities of the household, and is treated with servitude by her step-mother and her step-sisters. However, Ella does not protest their requests as her mother’s last words to always be kind and have courage echoes her ears. During one cold night, Ella sleeps next to the open stove and is covered in cinders while she serves breakfast to her step mother and step sisters. They mockingly name her Cinderella. Distressed with circumstances at home, Ella rides her horse deep into the forest, and meets the Kingdom’s next heir, but mistakes him for an apprentice learning a trade. The Prince is mesmerized by Ella and protests that the Kingdom Ball’s invitation be extended to “all the maidens of the land”, in hopes of meeting Ella. Despite her step mother’s disapproval, Ella goes to the Ball with the help of her fairy god mother and her animal friends. The Prince is taken aback by her beauty, but Ella must return back home just after midnight when the fairy god mother’s spell would wear off. In the hurry, Ella leaves back her glass slipper, which leads to a Kingdome wide search for Ella. Towards the end of the movie, Ella and the Prince are united and they live happily ever
A princess image is very specific and made clear through the descriptions of each princess. Every princess had long hair and all ware extravagant dresses. The princesses wore make-up, jewelry, and some type of head piece. They made sure the princess image was always clean and fashionable. The majority of the time for the princesses was spent interacting with animals, singing, or dancing and cooking, cleaning, serving, and grooming. I never saw a princess working or fighting. These unreal expectations to fulfill were unattainable. Growing up I thought that these princesses represent the social norm, but found out how unrealistic they were when I got older. Most princess stories follow the pattern of marrying her prince charming and then they have it all. Jasmine, Ariel, and Snow White were already princesses at the start of the movies. They really didn 't have anywhere to go, but they were able to achieve even more happiness by marrying the man of their dreams. Aurora and Rapunzel were also princesses from the start of the movie, but they didn 't know it. So, they lived modest lives and received their true inheritance at the end of the stories. Belle and Tiana were also able to find happiness by marrying the man of their dreams. In snow white she sings my prince will come written Barbra Streisandby and highlights gender roles. It begins “Someday my prince will come. Someday I 'll find my love and how thrilling that moment will be when the prince of my dreams comes to me”, this shows she is waiting for a man instead of facing her own problems. These princesses end up winning their man at the end due to the fact that they are so sweet, simple, and
If children or adults think of the great classical fairy tales today, be it Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Cinderella, they will think Walt Disney. Their first and perhaps lasting impression of these tales and others will have emanated from Disney film, book, or artefacts (Zipes 72)
Many people know the old story of Rapunzel. It is a fairy tale that has been told many times, and in different ways. The original German version is much different than the modern Disney version, “Tangled”. However, both stories give an interesting and different Gender perspective. In classic fairy tales the woman is usually in need of rescuing, and the prince is the one who rescues her. In both of these stories the Gender roles are somewhat different, especially in Tangled. Tangled presents different gender roles than most classical fairy tales because, Rapunzel is more independent, does not fall in love immediately, and saves the prince in the end.
Shrek, an enormous, disgusting green ogre falling in love with a beautiful princess (later turning into a nasty ogre) is a perfect example of a stereotypical fairytale, right? Well in the movie Shrek, the voice over in the trailer talks about a “hero” attempting to rescue a “fair princess” with the help of “his trusty companion." Besides the fact that the hero is a voluptuous green ogre and the companion is a donkey, everything fits in normally to the definition of a traditional fairytale (Diaz). Also according to Mary Kunimitsu, in fantasy films “There may be characters with magical or supernatural abilities such as witches, wizards, superheroes, mythical creatures, talking animals, and ghosts” (Kunimitsu). In Shrek, there are many of these different characters. Therefore, by explanation, a traditional fairytale with the beautiful princess getting saved by the prince and falling in love is exactly what happens in the movie Shrek, just with a twist. The voice over in the trailer for Shrek states it perfectly as he says “Shrek is a highly irreverent take on the classic fairytale” (Adamson). As an untraditional fairytale, and a parody, the movie Shrek poses the breaking of stereotypes of gender and film fairytales all the while keeping the criteria of a fairytale.
Thinking back to our childhood, we all remember hearing many kinds of fairy tales. Some of them inspired us others confused us, and most of them taught us valuable lessons. Through out centuries tales and stories have been used as a valuable tool to pass on our culture to new generations. There is a strong belief that these fairy tales mirror and influence society. All cultures interpret tales in their own unique way. They add and subtract various aspects of the tale to fit the needs of their particular society. The same tale in the United States is different from the tale told in Asia. A good example of tale evolution can be seen in one of the most famous tales ever told which is “Cinderella”. As a professor of women’s history Karol Kelley points out in her essay Pretty Woman: A Modern Cinderella “There are some 700 versions of Cinderella”.This fairy tale as many others has been changing for many years, and in recent years Cinderella has come under some criticism for its depiction of women’s roles in society.
Being beautiful for a woman is the most looked at characteristic that each of these princesses have. Attractiveness is the most important attribute that women can posses, and is often an indicator of chances of future happiness (Neikirk). This is how these princesses get by in all of these stories. But what is that telling every young girl who watches or listens to these fairytales. Are we telling these youn...
Little did Elsa know that these stories would be useful for so much more than entertaining her. As she carried out Granny’s quest, Elsa slowly began to realize that these fairytales were far from fiction. As she pieced together the lives and stories of each of her flatmates, she learned that her peculiar neighbors weren’t all that they seemed. Granny’s stories of the six kingdoms gave Elsa a wild imagination. Once she was able to connect them with her everyday life and learn something from
Elsa is struggling with some life defining problems, but the issue is not about who she wants to bang – the issue is power. Frozen’s inability to provide us with a female lead with a strong identity and capacity to rule a kingdom is a largely ignored failure. What would it look like to have a princess that didn’t take shit for anyone and grabbed live by the ovaries? A lesbian princess while progressive does not address the powerlessness of the Disney princess. What we need is a badass princess who takes life by the ovaries and doesn’t take shit from
...most animated films have you rooting for the guy and the girl to get together. By adding unexpected dimension to Elsa, this one has you more invested in the reunion of these sisters. The story is basically about a princess, Elsa, who can magically create ice and snow, but after an accident she is forced to hide this ability away until she can control it. Her childhood motto, "conceal it, don't feel it, don't let it show" underpins her entire existence. The ending, and moral of the story, is that love can melt a frozen heart. Anna needed an act of true love to fix her heart, frozen after being accidentally struck by magical ice, and she believed that she needed true love's kiss. But it was actually the love of her sister, Elsa, who broke the spell and restored their town to its correct season. That she even hid away from the one person who loved her unconditionally.
By exposing the role of fairy tales in the cultural struggle over gender, feminism transformed fairy-tale studies and sparked a debate that would change the way society thinks about fairy tales and the words. “Fairy Tales and Feminism.” Project MUSE -, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/31411.