"The Negative Portrayal of Mothers in Disney Films"
Why is it that in Disney films, motherly figures and role models are completely diminished, whereas fatherly roles are extravagant? Why does mainly a woman play the role of the villain? If you notice, you will find that in just about every classic Disney film, the mother is portrayed in a horrible and questionable fashion. However, there is always a fatherly or male figure that everyone boasts about. Let us start with the films where the main character fails to have a mother mentioned or seen at all. In the classic movie Aladdin, neither Aladdin nor Princess Jasmine had a motherly figure. However, Aladdin did have the Genie, who was male, and Jasmine had her father, who was also male. Beauty and the Beast is another Disney film where there is a male figure, and yet again, the loss of a female role model. Belle is raised by only her father, and there is no word about where her mother is or what happened to her. Another favorite of the Disney Classic films is The Little Mermaid. In this film, Ariel is raised by her extremely dominant father, and all of her friends are male. So, what happened to her mother, and did she ever know her? Pinocchio is another great film, yet he gains a new father but never a new mother. He is raised by Geppetto, the craftsman, and is then adopted by him.
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and many other Disney movies all have one thing in common, they feature a female lead who needs a male figure to save them. However, things started to change after the release of Mulan in 1988. Movies that were only representing female leads as weak and always needed to rely on someone, started to feature females who showed off their more masculine side. Mulan was one of the first animated films that had started to dive into that, not to mention it was based on a true story, making it even more powerful. In the article “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Pixar/Disney”, authors Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden explore Pixar movies show male characters who were not afraid to show their emotions
Throughout time, women in movies and other similar texts are shown to be generally focused on men. This might make sense if every movie ever made was set in a time where women had absolutely no rights but of course, that is not the case. Older and more modern depictions of women in media, both show women whose lives revolve around men. Even movies that market their female characters as strong and powerful are still shown to be dependent on the male leads and puts them first. Also, since women in movies have more of a focus on men, female to female relationships suffer in the same films. There are very few exceptions to this unfortunate truth.
Media is a powerful agent in entertaining children. It also influences and teaches the youth of society the suitable and appropriate gender roles that they inevitably try to make sense of. The power of media is very influential especially in the minds of the youth. Disney movies target the youth and plant certain ideas and concepts about social culture into the vulnerable minds of children. Media uses gender to its advantage, just like Disney productions. Humorous caricatures reveal some harsh realities about the portrayal of Disney Princesses in many movies made by the Walt Disney Company. Disney mixes innocence with the ultimate form of fantasy to capture an audience. Predominantly, Disney helps highlight the gender roles by showing the audience simply what they want to see. In the attempt to stick to the norm and portray stereotypical female characters, Disney created Princesses. Presented as damsels in distress and inferior beings to men, Disney Princesses give children an inaccurate portrayal of gender roles at a young age. Through Disney’s social success and intriguing films, such as The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast, Disney Princess movies portray stereotypical representation of gender roles through the denigration of the female image, targeting and ruining the perception of youth today.
In the 1930s, Disney’s first full length animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released. This movie set the pattern for future Disney movie plots, which continues for decades. In the 1940s, Disney released 3 animated movies: Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi. However, these movies did not feature a main female character. In the 1950s, the two main movies that were released were Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. These movies picked the passive heroine trend back up and had a prince to rescue the princess from her troubles. In the 1960s, Disney brought us 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, and The Jungle Book, none of these with a female heroine. The 1970s brought about The Aristocats, Robin Hood, The Rescuers, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The only significant female character is Maid Marian from Robin Hood, who waits for Robin Hood to “sweep her off of her feet.” In the 1980s, The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company, and The Little Mermaid were released. With The Little Mermaid, Disney got back to the fairytale storyline. The 1990s brought us Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tarzan, Pocahontas, and Mulan. This is where Disney movies start to evolve with new, women-favoring, storylines. In the 2000s, Disney laid off the fairytales for a while and
noticed that in a number of films the father is dead thus it is impossible to protect his children, such as in Cinderella. Also stepfathers seem to not be portrayed in pop culture as evil thus stepmothers are the only ones that receive such hideous flack. Because stepfathers are not portrayed in a negative way, when it comes to real life they have less difficultly finding their place in their new family. (Church 1994) (Hall and Bishop 2009)
Despite the tremendous steps that have been taken towards reaching gender equality, mainstream media contradicts these accomplishments with stereotypes of women present in Walt Disney movies. These unrealistic stereotypes may be detrimental to children because they grow up with a distorted view of how men and women interact. Disney animated films assign gender roles to characters, and young children should not be exposed to inequality between genders because its effect on their view of what is right and wrong in society is harmful to their future. According to Disney films, it is important for women to achieve the stereotypical characteristics of a woman, such as maintaining their beauty to capture a man, and being weak and less educated than male characters. The women in Disney movies are always beautiful, which helps them to find a man.
