The Little Mermaid (1989) is an animated, musical, fantasy based film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. It was released on November 15th, 1989.…
I didn’t realized that feminist criticism also fit for Trailer Frozen when I wrote my essay. Throughout reading the first and second body paragraph, I found that feminist criticism might be the one of the best criticism which is matching Frozen. The story which happened in Princess Anna and Princess Elsa shown women had a low social status in the past several centuries, but they never give up to find the true identities.…
On the other hand, all the men appear in the film, without any exception, are full of kindness: the Hunter who releases Snow White, Seven Dwarfs who fight the evil queen, the Prince who kisses, and even Cinderella’s own father and her future father-in-law. In conclusion, feminist has been demeaning and vilified by the society from the early Disney Princess Movie.…
For the past seventy-eight years, Disney has been creating disney princess movies, a phenomenon that has swept the world, with worldwide gross of up to six hundred million dollars. Little girls from the age of two watch and enjoy these chauvinist movies, spending hundreds on outfits so that they can resemble their most idealized princess. The official disney princess line-up includes Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Merida. While a single caucasian girl’s dream is blossoming, dreaming about the multiple princesses she could grow up to be, an african american girl’s is falling to pieces, with only a single idealized role model to chose from. While a child yearns for a prince to sweep…
The common fairytale portrays the stereotypical “damsel in distress,” who is helpless until her male savior typically rescues her. Many fairytales address the theme of gender roles as well as many others. The female character takes on the feeble, desolate role, while the male character takes on the strong, hero role similar to the stories of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. However, Elizabeth, the protagonist of The Paper Bag Princess defies typical gender roles as a female character and becomes the hero of the story. Cinderella and The Paper Bag Princess share many qualities, but have major differences as well. Cinderella is an example of a woman who occupies traditional, domestic roles, but she does not portray the modern, liberated woman Elizabeth exhibits.…
Did you know that in the Disney version movie of “Sleeping Beauty”, Princess Aurora is there for only sixteen to twenty minutes. Most of the movie was more about how prince Phillip fought a dragon in a lava pit, more than about the princess Aurora who the story was really about. Disney made it seem like Aurora slept gracefully while prince Philip was out fighting evil witches and dragons. A girl should be taught to take up arms on their own and not to wait for some guy in a white horse to save her; girls should not be portrayed as a damsel in distress, but be taught that girls are strong and can be their own hero, that they can do anything if they…
This can be seen as a push for feminism in the movie because it doesn’t focus on her being because she’s a girl. Also it changes how things are normally executed in fairytales. Some examples include Tiana rescuing Naveen, the princess also being changed into an animal, Prince Naveen being a playboy and they changing into a hard worker, and Mama Odie who says to think about your wishes and if that’s really what you want. These are probably introduced into the movie because Disney is looking to find a prompt that will make people watch and buy the movie. Viewers want to have a role model that will be a good example for small children and make them change themselves for the…
The first feature film by Disney, Snow White, is the story of a young girl who fulfills societal roles of being a woman who is happy to stay home to cook and clean all day long. This film explains…
In the article, “Cinderella and Princess Culture”, Peggy Orenstein, a contributing writer for New York Times Magazine, explores the successful “princess” market and how it negatively impacts young children. Orenstein claims that the princess culture promotes a common gender stereotype of women to young children, especially young girls; therefore, society should lessen the encouragement of being a “princess” and fortify their promotion to a more strong-willed role model (327). Although the article contains evidence to support her claim, Orenstein is unsuccessful because of the use of her biases and opinions placed throughout the article, that expresses her own negative views toward princesses and the feministic reinforcements she makes on her own daughter.…
For young girls growing up watching Disney movies, there is usually a classic plot of the princess or young girl wanting more out of life and using marriage to a prince to achieve their goal. However some of the more recent Disney films strive to change this and make a difference in terms of empowering women. Some of these new films do a better job than others, while a few still fall back on the classic Disney fairytales where all the women can seem to do is wait around for their prince to save the day. Mulan, Enchanted, and The Princess and the Frog are all chances for Disney to showcase young women as powerful role models for all the young girls watching. These three films are some of the more modern Disney films, and they all make an attempt…
In many movies that Disney has recently come out with, as well as previous movies, have examples of this gender role. Movies like Tangled, Princess and the Frog, and Mulan. Giroux states “The construction of gender identity for girls and women represents one of the most controversial issues in Disney’s animated films.” (pg 98) What Giroux means is that we, parents, should not be showing little girl children that you should be underneath a man and not being independent. This is a big issue in the world of Disney because in almost every movie you see from the start, women are portrayed as less than men or some say weaker. For an example in the 1989 movie The Little Mermaid Ariel, the mermaid, appears to be struggling for independence with her parents to go out on her own and explore the human world. When she meets handsome prince Eric from up above she instantly falls in love and her main reason changed from being independent to falling in love. To young girls, they see that along with choice and dreams is tied with finding true love with a handsome man. When watching movies like this you tend to not notice these hidden controversies and by taking a second look you realize how negative these films can be towards young girls and their…
When perusing “Little Snow-White” from a feminist perspective it is evident that the purpose of the story is to “shape girls perceptions to conform to a gendered identity through stereotypical characters like the wicked mother and beautiful, helpless daughter” (Mikkijoiner). Snow White is recognized only for her beauty and ability to do housework; presented as an attractive, “demure and submissive” female (Mikkijoiner).…
In Where the Girls Are Douglas takes you through the life of a typical girl growing up during a feminist revolution from childhood to adulthood. She gives an in depth look at what was going on in the world and how it affected a young girl turning into a woman. Starting in Fractured Fairytales Douglas explores how from the very start young girls are bombarded with images of how women should be and how they should not. Little girls grow up with the mentality that they must emulate the perfect women in fairy tales and grow up to be the fairest of them all. “We learned, though these fairy tales, and certainly later through advertising, that we had to scrutinize ourselves all the time, identify our imperfections, and learn to eliminate or disguise them, otherwise no one would ever love us”(Douglas 31). Disney had created a standard for girls and women that was nearly impossible to achieve. Looking, acting, dressing and appearing perfect all while being selfless and suffering in silence was what was expected of women and young girls. If young girls chose not to live up to the ‘Cinderella standard’ they were left with only one alternative role to fill, “… older, vindictive, murderous stepmothers or queens wearing too much eyeliner and eye shadow”(Douglas 29). They were women in power and Disney…
In the 1800s women’s roles were mainly seen as domestic. Their only jobs were to cook, clean, and care for the children. The problem with this viewpoint is that women are more than housewives. Women should have jobs and hobbies. If women stay at home all day they will get bored. Women need to stand up for themselves and break through the gender barriers that are put in place. Kate Chopin uses many symbols in her novel, The Awakening, to portray the theme that women are subject to specific gender roles, and when they do not defy them they lose their identity and become trapped.…
The movie is still keeping the gender stereotype alive and thriving even in people’s homes. In today’s America, where women are in the vanguard of dignified treatment, respect and equality for women, the gender role in fairy tales especially Cinderella is still the same. As Silima Nanda points out, “Ambitious women in fairy tales are always portrayed as evil from within, ugly and scheming, wielding over other women and men” (Portrayal of Women 246-250). While there has been efforts to rewrite fairy tale like Sleeping Beauty for the screen, Cinderella remains the passive girl with an evil stepfamily. The stepmother is typecast as wicked, cannibalistic and self-conceited because she wants a better life for…