Preview

Females in Disney Movies Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1297 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Females in Disney Movies Essay Example
Children are introduced to Disney movies at a very young age. Due to the fact that children often choose role models to look up too, it is reasonable to assume that they often aspire to be just like their favourite Disney characters. Since the majority of young, female characters within Disney movies are expected to portray the stereotypical roles of women, this can have a negative impact on young girls who grow up watching Disney movies. The stereotypical roles that are portrayed by the female characters in Disney movies include: performing household chores, being dominated by the male figures in their lives, as well as portraying the ideal body image of a woman. A common stereotype placed among women is that it is their responsibility to perform the household chores. Rather than go to work and bring home a pay check as the men do, they instead stay home where they cook and clean. This is represented in many Disney movies, especially the more earlier ones. In the movie Cinderella, Cinderella herself acts as the maid of the household. She cooks, cleans, and performs all other housekeeping tasks. Snow White is another Disney character that portrays this stereotype. Without being asked, Snow White cleans up after the seven dwarfs. Therefore, a young girl who watches Disney movies such as Cinderella and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs may get the wrong impression of what is expected of her later in life. Even in the more recent Disney movies that were created after equality rights for women started to increase and women began performing all the jobs that men once did, this still did not change. The female characters that were not cooking and cleaning, did not show evidence that they had another job that earned them money or any future plans of getting a job. Another common stereotype that is placed among females is that they are dominated by the male figures in their life and that the males have a sense of ownership over them. The majority of Disney movies

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Little Mermaid (1989) is an animated, musical, fantasy based film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. It was released on November 15th, 1989.…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This author, Peggy Orenstein talks about and argues that the isolation of boys and girls are pretty relevant through the commercialization of Disney films and toys when all is said in done. Disney and toy organizations are promoting gender roles as a hidden topic in the matter of what boys and girls ought to partake and be. The view of Disney films creates what girls and boys should and shouldn't make strive toward in the public eye. Orenstein demonstrates that gender roles are made through the utilization of Disney motion pictures. The one point I might want to grow and remark on is the commercialization of the Disney princesses Orenstein discusses with her friends.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Movies, books, costumes, and the toys on the shelves in almost every store have been consumed by the Disney Princess. For most little girls, princesses ranging from Cinderella to Elsa have become their biggest role models. Important lessons like learning to stand up for yourself, never giving up, following your heart, and finding the beauty in nature are just a few of the teachings throughout the Disney Princess movies. What parent in their right mind wouldn't want these things for their daughter? Author Stephanie Hanes explores a possible answer to this question in the article, “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” originally published on October 3, 2011 from the Christian Science Monitor. Hanes makes her argument by persuading…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I do agree that Disney does follow a lot of the Gender stereotypes. In Disney, Women have to be really skinny and white to be beautiful, which is not true they focus on outer beauty and not inner beauty. They are teaching little girls beauty is being white and skinny that is resulting in an image and standards set for girls. I totally disagree with that and think Beauty should vary and not be just be white and skinny. In "The little Mermaid" many stereotypes are involved involving Ariel and her prince. They teach the idea of changing who you are to be with someone and not following the idea of "being yourself". They teach the idea that women are submissive. I think symbolically it even goes deeper to say that women give up their voice to be…

    • 338 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Media plays an important role in the depiction and construction of gender. Several studies exist which have focused on gender role portrayals and gender stereotyping appearing in the media. Considering this phenomenon, gender stereotyping is not only displayed in commercials or other television programs, but these can also be found in media products directed towards children. One of the issues , which is of great interest to many researchers is that even fairy tales, like cartoons and animation films, present male and female characters portrayed stereotypically (Robinson et al. 2006:203). Fairy tales have been the first kind of literature with which children…

    • 103 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Disney Gender Roles Essay

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The media plays a major role in portraying what society deems appropriate when it comes to body image and gender roles. Children, specifically, are more vulnerable to these messages due to their high consumption of media and their cognitive development (Agarwal). This has led to a large debate amongst a lot of parents as to whether or not their children should be allowed to watch certain shows and movies. The problem is that while certain media genres are obvious choices to keep away from young children, others are not as black and white.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Snow White Gender Analysis

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages

    For generations, Walt Disney films have been a “must watch” by parents, children and their families. However, these people may not see the hidden meanings behind Disney films. Currently, children are constantly exposed to media and opinions inherently presented within television, films, radio, books and more. Disney films are no exception. The films Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty all reinforce traditional gender roles, and the idea that lightness is supreme and will help when it comes to goodness conquering evil.…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Take Home Test

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Females are usually used as the sidekicks where as males are the ones who are usually used as the big hero. Females are never portrayed as beautiful, smart, strong characters; they are not empowered like men are. For example in Scooby Doo the character Velma is smart but unattractive. Cartoons like Scooby Doo enforce traditional stereotypes, in this case there is a stereotype saying that women cannot be both beautiful and smart at the same time. Like with the Smurfette, she is the only female in the Smurf show and she has blond hair, a dress and according to the Female Action Hero’s article is all too caring, basically meaning that she is just a dumb blonde. Another example is in the popular Powerpuff Girls show, each little girl reflects a common female cartoon stereotype. In this case one is smart, one is sweet, and one is a tomboy. There was an increase in female action heroes in children’s cartoons after they discovered that these shows appealed to young girls not only boys. Shows like sailor moon started airing; however there was still a big amount of stereotypes involved that make these female action heroes somewhat negative role models for younger girls. We are telling girls to take the second seat and let the men be the big hero. In other words men are seen as being superior. The social expectations of women are taken into consideration; a woman cannot possibly do…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In fact, one of Walt Disney’s favourite tales was in fact Cinderella, with he can relate to the character with her hard-working nature in hopes that they are rewarded one day for it. Despite the criticism these characters may get, it is usually due to how they are in fact limited to roles that they are given during those times. Which means that as time moves on, the role of a Disney Princess has changed, along with the role of women in animated works in general with much more variety of roles given to them. The later Princesses are a lot more active and take much bigger chances than earlier Princesses, are actually go out and contribute a lot more to plot other than just being there to be rescued. For example, we gave Merida from Pixar’s Brave (2012). Her story is a focused a lot on her and the relationship she has with her mother, and we see how she grows as a character as well as watching her rebel against the typical treats of a Princess. She can be considered the new image of the Disney Princess, but she isn’t the only one or the first to do so. Ariel from The Little Mermaid (1990) is also a lot more curious about the world around her on land and she goes out and explores, and she even at one point makes effort to help and save the…

