Making Disney Villains seem queer might sound very offensive towards homosexuals, in particular gay men, and it seems as if Disney is trying to create a metaphorical message that villains dress and act like stereotypical gay men. However, given the fact that the numbers of animators, creators and voice actors themselves are queer and take part in the creation of the film, such metaphors (e.g. “villain = queer”) might not be as what they seem, seeing how the homosexual audience’s reception of the films are, and how Disney influences their own lives. For example, every first Saturday in June, there is an event called the “Gay Days at Walt Disney World.” It started in 1991, and since then, every year, lesbians and gays gather in WDW to enjoy
Rhetorical Analysis Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and many other Disney movies all have one thing in common, they feature a female lead who need a male figure to save them. However, things started to change after the release of Mulan 1988. It changed from only having those female leads who always needed to rely on someone, to females who were able to show off their more masculine side. In the article “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Pixar/Disney,” Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden explored the idea that Pixar movies were starting to show male characters who weren 't afraid to show their emotions and feminine attributes, to promote the “New Man” model.
Disney inspired fairy tales have a certain universality, everything is romanticized and there usually is an evil antagonist making situations worse. In Disney’s Enchanted, Giselle the protagonist is the typical gender stereotyped fairy tale princess. She is a cartoon character in a fictitious place called Andalasia, who later turns into a real woman in New York City after getting pushed into a magic well. This happened because Giselle’s prince’s evil step mother Narissa thought Giselle is marrying the prince to get Narissa dethroned. Similarly, in Sleeping Beauty, Aurora a passive, beautiful princess is cursed to fall into a deep slumber when she is pricked by the spinning needle.
I want to begin with the myth, “Coming Out Today Is Easier Than Ever”, and how it ties into misconceptions of transwomen, such as, "Once a boy", "Use to be a boy" touted in headlines and articles as the universal ideology of being transgender. In Emylia N. Terry’s thesis paper, “An Exclusionary Revolution: Marginalization and Representation of Trans Women in Print Media (1969-1979)”, she writes that; “ excluding marginalized trans women and writing about trans women in a hostile or sensationalistic way arguably leads to the dehumanization of trans people, or the invisibilization of voices from the historical record, which has contemporary consequences”. (Terry, 2014) The telling of other people’s histories and stories in a sensational and
The Little Mermaid: Hegemonic Femininity The transition from a girl to a woman is created by the socially constructed ideals of femininity often depicted in commercials, books, and mainly films. One of the famous animated princess Disney films, The Little Mermaid can be easily added to yet another Disney film portraying hegemonic femininity. In the 1989 film The Little Mermaid, (Ron Clements, John Musker) a beautiful, young mermaid is willing to make a risky deal with an evil sea-witch because she yearns to walk on land and fall in love with a Prince, while secretly the sea-witch wishes for the mermaid to lose the deal. Ultimately, mermaid ends up achieving her dream of marrying the Prince, although the evil sea-witch tries to destroy the plan.
Across the world, little girls and little boys are being raised on gendered norms that determine how they will behave for the rest of their lives. Exposure to various types of media during their formative years instruct children on how they should look, feel, and behave. Consequently, adult women strive to emulate the fantasies they were exposed to through the Disney Princess films they were raised on. Disney Princesses offer a mold for what a successful woman looks like in terms of size, color, and physical sexuality. In modern society, countless marginalized groups are seeking equal representation in the media to accurately reflect how diverse the world truly is.
(Transgender – The Facts) they are being consumed with their idea of being perfect no matter the cost they’re willing to take extreme measures just as Georgianne I was willing to do whatever it took to remove the birthmark. This is a touchy issue, but Hawthorne was able to write the story before all this happened and it still applies. Society today might be worse than it used to be because there’s more knowledge and scientific research out there. People have continued to let science overrun nature without thinking about the damage it could do to our society. Nathaniel Hawthorne's argument about science verses nature still holds true today.
