Gender Stereotypes In Disney Movies
Semiotics can be drawn from everyday things in life, and perhaps the most deeply ingrained belief humans hold are in regards to the gender of humans and their respective roles in society. Perhaps the easiest way to tackle this subject is to define everything that is being stated. By gender roles, the Oxford Dictionary defines it as the role or behavior learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms. This implies the acceptable gender roles for the culture. The specific meaning is best described in the article “Messages, Signs and Meanings” and the author said that meaning is best left undefined because everyone has an intuitive understanding of things, but cannot define the item. So defining
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There have been medical marvels, social unrest and wars since the first movie was released. Socially accepted norms are no longer what they used to be, but Disney movies seem to be holding on to the outdated beliefs. The more recent movies coming out are making an effort to change this, but they still use remarkably traditional gender stereotypes in their movies. It is so common that unless one is searching for it the evidence can slip right by the viewer. People have an existing belief on how girls and boys should act, what they should like and play with. It becomes almost an innate sense of being within our mind. For instance, there are determined schemes that the American society has in regards to gender. This is seen in society when you walk into a toy store it is separated between girl side and boy side. Girls wear pink, boys wear blue, and when they are born they are put in gender specific colors. Girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks and cars. There are differences in physical shape, personality, relationship to other characters and even to animals. Each sex is portrayed differently and uniquely. With the Disney franchise there are a host of movies to choose from that could illustrate the point of this paper, but for the sake of brevity there will be the focus on three movies. The movies that have been chosen include Cinderella (1950), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and Brave (2012). Even with the sixty-two years in between the first and last movie chosen, there is a surprising amount of correlation between the gender themes of all three
There have been medical marvels, social unrest and wars since the first movie was released. Socially accepted norms are no longer what they used to be, but Disney movies seem to be holding on to the outdated beliefs. The more recent movies coming out are making an effort to change this, but they still use remarkably traditional gender stereotypes in their movies. It is so common that unless one is searching for it the evidence can slip right by the viewer. People have an existing belief on how girls and boys should act, what they should like and play with. It becomes almost an innate sense of being within our mind. For instance, there are determined schemes that the American society has in regards to gender. This is seen in society when you walk into a toy store it is separated between girl side and boy side. Girls wear pink, boys wear blue, and when they are born they are put in gender specific colors. Girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks and cars. There are differences in physical shape, personality, relationship to other characters and even to animals. Each sex is portrayed differently and uniquely. With the Disney franchise there are a host of movies to choose from that could illustrate the point of this paper, but for the sake of brevity there will be the focus on three movies. The movies that have been chosen include Cinderella (1950), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and Brave (2012). Even with the sixty-two years in between the first and last movie chosen, there is a surprising amount of correlation between the gender themes of all three