The clip chosen for this analysis is taken from the original 1937 Disney film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” The scene merges several of Virginia Valian’s definitions of accepted gender schemas present both consciously and unconsciously throughout society. Depictions of men being assertive, and women acting as both submissively feminine and darkly powerful, portray visually the standard themes and concepts of what our gender and identity mean. In the scene referred to as “I’m Wishing/One Song,” we see Snow White, dressed in tattered garb, singing in a child-like voice to six white doves fluttering around a well. Snow White is wishing for her dream of a man to come to her rescue as she gazes into the pooled water. When Prince Charming …show more content…
Curiously, Prince Charming’s display of mutual attraction to Snow White causes her to react with fear and run from the man she was ardently expressing love for just moments before. The Prince then takes on the role of aggressor, pursuing Snow White with a song that declares his love for her and no one else. In a speech given at the University of California, Irvine, Valian spoke to a gathering of university department chairs on her work in gender-based schemas and research. She related common impressions of the behaviors men and women assume that are deemed appropriate in the workplace and society. One such impression was the idea that “we see males as capable of independent action, doing things for a reason, and getting down to the business at hand,” ("Gender Schemas and the Advancement of Women," 2008). Valian’s theory of men taking the lead is accurately portrayed in the film clip. We see the Prince at first as the one who is beckoned to fall in love as Snow White sings her desires loud and clear. Nevertheless, she immediately becomes demure when the Prince responds to her intentions, blushing and running away as she yields the pursuit to the him. The Prince does