Disney & Gender group

WS350 Tuesday & Thurday

Preeti Sabnis
Susan Nuth
Sylvia Echuryan
Youra Lim

Introduction

“The Prince lifted Snow White onto his white horse. Together they rode off into the golden light of the setting sun”.
Disney animation is known to be the leading influence on children’s life throughout their years of growing up. The Disney Company is appreciated for their depiction of family values. But their portrayal of stereotypical and gender-limited princess characters is detrimental to children’s cognitive growth. Women are portrayed either as a rich delectate princess, evil step-mother or the poor love-stricken servant. Their daily actions include fainting, screaming, and spending their day doing chores around the house. They are always at the service of men. They always need a man, either a prince or a father figure to save them from disaster. There is a Madonna Vs. whore syndrome in a sense that whenever the women are shown to have power they are portrayed as wicked. As contrary to this the powerless princesses are shown to be sweet and nice. Happiness in these animations is always tied to being rich and powerful or being married to a prince. Their achievements are limited to being a princess or being a servant and they do not have any goals set for themselves unless it is meeting a prince and falling in love. No wonder that young children especially girls want to be young princesses because it’s shown to be so and easy to become one and magical.


Source :- Read to me Grandma, Snow White and the seven Dwarfs

Now we will introduce you to these princesses

Meet the “Fairest of All” Snow White; she was the first princess that Disney introduced in the 1930’s. Her strongest quality was her beauty, an asset that was not earned. Snow White was always at the mercy of seven dwarfs, The Huntsman and the Prince to save her from disasters. She was naïve enough to eat the poisonous apple which exemplifies her weakness to give into the temptation of aesthetic beauty. Her only known talents were to go about her day singing and cleaning up the mess that the seven dwarfs made.


The “Struck at Midnight” Princess Cinderella; she is the most popular Disney character which children all over the world know about and want to be like. She adheres to the mythical norm of being polite, obedient, delicate, and beautiful. She never stood up for herself and tolerated constant abuse from her step mother and step sisters. She relied on her beauty,sponsored by her fairy Godmother, to win the prince over. The prince falls in love with her because he was under the assumption that Cinderella was part of royalty and not of the servant class.


The “Kissed to Life” Princess Aurora; here the girl is a princess by birth but yet once again she needs a Prince to come to her rescue and save her from her death. She also had a lovely singing voice. Her voice is what attractes Prince Phillip. He falls in love with her at first sight. The roles of women in movie just like many other Disney movies are extremely restrictive. In this film, there is a Queen who is desperate for a child, which plays into the expected maternal roles of women. A fairy that is powerful, wicked and egotistic. And of course the "damsel in distress" Princess Aurora. . In the end a kiss is required from the prince in order to wake her up from her comma.


The "blessed voice" Princess Ariel ; she is a mermaid who trades her voice for her love "Prince Eric". She also needs a kiss from her prince to remain as a human. When she is in trouble, she needs her father to resque her from an evil witch. She can not do anything by herself. The roles that women get to play are either the unbelievable beautiful Arial or wicked and cruel Ursula. Ariel's only goal in life is to find her prince and marry him.


The “Rags to Riches” Princess Belle; She dreams of adventure and romance. She shows a change in the disney princess. She does not rely on her father or the prince. She does not need a kiss from the prince. She becomes a prisoner of the beast to set her sick father free. She plays with humanized household items in the castle. Not like other princess, she does not see the appearances, but she sees the kind, gentle heart of the beast. She resques the castle and the beast from wicked spell by falling in love with the prince.

Source: http://scots.covenant.edu/faculty/davis/Disney%20Princesses/ariel.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Princess

Influences towards children: How these stereotypes can affect them

Television and other electronic medium such as computer games, Internet and movies are very powerful socializing agents in the lives of young children. An average child gets exposed to about 3 to 4 hours of electronic media entertainment every day. Since Disney occupies leading spot in Children’s television and it provides a routine dose of gender stereotype, it helps in limiting children in restrictive sex-roles, prunes their ability to explore all possible occupations and constricts their chances for equality of opportunity. It is a common experience for young girls to watch Disney Princess movies and immediately get attached to the idea of wanting to be a princess. Kimball (1986) studied gender-role stereotypes in a small Canadian town that could not receive Television until a transmitter was installed in 1974. Children’s views of personality traits, behaviors, occupations and peer relations were measured before and after TV was introduced. In their more stereotyped views of occupations boys now believed that girls could be teachers and cooks whereas boys could be physicians and judges. Girl’s believed that boasting and swearing were characteristics of boys and sharing and helping were characteristics of girls. Findings like these indicate that TV viewing causes children to adopt many of stereotypes that dominant television programming (Kail, 378).

Children not only get bombarded with the picture of sexy, meek and magical princess but they also get submerged in the Disney commercial products that may help them get the status of a princess. From diapers to bicycles, erasers to backpacks, clothes to bedroom sets, young girls dream of buying the “princess” stuff. On Halloween, malls and streets are full of young girls, dressing up and pretending to be Disney Princesses.