    • 2015 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    in Gillam and Wooden 481). Many Disney films deliver positive messages and life lessons. In an essay written by Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden they aim to shame Disney by talking giving the assumption that it feminizes males, for example in the Beauty and Beast the contrast of the “uber macho Gaston and the sensitive, misunderstood Beast” (471). Yet they do not discuss the positive message this movie provides for children which is that “True beauty is found not in how one looks, but in how one treats others”. It teaches children not to judge people based on their looks and first impressions. “Henry Giroux argues that the impact of Disney is tremendously more widespread than out household citing Michael Eisner's 1995 “Planetized Entertainment” claiming that 200 million people a year watch Disney videos or films , and in a week 395 million watch a Disney TV show, 3.8 million subscribe to the Disney Channel and 810,000 make a purchase at a Disney store” (Gillam and Wooden 480). A child is not analyzing the masculinity of a character the way us adults do. They are watching these films while their minds grasp morals from them that teach them being good has its perks opposed to being evil. Disney has a positive effect on children's perception of right and…

    • 1667 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The greater young children loved the Disney films, the more influence the hidden messages the films have on us. While young children enjoy the courage of the little mermaid to give up her voice, her comfort and her family to marry the prince, they also accepted the idea that love is above everything. This was certainly a bad influence on girls because this was not how real society worked. Parents did not realize, the seed of conflict were embedded in their childrens mind just for watching a cartoon.…

    • 702 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Disney is a very popular company. Many of us grew up watching their movies and shows. Many of us don’t see what they are doing until we have grown up and become exposed to how women are not treated equal. Disney has many movies with showed many things be seen as stated here, “the author cited numerous examples of both sexism and racism in the films, specifically noting the heroines’ extremely pale skin tones, small waists, delicate limbs, and full breast. (England 556)” They have the image of women to be light skin, skinny, and mainly be more attractive to men. Disney shows that women need be the person to get the help, not them helping themselves. In many movies you will see the ‘princess’ will be confronted with some problem that…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Disney and Masculinity

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages

    today I want to present my project about how Disney films show masucliity in almost all Disney movies and the four types of masculinity.i want to give everyone the idea of how disney have shaped and influenecesx the idea of masculinity,feminisxm and gender roles in young kids . Disney has many films in ehich thy show masuclinyt, feminicism and gender roles and often include violence,sexist relationships, and show dominance to show power. And often many young kids imitate these characteristics and grow up with them and even feel uncomfortable or f eel less than the rest of the young boys when they realizr that they don’t have these characteristics. As we all grew up we remember watching a lot of Disney movies and remember most of the characters and the stories. For young boys there was such films such as lion king,toy story,ect and for young girls there are many princess stories like Cinderella, Pocahontas,little mermaid, etc. but does anybody wonder or think about how Disneys ideas of masculinity have affected the men of today or will affect the man of tomorrow? We often think or remember about the princesses finding their own prince charming and how the male has certain characteristics that show authority and power, well, this one of the many things that Disney have made us believe and we grew up with this idea.but for my project, I wanredto be specific and wanted to focus more on masculimty and the four types of masculinity that Disney uses as well as sexism in films.…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Disney Stereotypes

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This image manipulates the Disney audience to believe that women need men to be successful creating an ideology that women cannot excel in life. This self-esteem impacting violation can be looked at as a neglected for of media violence. The aggression towards the self-esteem of young girls can fundamentally be explained in the article “Could Playing with Disney Princesses Harm Your Child? Researchers Warn They Enhance Potentially Damaging Stereotypes" by Stacy Liberatore. In this article, the analysis that women are supposed to be less intelligent than men is studied. This ideology may cause Disney’s female audience to intentionally not succeed in academics due to the stereotype that women are dependent upon the intellect of men. Researchers watched 36 G-rated Disney movies which grossed more than $100 million as of January 1, 2014 and discovered that 38 of the 67 main characters were considered upper or upper-middle class. While looking at the Disney princess franchise we must note that jobs are dominantly occupied by men while women are typically portrayed as housewives as seen in a classic Disney film Snow White. This argument leads to the idea that these women are typically only upper or upper-middle class due to the support of men. This ideology contributes to my argument that Disney portrays its princess characters to be dependent upon the wealth and skills of men to succeed in life. This type of characterization can potentially discourage young women viewers to proceed in academics which should be looked at as a type of media…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    So, there are many types of feminists out there; but there is 1 thing that all feminists can agree on and that's the essential need for good role model's for young girls. An obvious example of a young girls role model would be a Disney Princess There's absolutely nothing wrong with children wanting to be feminine and buy princess dress up clothes, toys etc. However, many of the princesses are treated like objects and their whole character plot is based around finding a Prince to marry and living 'Happily ever after'. They give little girls unrealistic expectations of looks, as they are drawn very unrealistically, therefore, this is an awful message to send to young girls on body image and loving yourself.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays