The Role Of Gender Stereotypes In Disney Movies

Since the release of their first feature-length animated film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, Disney has become the uncontested leader of animation movies for children. With the release of over 50 feature-length animated movies between 1937 and 2016, accompanied by short-movies, video games, toys, board games and attraction parks, Disney’s influence on children grew considerably throughout the last century. Children are known to be easily influenced, therefore the ideas promoted by companies like Disney should be closely examined. With the creation of the “Princess Line” franchise, the particular issue of the impact of gender representation in Disney characters, especially for female characters in princess movies, retained attention. The conclusion was rapidly drawn: Disney movies carry and transmit negative female gender stereotypes, especially in princess movies. The Disney

Disney princesses’ characteristics, both physical and psychological, are highly gendered and emphasize their heterosexuality in an unrealistic way. Many feminist groups and parents have complained about Disney princesses caricatured and hypersexualized physical characteristics and top-models look. The princesses’ small waist, big breasts, round hips, pulpy lips and long legs, often emphasized by their clothes, give them an idealized “hour-glass” body shape. (Putnam, 149-150) Their long floating hair also reinforce the sensuality of these characters, although almost half of the princesses are supposed to be under 16-years-old. (Taylor) Furthermore, some princesses’ physical traits, even if not emphasizing their