Deviance and family are successfully found in most disney movies, especially Aladdin, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Lilo and Stitch. Deviance is when an act is being done that goes against the typical accepted behavior. Aladdin and The Lion King are superb at the art of giving examples of deviance. Family does not have a set and stone definition. Your family can be whoever you want it to be. In Beauty and the Beast, unconditional love between a daughter and her father is found. Within Lilo and Stitch, we find that family can be someone other than your birth mother and father, or even your own blood.
Disney’s gender roles and female body ideals are the elephant in the room that most people ignore. For decades, Disney movies have been very popular amongst young girls who are looking for role models to guide them, and to look up to. However, these movies help girls reinforce the female ideal that society has created, teaching them how a “real” girl dresses and acts. What are the psychological effects Disney movies have on young girls’ ideal of body image and female gender roles? The Princesses in Disney movies are portrayed as young, voluptuous, and beautiful while the female villains are usually older, heavyset or emaciated , and considered “ugly” or undesirable. These perceptions can give young girls an inaccurate view of what beauty should look like and what they should strive to be. This causes negative effects on how young girls view themselves and can lead to eating disorders later in life. Not only do the Disney movies portray body image inaccurately but they also reinforce gender stereotyping. Throughout each movie the princesses are “damsels in distress,” naïve, and cook and clean while wearing very
As I grow up, I comprehend how much I can relate to the movie Parenthood. Although it 's not an exact replication of the movie I still have many instances that I can apply to my family. My family’s life is definitely the roller coaster because we have times of tremendous happiness, but also times where we struggle and find it burdensome to love one another. I don’t only have hardships in my regular family, but also in my extended family. For example, my uncle Victor did not mature as much as the rest of my father’s brothers. He didn’t go to college and has had complications with gambling, and struggles with keeping a steady job. This can relate to Larry Buckman because he was under some of the same circumstances and asked his parents for money.
Gender Roles. A hot button topic that has become a topic of conversation for years now. When we think of Gender roles what things come to mind? With Men we often think of qualities such as strength, toughness, bravery, and masculinity and being a Husband. With Women we often think of characteristics such as: care taker, Wife, nurturing, cooking/ cleaning, and often very supportive. But another big question that we should be asking ourselves is where and how these gender roles and stereotypes have come from? And for the answer to that question we should look to our media consumption. For years now TV shows and Movies have truly shaped what gender roles should be in our society. These ideas are planted in our minds even at a young age, whether
He left this world, impacting and inspiring the lives of everyone, young and old and changed the world of movie making forever. Part of the study will consider Walt Disney 's background, and his self-made success in America such as the famous Disneyland we all know today. Multiple resources have been collected that focus on Walt Disney 's life and how he significantly impacted the entertainment industry and became a symbol of America, to achieve this goal. The primary source is the book, Remembering Walt: Favorite Memories of Walt Disney by Amy Boothe and Howard E. Green. In the book, there are several interviews with family members and coworkers. Walt Disney promoted diversity an idea that wasn 't even thought of in the 20th century. "Disney
Disney promotes sexisim by forcing young girls to live in a patriarchal world. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The little mermaid, Aladdin, and Snow White are all examples of popular Disney movies that encourage young viewers that they need a man to save the day. Yes, it’s true that there are recent movies such as Moana and Frozen that prove otherwise, but how long will it take to completely get over the fact that women are mainly viewed as secondary citizens compared to the men? There are countless examples of how Disney movies influence this theme, and how much the female characters’ actions, ideas and thoughts are not included in a Disney movie.
England, D. E., Descartes, L., & Collier-meek, M. (2011). Proquest. “Gender role portrayal and the disney princesses”. Sex Roles, 64(7-8), 555-567.
Disney and old fairytales threaten gender politics and ideal women roles by giving certain stereotypes for domestic and personality traits. Fairytales that have turned into Disney productions have sculpted domestic roles for women that consist of cooking, cleaning and caring for the children. Disney has also created these princesses with personalities that are shy, passive, and vulnerable. The cause of these stereotypes are making individuals obliterate their own identities and becoming clones from the mold that was prepared for
...wable energy and that is why energy providerrs cost more than avrage suppliers and this is why people go for the much cheaper vertion wich is coal or fossel fuel and not the much cleaner vertion, renewable energy although there is one type of energy that does not cost much witch is wind energy at 1.25 ZAR/kWh compaired to soalr energy at 2.10 ZAR/kWh it is realitive ly cheap to manufacture and this is why South Africa is currently heading in this direction but it is still nowhere near the R0.31 per kWh that eskom offer off of coal and nuclear power.Despite all of this South africa is one of the perfict places in tearms of its climate that can provide the right conditions for renewable energy like wind solar and hydro and this is why we should be taking advantage of this but unfortunatley we are not and less than ten persent of our energy comes form renuable energy₃.