The idea of magically “fixing” their life may have an ever-lasting effect on children’s social development. From an early age, the young girls learn to wait for a magical kiss to change their life. All of them want to look thin, voluptuous and beautiful and they learn to rely on their physical appearance more than on other talents that may demand hard work and perseverance. Is it surprising then that obesity is considered equivalent to eternal damnation in our society? We keep wondering about how society is loosing its moral and ethical base but when we raise our children on values that emphasize cosmetic effect and physical appearance over attributes like honesty, compassion and respect what else can be expected? Following is the link that provides detail analysis of how young girl gets addicted with the idea of being a Disney princess and how it damages their budding knowledge of sex-roles in the society.
Sources :
http://www.asu.edu/clas/english/writingprograms/printersdevil/2006/princess.doc
http://www.sociology.uiowa.edu/capstone/mnbrown/Content_Analysis.doc
Children and their Development, 2nd Ed, Robert V Kail

Connection to class/ power: Other women stereotypes, strong, wicked step mothers.

Beautiful dainty little princesses are not the only stereotypical females in Disney movies. There is also the evil step mother and the powerful sorceress.
In Snow White, and Cinderella, the step mother is portrayed as being wicked and cruel to them. In the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, her step mother is her only opponent and she is jealous of Snow White’s rare beauty. This movie was mainly based on vanity, something children should not learn to want. Her step mother tricks her into eating a poisonous apple and she falls into a deep coma. Without the help of the seven dwarfs, Snow White could not have been able to defeat her stepmother.
Cinderella also faces challenges from her mean step mother. While the father is not present, the step mother is in charge for all the duties the children have to have. She makes poor little Cinderella do all the work, while her own daughters don’t have to do much but instead just pamper themselves.
Another type of stereotype for women in Disney films are the powerful yet also evil sorcerers. Ursula is a dark, demon-like witch in the story the Little Mermaid. Ariel is a naïve mermaid who will do anything to be like humans- even putting her soul in danger. Ursula can be compared to the devil; selling your soul to her in exchange for something of humanly value.
There are other Disney films that continue with this type of theme. The young, pretty, naïve girl who is powerless against the mighty evil step mother or sorceress. The class systems in these films are astounding. Though everyone I discussed in this section is rich, the girls that are made helpless are not made to look that way. For example, Snow White and Cinderella come from rich backgrounds but their step mothers treat them as if they were poor servants. They clean, and cook and do all the domestic work around the house. They are shown to be weak and powerless against their rich step mothers. Cinderella is never able to have a back bone and stick up for herself, and Snow White knows her step mother is out to get her, but still fails to follow instructions.
These are indirect class systems that are horrible stereotypes in this society and they need to be broken. Like Donna Langston says in Tired of Playing Monopoly, “this denial of class divisions functions to reinforce ruling class control and domination” (Langston, p. 125) If we don’t realize the underlining meaning here in these stories, how are going to break classism? We need to realize that class division is everywhere- and are children are even taught it in Disney movies. Because you are made to be like a poor helpless servant does not mean you need to be passive and naïve. And just because you are powerful does not mean you have to be evil and use your power for bad. These stereotypes on class needs to be broken.
http://www.newint.org/easier-english/Disney/diswomen.html

Advice on what can be changed to help avoid stereotypes: Mulan

Given all the information we have on gender stereotypes contributed through one of the most powerful mediums such as Disney, we now have the choice or power to avoid or change stereotypical notions of gender. The earlier Disney cartoons displayed a very high level of stereotyping in female as well as male roles. To reiterate, the women were displayed as the weaker sex through all major Disney cartoons. The men were shown to be brave and strong, and of course come to the women’s rescue when needed. As children watch these cartoons, they absorb these gender stereotypes and begin to apply them within their own frame of thought. As they grow older these ideas remain in their mind, which thus leads to further generation of stereotypical mindset.
Within the last decade or so, Disney has begun to change the way they depict their female characters within their animation. The character Mulan is a great example of Disney swaying away from the gender “norms” which many of the popular Disney characters held. Mulan defies gender norms for women. She is brave and strong. Unlike the “damsel in distress” princesses. Her bravery comes from her step to take her sick father’s place in the war as a soldier while being disguised as a man. She is seen as the hero in this film, which is a big leap for Disney to portray a woman as the hero instead of the man. Not only is this a great way for Disney to depict women in a more positive and less gender stereotypical way, but it also includes many aspects of culture. The film is based on the Maya culture, and really goes into detail on the heritage of the culture. These are all positive steps Disney is taking in creating animation almost free of stereotypical notions of both males and females. Children clearly enjoy watching these films and learning all that they possibly can from them. It is time to create a world of change in all animation to better suit the cultural and educational aspects of both the characters and the plot.

Source: http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~jgv1/319Web/examples/2002/BattleCry.pdf

Conclusion

Our children are entertained by Disney movies, which at present have good helping of gender stereotypes . Disney movies create a web of magical and mythical norms in children's minds that invite them to restrictive sex-roles. Disney princesses also trim young girls's desire explore all possible occupations and lead them in a state of learned helpnesses. They have tremendous effects on children,especially girls. They get the idea of wanting to be a princess because it opens the path for living "happly ever after". Instead of exploring their own lives, they get an idea of magically “fixing” their life by meeting a prince. This affects children’s social development. The Disney princesses are portrayed as weak and powerless against their rich step mothers. They can not stand for themselves and need the help of the princes. They portray powerful women as evils. The men are portrayed as brave and strong. The Disney movies show indirect class systems that are horrible stereotypes which need to be broken. Children need to learn that being poor does not necessarily correspond with being helpless and unhappy :just as being a powerful woman does not mean you have to be evil. However, Disney has begun to change their female characters. The chracter of Mulan is a freash beginning away from the gender “norms” as she is portrayed as brave and strong unlike other princesses. Disney has started depicting women in a more positive way. Disney is now creating more movies free from stereotypical notions of social roles divided on the line of males and females.