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.
However, the later Disney films have gradually attempted to break away from this stereotype resulting in stronger female characters like Ariel, Mulan, and Elsa among others. Keeping this transition in mind, this paper uses semiotic analysis of four popular Disney films, namely, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Little Mermaid (1989) and Mulan (1998) to depict the influence of societies ' changing perceptions of women on the portrayal of Disney princesses. These films taking into account the earliest film and certain popular characters that have represented a shift from being the coy damsel in distress to a woman who plays an active role in determining her own destiny. The portrayal of the Disney princess has changed in accordance with the development of women in society over time (1937 to 2013) from demure and traditional to
For instance, in the movie Frozen, Anna's hand is not only tiny compared to Hans', but her eyeball is also wider than her wrist. Female features are enhanced, while the bodies of male are enlarged. Cohen believes with all the concentration on the small differences between males and females, it tends to be forgotten that the similarities outweigh the differences. The choices made by producers or artist give us a view into important cultural dynamics. There is a lot of debate between the roles that men and women play but we must learn to see that men and women can share the same abilities, physically,
The topic of self confidence is a subject that is heavily discussed when it comes to girls of all ages. Journalist, Stephanie Hanes, examines the current trend of sexualization amongst young girls. In the article “Little Girls or Little Women: The Disney Princess Effect”, Hanes examines the current trend of sexualization amongst girls. She addresses the issue of desiring to become a women too soon. Hanes develops her article by using the literary techniques of pathos and logos to describe the emotions young girls feel when they see images of women with unattainable features.
Princesses’ in Disney movies are tied down to a recurring theme: the princess that must be saved from the evil woman by the charming prince. A significant contrast to the usually weak and easily persuaded figure of the father. Even though the women are portrayed as weak, nobody stops to think how strong they have to be to carry the responsibility of an entire household on her shoulder, while the men always seem to be traveling or ill. Fairytales are based on a patriarchal way of thinking and as time passes by, it’s proven to be detrimental to society Women and men are constantly being bound to a series of stereotypes.
The characters in The Little Mermaid are stragetically designed in a way that conveniently adheres to stereotypical ideas of how males and females should behave, value, and appear according to their gender roles in a patriarchal society that demeans women. In order to do this, the main male characters, including King Triton and Prince Eric, must depict hypermasculinity to dramatically contrast from the creation of their fragile and inferior female counterparts. This is to also exhibit the men’s hypothetical ownership over these women, and using their displayed incompetence as justification of their assumed possession of Ariel. Ariel, the central female character, is depicted as beautiful, because she meets stereotypical standards of beauty
Disney's Frozen is an uplifting movie whose princesses, Elsa and Anna, have a powerful influence on young girls. When asked what phrases come to mind when hearing the word princess, Kira Cochrane says, "For me they would include: pretty, gentle, sweet, passive, tiny feet in class slippers, and a vapid prince arriving to save them and whisk them away" (22). Elsa and Anna break the common standard listed by Cochrane by pointing out the flaws of past Disney princess movies. These princesses show girls that one should not be so concerned with the idea of being perfect and falling in
In today's society, the issue of gender roles has always been divisive and is still a source of contention for many. Remarks made about women in the media and even in person have always presented difficulties for women. Isabelle Gill writes about the prejudice that women still experience today and how it affects how princesses are perceived. Her article's goal was to highlight the distinctions between men and women in Disney tales. Isabelle talks about how princesses in movies receive unfair criticism and why they should be given more credit.
The princesses have unrealistic body images, uses bad gender roles, historical inaccuracies in their few movies, etc. Many Disney movies are intended for children but they have something which attracts adult people to be interested. In every Disney movie has given characterized protagonist and antagonist in very interesting characteristic, for example, Cinderella and her stepsisters, Snow White and Evil Queen, Belle and Maleficient, etc. The characters of Disney is either beautiful or ugly, either villains or heroes, in linguistic those are called binary opposition.
The movie “The Princess and the Frog” is not your typical “boy saves girl” movie. Instead, this Disney movie presents us with a strong female lead who doesn’t need a man to achieve her goals. In many previous Disney movies, it is demonstrated that a girl needs a man in order to get her happily ever after. Without a prince, she is nothing. In “The Princess and the Frog” the gender roles are presented to us as equal, even reverse at times.
Boys watch these disney films and focus on the princes and kings in the movies. Another example is King Triton also in The Little Mermaid, he is muscular, tanned, and holds a lot of power. This gives boys the images that while girls are supposed to be thin, men have to be muscular and huge, while also holding power over others. The male leads having power is a negative side effect in the movies, the bigger the body the more the power. In the Beauty and the Beast Belle is the Beasts prisoner, this movie shows that it’s acceptable to yell and keep a female as a prisoner.
The Little Mermaid which was produced in 1989, was the first Disney movie to challenge the traditional gender roles, for the fact that Ariel wanted to explore, and was more independent and assertive in her desires than the earlier princesses of the 1930’s and 50s films. Also the prince in The Little Mermaid went against traditional gender roles as well, simply because he was more affectionate and loving than his prince counterparts in other Disney films. “Both the male and female roles have changed over time, but overall the male characters evinced less change then the female characters and were more androgynous throughout.” (Descartes & England, pg.566). Disney movies have been for a long time a strong media target for children, and can serve as a way to address stereotypical gender roles (Leaper, 2000).
As feminism and gender equality are becoming more important to society, the way gender roles are depicted in literature and media are shifting to conform to society’s views. This usage of gender roles can be seen in two popular contemporary animated movies: Frozen and Spirited Away. Both of these films are geared for younger audiences and attempt to teach important life lessons, like friendship and growing up. Through closer examination of how each film portrays gender, however, Frozen appears to not be as egalitarian as many have come to believe. Comparing both films, Frozen is not very feminist as it continues to perpetuate traditional gender roles and fairytale tropes, such as love at first sight and damsels in distress, whereas Spirited
As a curious young child, I always asked my daddy why black characters were absent in children’s books, Disney movies, and toys? My parents made sure to expose me to things that related to the Black community, however, the popular things were never associated with Blacks. In the most recent Disney princess movie the main character the princess identified as an African American. I was excited because as a young child there were no African American princesses. Disney faced conflict address African-American community concern about the motion picture.
On the other hand, in the Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, their also may be a negative effect on the girls specially as shown in the Sleeping Beauty that the princess is very blonde and she is very skinny too and has a very melodious voice. So this may be a negative effect on those girls who are not skinny, blonde and don’t have a melodious voice. The girls who don’t has these qualities will force them to think that to get a prince, get married with a prince or to become a princess they must look blonde, they must have skinny body and sweet voice and who don’t have these qualities they will get upset, will be tensed about themselves that they cannot get married with a prince as they are black, fatty and don’t have sweet voice. So there must be equality