The Influence of Disney Princess Films on Gender Stereotypes
The franchise of the Disney Princess films started in the year 1937 after the release of the Seven Dwarfs and Snow White. From 2011, Walt Disney embarked on a marketing project that sought to reinvigorate the popularity of the franchise (England, Descartes, and Melissa). The purpose of the advertising campaigns was essentially to attract more and wider audience of girls with the optimal objective being encouraging children to have personal identification with the characters so that there could be an increase in associated products. Disney has been attributed to having a powerful influence on both product consumerism and children media, an aspect that has contributed to a new form of "girlhood" which is to some extent defined by gender.
Conventional Representation of Women in Disney Films
For the longest time, despite the change in the roles of women in society, contemporary Disney films have remained unswerving in the conventional representation of women. In many of the Disney films, the idea of females being obedient and passive has been prevalent. For years, women have been regarded to be the demise of humankind. From the scenarios in the Bible, a woman cut Sampson locks, the wife of Lot looked back turning into a salt pillar, and it was also Eve who ate the forbidden fruit. From the early times to today, Disney comics have been associated with representing women in a biased manner (Maity 28). The Disney classics such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Jasmine continued to show certain women stereotypes where the gender images did not reflect the societal developments in matters of equality (England, Descartes, and Melissa 556). While in contemporary films there has been a reduction in the stereotypes, they are still depicted in some female characters. In the recent Disney movies the Frog, the Princess and Tangled, the idea of illustrating women as inferior to the male gender is still much prevalent. Nonetheless, movies such as Pocahontas and Mulan made a significant breakthrough in the Disney Empire as all the women protagonists negated the idea that men were more superior.
The Controversy Surrounding Disney's Influence
The Disney Company started around the 1920s and grew from a small studio that aired only cartoons to a large animation franchise with films distributed across the world. For many of the films, the public received them positively but not without criticism. According to critics, Disney has had unenthusiastic effects on society such as gender identities, materialism, and societal manipulation (Itmeizeh, and Sandra 31). In many of the Disney animated films, there is a world that is full of perfect men, eternal happiness, and rainbows. Nonetheless, the reality is that there are some angry parents as well as feminists feeling that the company is teaching children gender identities. In the contemporary films, different types of sexualization are present as the modern princesses are depicted to have more skin exposure compared to earlier characters. At the same time, the new Disney films have a sense of agency in that the female characters are more empowered into making their own decisions and therefore are in control of their fate. The new heroines are depicted to be more rebellious; they seem to reject some social roles rather than accepting them and the actions that they are engaged in are shown more in comparison to their physical beauty (Itmeizeh, and Sandra 31). For instance, in the film Mulan, the princess rejects being associated with being an ideal woman in society as she disguises herself to be a man for purposes of taking the place of her father in the army. While these changes are visible, aspects such as the princesses marrying what the Disney films franchise considers as the love of their dreams are still displayed. In real life, it is a different scenario as not all women end up marrying their true love and at times, some do not end up being married at all. It is considered biased when the films show that women cannot live without men in their lives.
Children's Perception and Gender Stereotypes
England, Descartes, and Melissa (557) state that children seem to be conscious of the gender stereotypes that are portrayed in the Disney films. Animated content for young children is often targeted at a single gender and children have grown to identify with these gender classifications. As a result, future behaviors by these children are largely according to their favorite Disney film characters. Worse is that children can identify certain gender role images as 'normal' and ideal, and when growing up they connect to them adapting the concepts as socially acceptable morality and behavior. Maity (29) argues that the way females are portrayed in Disney films and books has been a controversial topic as certain roles are shown to be for the male gender only. Often, women are depicted to be vulnerable and weak individuals who have to rely on men to survive in society. While the Disney Princess films teach children how a woman looks, they also show the process females use to gain happiness, meeting a soul mate, and living with a man. Often, women have to be rescued by men, and without receiving help from the male gender, they cannot live happily. There is no doubt or question that all the princesses in these Disney films are beautiful. However, these films use this aspect to build on the scenes in that their physical attractiveness is considered a significant asset of these women. Therefore, it is depicted that gaining beauty is something that all women should strive to achieve and maintain. Nevertheless, in reality, celebrating and over-glorifying women's beauty is somehow oppressive as it objectifies, devalues, and subordinates women.
The Need for Gender Equality in Disney Films
It is a known fact that many of the Disney films have a large influence on how young girls perceive the world in addition to their behaviors. Often, this is dangerous because it might affect how they think about society. They could have high expectations about the world and sometimes could be disappointed considering the illustrations in the Disney films are dissimilar to reality. The producers of these films need to do more to show gender equality. Today, there are more independent women in society who are relying on themselves to support their families and children, a scenario which is rarely portrayed in these Disney films. While much has changed in society, how the films portray gender roles is still ancient. Consequently, because of the future of young boys and girls, the films need to reconsider their approach and provide a fair display of how the real world/society operates.
Works Cited
England, Dawn Elizabeth, Lara Descartes, and Melissa A. Collier-Meek. "Gender role portrayal and the Disney princesses." Sex roles 64.7-8 (2011): 555-567.
Itmeizeh, Mahmoud J., and Sandra Ma’ayeh. "The Evolution of Gender Roles and Women's Linguistic Features in the Language of Disney." Evolution 36 (2017).
Maity, Nandini. "Damsels in Distress: A Textual Analysis of Gender roles in Disney Princess Films." IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science IOSRJHSS 19.10 (2014): 28-31.