The earliest forms of traditional drag were practiced and seen as lighthearted amusement in the late 19th century and the early 20th century through entertainment and performance. Drag during this period was utilized as a creative release for self- expression and a way to make a societal statement. But in society’s perspective, a drag queen couldn 't be distinguished from a transgender individual and cross-dressing and being homosexual are intolerable behaviors during the 20th century therefore society immediately branded drag queens as transgender individuals. But drag queens had the vivacious sprits and the desire for the right of self-expression in any way, shape or form. Drag queens became the mockingjay for pariahs.
Disney Company is notoriously known for making revolutionary cartoon movies that always gets the kid’s attention and win their hearts. The vast majority of their movie are targeting kids, kids under the age of 15, who are unbeknownst to the hidden messages about the movie(s) they’re watching. For example, The Disney film Sleeping Beauty, the main character Aurora was cursed to be sleeping forever by an evil witch. And Prince Phillip is bound to kiss her for a “true love’s kiss” and wakes up. It is pretty evident at the ending that the prince kissed Aurora without consent and she had no idea that it was going to happen for she was asleep.
Amanda Putnam’s essay, “Mean Ladies: Transgendered Villains in Disney Films”, is a compelling piece on gender portrayal and views in Disney films. Putnam opened the essay with a personal anecdote about her daughter. Her daughter wanted a Disney movie without a “mean lady”, as in most Disney films the villains are scary, evil women. The real life evidence strengthened her claim that children are noticing the characterization of female villains in Disney films. The antidote was brought fill circle when she referred back to her daughter in the final paragraphs of her essay.
Within the scope of this discussion, different dimensions of “queer” are presented as emulated by villains. “Queer” can be described as an umbrella term used for sexual and gender minorities who are not heterosexual nor cisgender. Correspondingly, Disney cinema villains obliterate all established notions of gender and sexuality, especially heterosexual norms. Through this frame, Disney cinema villains such as Ursula, Maleficent, and Elsa may be read as queer-coded in contrast with the relatively more heteronormative heroes. Queer-coding is essentially understood as fictional characters, who have not been revealed as queer, but are given traits or are being read as non-heteronormative, because of the style, behavior, gestures or overall appearance.
Transgender is the term used to describe an individual whose gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth. The documentary, “Growing up Trans”, is a sensitive clip to watch about young youths who attempt to navigate family, friends, gender, and the medical decisions they face at puberty. “Growing up Trans” focuses mainly on transitioned young youths. The transgender youth from the documentary links to many theories from chapter eight. Theories such as socialization, gender, sexuality, homophobia, transphobia, and microaggression are associated with “Growing up Trans”.
Dinseyfication is sanitizing reality for children, and Disney is well known for being notorious at romanticizing the hush world to suit the minds of children. Though this method of storytelling is flawed and often used negatively, it is still an effective way of visually narrating a story. This essay will prove that as an animator, artist or character developer you rely of stereotypes to help make your characters more appealing and also to make the story believable. This will be achieved through identifying and critically analysing race, sexuality and gender stereotypes in the movie Beauty and the Beast by Disney.
3.3 Aladdin “Aladdin“ is a relatively old Disney movie, released 1992, which won several Academy Awards and broke grossing records of its days. The animated feature is about a street-urchin called Aladdin, who falls in love with the princess Jasmine as she escapes the palace and meets him at the marketplace. However, the evil vizier Jafar finds out Aladdin is the “diamond in the rough“, the only one that can get into the cave, where the miracle lamp is, that he so desperately wants. So Aladdin is arrested and tricked into getting the lamp for Jafar, but eventually catches it himself.
Whether she is singing "Part of Your World" from within a cavern filled with knick-knacks or watching longingly as her sisters partake in the wonders of age old traditions on the surface, the Little Mermaid is a fairytale character which countless children have enjoyed encountering throughout the nearly two centuries that she has existed. In the time between The Little Mermaid 's conception and the present, this tale about a young sea-princess longing for a life out of the ocean has been adapted into multiple stories, plays, musicals, and films; yet, with each adaptation comes a different set of artistic liberties taken by the creators which meld the mermaid into a form which vastly contrasts with the original text. The original Little Mermaid
