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Ariel's Identity In Walt Disney Film The Little Mermaid

446 Words2 Pages

Relationships are extremely important in the media for how they are portrayed and what they teach. Beginning in 1991, television executives knowingly and deliberately implemented a policy of having dominant male characters in all Saturday morning children’s programming (Taylor 2003). Women are constantly exhibited as dependant on men, while the male characters are depicted as independent. An incredible example of this is the Walt Disney film The Little Mermaid. Ariel vividly embodies the females’ dependence on a man for her identity. The character Ariel quite literally gives up her identity as a mermaid in hopes to be accepted in human form by her love interest Eric. Ariel is shown to have many material possessions and is easily identified …show more content…

Children’s literature vividly implements this theme by casting females as helpless and incompetent and males as coming to their rescue. Sleeping Beauty and Snow Whites resurrection is solely dependant on their prince charming’s kiss. Another key example of how the media is advertising girl’s incompetence and dependence on men is clear in The Jetsons. Judy Jetson is shown constantly complaining, waiting for others to help her with her problems. She uses flattery to help her get what she wants and win men’s attention. The woman is predominantly shown to play hard to get and teaches that men will come running after her. It also personifies that every girl has a prince charming that will come rescue her from her woes and they shall live happily ever after. This gives a false representation of how relationships actually work and can also create a false sense of identity for females. Relationships established in children’s literature can also have a negative impact on males; making boys think they must ‘save the damaged’ and rescue women of their horrors when in fact, that is not always

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