Summary Of Fall Of The Female Protagonist In Kids Movies

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The audience, consisting of children's movie enthusiasts, are persuaded by Stefan Babich to accept the fact that females lack importance in family-friendly films. Stefan Babich, throughout his article, “The Fall of the Female Protagonist in Kids’ Movies”, recognizes and proves through strong supporting evidence combined with pathos and logos, that women do receive less recognition and positivity than their male counterparts. Purposefully, the article criticizes the motives of companies and producers, which reinforce negative representations of women.
In Culture: A Reader for Writers, the article, “The Fall of the Female Protagonist in Kids’ Movies”, written by Stefan Babich, argues female protagonists in children’s movies faced a tragic …show more content…

His pathos includes the existence of sexism in these productions, which appears in the enforcement of male superiority; the most important characters to the plot are always male (Babich 236). Introducing the argument of sexism sparks pathos because the existence of this topic upsets people and associating it with children triggers red flags. These red flags allow for attention to shift to the main issues and attempt to influence the audience to reject the approach that kids’ movies take, when it comes to the portrayal of women. Pathos also presents itself when Babich touches on the truth that female protagonists are always femininely built, exploiting their bodies in order to appeal to the audience and capture their attention (238). The emotion provoked here is disgust concerning the sexualization weaved into media created for children. Babich intends to instil a revolting reaction from the reader by pointing out the disturbing presence of hidden sexual content in a kid-friendly environment. The idea behind children-targeted films is to provide a pure and wholesome opportunity for young and naive kids to receive entertainment. By mentioning the common and suggestive physique of female characters, Babich introduces and uncomfortable and taboo concept to spark the attention of his …show more content…

He introduces his facts by presenting examples of females possessing characteristics less than the men in specific movies. Babich asserts his position with the story of The Little Mermaid, where Ariel gives up her voice to find love and marry the prince, and Cinderella, where she needs the power of the prince to escape her family (237). These are events which avoid rebuttal because they are the actual plot lines of The Little Mermaid and Cinderella, therefore proving the classification of logos, strengthening Babich’s opinion. Moreover, Babich utilizes logos once again by explaining how Monsters vs. Aliens, produced by Dreamworks, included the first female protagonist in the history of all of the company's works, yet it only released in 2009 (236). Again, this claim is factual, irrefutable, and unwaveringly categorized as logos. These specific examples provide crucial, solidity to his case because Babich’s ideas are not only based on his interpretations, but are reinforced by scenes and plots of popular