Being a young woman in America, I have stared eye to eye with the guidelines that the media has handed to me. The documentary, Miss Representation, directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, discusses how the media’s objectification of women impacts the lives of girls and women across America. Miss Representation shows that as a girl watches other women
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.
From a sociological standpoint, today’s media’s sexualization of females is spreading like wildfire, and making this type of perception into a norm—the idea that women should feel the need to act “sexy” in order to attract
The words “once upon a time” automatically conjure up images of princesses, castles, and fairy godmothers, but do we as readers ever examine these stories closer? When we stop and dissect a work of literature, we may find that its meaning may not be quite as clear as we had originally believed. Fairy tales have powerful but subtle meanings that are as magical as the stories themselves. Double meanings can become more apparent through close examination of the language, the form and content of dialogue within the text, and variations between different versions of the same fairy tale. When these strategies are applied to the well known fairy tale Snow White, it becomes increasingly obvious that there is more to the story than an evil stepmother
After watching Cinderella and reading the book cinder they both share very comparable roles in the book and the story. Cinderella is a cyborg and is a mechanic, but Ella is human and is a servant. Both of their stepmothers and step sisters are very inhumane towards both characters and play mean roles in both stories. In addition,both cinder and Ella have very sad past occurrence in regards to their parents.
Women have found themselves at the bottom of society’s hierarchal pyramid for eons. Even though females make contributions that prove vital to the world’s function, they are still regarded as the weaker link. The female plight of constantly facing debasement is a pawn used to ensure compliance. It is a common notion that if one is demeaned enough, he or she will conform to the suggested persona. Society tests this notion through its treatment of women.
Although the collective interest is among those affect it can also include the eternal audience. Within the film they showed how the media is what influences men’s actions and idea about what women should look like. Since this film extends to the external audience, which are the men, they too can be recruited into the movement to share the same common interest and goals of feminist to ensure that objectification of females is prevented (Taylor et al., 2004). One communal interest or goal the group may have is helping spread awareness that the representation of women in the media is
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.
Disney is an international film company that dominates full-length feature animations. Two feature long cartoons, Snow White and Mulan, are good examples where a female character takes the central role, Snow White being from the first half of the 20th century and Mulan from modern times. Since its first known character born, Disney has made an impact the entire world with magic at the core of its success. In 1937, Disney’s first feature length film, “Snow White” hit the nation by a storm. After 73 years, Mulan was released and came to the screens.
With sex trafficking being on a rise, along with different kind of princess stories who do not wander into the woods, I felt it would be appropriate to use a classic tale and modernize Snow White with a common issue today. Princess fairy tales are known for key morals and values for children to understand at an early age. Often these stories would include stories of a princess upset and courageous who begin to leave their home, finding their prince charming just by luck, and living happily ever after without any consequences of their actions. In the real world however, this does kind of luck does not happen. Not every runaway story ends with only a wolf bothering a young female, and not every male stranger that a girl runs across is going to be a good guy, or destined to be their prince charming.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Wicked: The Life and Time of the Wicked Witch of the West possesses feminist ideals represented through the characterization of female characters. Iconic characters such as Dorothy, Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba), Wicked Witch of the East (Nessarose), and Good Witch of the South (Glinda) portray feminist characters that have developed and showed their strong personality, influencing women in today’s society. This leads to the question – To what extent is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Wicked empowering women through the presentation of women? The Wonderful Wizard of Oz paved the way for the increase in number of feminist novels.
When most people think of fairy tales an assumption is commonly made that the tale will focus on a damsel in distress (usually a female), waiting to be saved by the heroic and charming prince. Currently, society believes that a woman shouldn’t have to wait to be saved by a heroic prince. Contrary to what many people believe, the heroic prince character, doesn’t have to be a prince, and male or female, it is essential to the advancement of the plot of many fairy tales, because without them many fairy tales would remain stagnant, and essential the part of most fairy tale: the “happily ever after,” would never happen. In the Frog King, the curse is broken when the frog is kissed by the princess.
Walt Disney’s one of the biggest hit, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is an adaptation version of Grimm’s Snow White, the original version. Have you ever considered any difference between those two different and the most well-known versions? Grimm’s Snow White represents the cultural hues of Germany in the beginning of 19th century, and it is explicit that Disney’s version is different from the original one; since Disney’s version expresses American culture right after the Great Depression (Wright 103-104). Needless to mention, recent adaptations tend to follow contemporary trend that cannot be identical or similar to the Grimm’s nor Disney’s, and this makes each adaptation distinct and unique.
The Helpless, the Hero and the Villain: A Narrative Look at Gender Roles In fairy tales, often specifically from the earlier, patriarchal societies of the pre-1900s, there are explicit gender roles that are followed. The girls are seen as hopeless, naïve, and sometimes stupid, whereas the males are seen as heroic figures to assist the girls. While Charles Perrault’s “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” and Brothers Grimm’s “Little Red Cap” are no different, they exemplify these roles as they fit into three specific characters in their tales: the helpless, the hero, and the villain. The helpless shows the constraints that are placed on women in both fairy tales and in real life, the hero shows the male privilege exemplified in these patriarchal times, and the villain is a role that can be filled by either gender, but still happens to show the privilege men get even when placed in these roles.
This shows that sexualization is hard to escape for women of all ages. If they want to aspire to be something they are being told to be sexy to get it. This is seen all through out pop culture and, as said before, seen especially in social media. Hanes writes about her readings of Ms. Steiner-Adair’s about girls and social media in her article Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect, page 515, Everything’s
