Gender Stereotypes In Disney

Disney has made a name for itself in the entertainment industry; some may even argue that Disney helped lay the foundation of what is our current entertainment industry. For many young children Disney movies are ingrained into their memory and represent a part of their childhood. It is with in these memories that many grow up with an idea of what a villain looks like. Disney has made their villains appearance to have the worst stereotyped aspects of each gender. Male villains are made to have more feminine attributes, but some are also shown to have and almost hyper-masculine appearance, and females tend to have more male attributes or be incredibly vain about their appearance. Disney also puts emphasis on aspects of a race that is based off
These portrayals play a part in encouraging stereotypes of genders and races. Children are not aware that this is being displayed and it is not until they grow up that it is pointed out to them. When an individual looks more in depth at these portrayals, they can evaluate how they might have affected our understandings of gender and race.
When evaluating how often Disney’s villains typically have an appearance that is the opposite of their gender for example, many female characters have a more masculine. Individuals are likely able to see that this is a technique that has been used in many Disney films. For example Cruella Deville from 101 Dalmatians has an appearance that is more of a masculine body shape; her body lacks the stereotypical female curves. She also has a more drag queen appearance, as evident in her heavily make up face. Her eyebrows are extremely arched her eyes covered in eyeshadow and her lips a bold red. Similarly, Ursula, from the Little Mermaid, has an appearance
When the portrayal of the Disney villain Jafar, from Aladdin, is analyzed he is portrayed extremely stereotypical of negative characteristics of Middle Eastern men. Jafar looks nothing like the other male characters in Aladdin, his nose is different and more prominent, his face is longer with a pointed chin, he is very lean, and much taller than the other characters. His face appearance is also more feminine. The animators put an emphasis on his eyes and eyelashes, and even his lips are drawn to appear more feminine. Many of the villain’s skin colorings tend to be different than the typical Caucasian coloring of the characters. Most of them seem to have darker skin coloring or be of a different color then their race. For example, the villain in the movie Mulan, Shan-Yu, is of Asian descent but his skin appearance is a white, gray color. Yzma, from The Emperor’s New Groove, is Incan but her skin coloring is a pale purple. This has a tendency to dehumanize the villains since there skin tone is almost subhuman (Exploring Disney Villains, 2011). It should also be pointed out that the villains of Disney also have an overweight or underweight appearance. Rarely do they seem to have an appearance that would be considered healthy. The overweight villains tend to have round body types lack a neck, have double chins, and are clearly overweight compared to their protagonists. The thin villains have exaggerated