The media plays a significant role in our daily lives by providing us with cultural, educational, and supplemental information that cultivates our knowledge while also shaping our political aspects and framing our cultural guidelines in society. It has the role of being an effective educator, by informing us of anything newsworthy, which is quite true, but what most people don’t know is the canny and manipulative ways on how they are doing it. They hinder with our public opinion through mass media such as television, radio, and newspaper articles, in which most of the time, the information is quite bias. The sad thing is the main target to their tactics are not towards adults, but towards children. The jurisdiction of the media is very influential to the perception of the youth. They teach kids the suitable and appropriate gender roles in society through forms of entertainment. One corporation that hinders with the views of children is Disney. Disney movies imbed ideas and concepts about social customs into the susceptible minds of children. Characters in their movies unveil quarrelling realities about the representation of Disney princesses in a considerable amount of their films. These female characters are presented in ways of being in distress and menial to their male counterparts. The roles of men and women portrayed in Disney films have mimicked the cultural perspective and beliefs of social norms and expectations on gender roles and identity. Disney films have become a great illustration and representation of following cultural trends and behavioral norms for males and females, but they are presenting imprecise portrayal of gender roles to children at such a young age. I have first-hand witnessed the portrayal of stereotypical representation of gender roles in several of Disney’s princess films, where they belittle the female image in contrast to the male characters, are giving them fewer lines of dialogue throughout the movie, and are depicted in unrealistic and degrading forms, ruining the perception of our youth.
In our culture, being feminine is comparable to having a nurturing personality and being tough and aggressive is equal to having a masculine type of personality. How a person is taught and raised in society shapes their behaviors and characteristics. The way people act and represent themselves in society is referred to as gender roles which individualize a persons’ role and demeanor based on gender. As a society, we have mixed the terms sex and gender which has affected social expectation based off a persons’ biological makeup. The difference between the two terms is that we are born of a certain sex and gender is something that we learn. People have been taught on whether to be feminine or masculine. Disney movies have played a part on why children perceive certain things or activities as being geared only toward girls or boys. For example, in the first Disney movie ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, Snow White was a princess who was portrayed as being this beautiful, sensitive, and hopeless romantic. Throughout the film, she is seen as being a desolate girl who is in need of a prince. Snow White is shown washing the dishes, sweeping the floors, cooking the food, and being motherly for all seven of the dwarfs who all happen to be male. While she is at home doing household chores, the dwarfs are out at work all day, digging in mines. The actions of both male and female characters imply to the audience that it is the woman’s job to cook and clean and the mans’ job to work all day. These roles became terms that were coined in society as being the ‘housewife’ and the ‘man of the house’. These household and hard labor tasks have been taught and perceived as being the behavioral norm for males and females. This movie became the start of the Disney trend of the stay-at-home woman who becomes a damsel-in-distress relying on a prince to come and save her and the man who is expected to go out and work all day to support his family. This film and many others are brainwashing children to believe that these are the roles that males and females must represent in order to fulfil the idea of the norm in society, which is not the message we should be conveying to our youth of today.
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Not only are the women characters in several Disney films being represented as being beneath man, but they are also being given fewer speaking roles compared to their male counterparts. Several of their films are represented with females as the lead role, yet they still get fewer lines. The amount of time each gender gets to speak in Disney princess films is split quite unevenly. Several of the Walt Disney Company’s films have as little as 2% dialogue from the female characters. Movies like ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Mulan’ are some of the films where this occurs. In fact, according to research from an article from The Pudding, dialogue in 22 of 30 Disney films are spoken largely by male characters. In the movie ‘Mulan’, for example, her animal sidekick has 50% more dialogue than she herself. In more of their recent films though, Disney has been better about having a balance in dialogue between both genders. In fact, in the movie ‘Tangled’, the female characters spoke about 52% of the time and in ‘Frozen’ about 74%. You can see where the Disney company is trying to be equal amongst the genders by making a few changes in the amount of dialogue, but it’s still not a fair enough and even exchange. What is quite ludicrous is that only about four Disney films have female characters that speak over 50% of the time, which is something that society should not approve of. Disney needs to give a far more equal amount of dialogue to the lead female characters and not have them be of a minority to their male counterparts. This company needs to be setting a better example for our youth who retain information quite easily and show them that women are just as strong and vocal as the male gender.
When watching Disney movies as a child, you probably weren’t in deep thought of the images and ideas being presented and illustrated to you. When you hear the name Disney, the first thing that probably comes to mind is family orientated and innocent films with meaningful messages. Little do you know or care to point out is the deeper message which is the subtle, stereotypical representation of women in their films. Many don’t notice the unrealistic illustrations of body image and personalities that many of the Disney princesses are depicted of having. Disney has objectified and devalued women and body types and has presented their princesses with having superb personalities, leading young girls to want to be just like them. Every Disney princess is presented with quite disproportionate body parts from having an unnaturally small waist, exaggerated eyes, and large breasts. According to an article from Buzzfeed, they had members from their team dress up as several of the Disney princesses, where they digitally altered the women bodies to be as exact and accurate as the animations were. These farfetched body types are representations of the ideal feminine body type that ‘fit’ the social norms of society. For example, in the movie ‘The Little Mermaid’, the female lead Ariel gives away her voice to the antagonist in the film, Ursula, in order to get the prince, she feels is her true love. While Ariel is giving away her voice to Ursula, she sings to Ariel stating, “You'll have your looks, your pretty face, and don't underestimate the importance of body language”. This line is giving the message to young girls that physical beauty is a woman’s most important aspect and is all they have to offer. No need for a voice to express yourself as long as you look ‘good’ is what the line is stating. Movies like this and many others have influenced and coined the phrase ‘Just stand there and look pretty’, implying that all women have to offer is their looks and nothing more, which is quite far from the truth. We are ingraining the idea in our youth that having good looks, the perfect body, and all-around great personality is all you need to find true love and happiness in life. The further we allow the media and such companies as Disney to release content with messages and ideas such as these, the more our children of today will think it is the norm and is how we should look and act in society. Continuing the trend of presenting Disney prince and princesses of having perfect bodies and personalities will hinder with the views of children whose goal will be live up to unrealistic realities. This can lead to issues of body image and self-worth, which can be detrimental to a person’s health. This should not be the message we are sending out to our children. Disney needs to switch its gears and transition from the message of finding true love, and instead to finding love in yourself.
The power of Disney and their influence on children is quite bigger than we think. Their films are a critical aspect to focus in on because their stories have such an impact on the youth. They present compelling messages about social relationships and gender roles that are becoming the expected and standard norms of society. Although Disney has slightly evolved with their views of gender, it is still lacking a lot of diversity. How will the children learn about diversity and the empowerment of both genders, if no one is there to do so? The more we continue to allow the Walt Disney Company to display women of being inferior to their male counterparts, presenting the princesses with having few speaking roles, and depicting the females with having unrealistic body types, the more our children will think it is the norm, influencing them to live up to improbable expectations. Our youth uses the media to discover who they are and what the world around them is like. The media is a powerful influence on how children perceive the world and their understandings of it. If Disney continues to portray their characters with these gender bias roles and stereotypical ideas, this endless pattern of gender roles will continue to unravel and transpire.
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