Post-Princess Models Of Gender: The New Man In Disney

Masculinity is a topic that has been challenged in our society for many years in different forms. It has been debated in discussion but, primarily in movies that our children watch. Being the ‘Alpha Male’ has always meant to have characteristics such as, Independence, Strong, Non-emotional, Competitive, and Aggressive. Though culture has assigned what masculinity betrays, huge film industries such as Pixar haven’t held back on showing the world that being a macho man isn’t always the best thing to be seen as. The ultramodern man is characterized to have feminine like qualities.

In their essay “Post-Princess Models of Gender” Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden, both professors at Missouri State University, uses their research from their book Pixar’s Boy Stories: Masculinity in a Postmodern Age to argue that Disney/Pixar is creating a new version of the traditional alpha male, one that’s less masculine. Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden claim that Disney/Pixar depicts a male character as one that is dependent upon a female or in some cases another male; they believe that the traditional male model is no longer macho but more feminine. While the issue of the emasculation of male characters is undoubtedly important, one can only imagine the impact that it will have on our young boys. Today’s Disney/Pixar movies cause our

While many young girls love the princesses and look up to them, others view these characters as negative role models. Disney Princesses have always appeared in movies as young women who dress in elegant gowns, have sexy bodies and perfect hair. They are always paired with a prince who lives in a castle, meaning that he has a lot of money. This description of what the Disney Princess is like; give us a big concern in the influence this image is giving to the little girls. Unfortunately, what girls learn as children carries on into adulthood.

Disney’s The Little Mermaid’s Portrayal of the Implications Gender Roles Play in Encouraging Hypermasculine Males to Sexually Objectify Their Female Counterparts Disney’s The Little Mermaid may by a failed and narrow-minded attempt to perpetuate female empowerment through a G rated film targeted at a younger audience. The film instead resultantly preserves Disney’s infamous views of traditionalism by subjecting women to submissive roles and sexual objectification by the other male characters. This sexism is directly presented through the film’s music, the appearance of the characters, and most prominently, in the behaviors and imagery utilized.

The idea of a person being a woman or a man, or gender roles, is a cultural idea that has been developed all over the world in different ways. In recent years, the media has attempted to rebel against gendered stereotypes, such as “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from the film Mulan by Matthew Wilder and “Flawless” by Beyonce Knowles. These pieces are perceived as revolutionary and breaking gender roles but in actuality they enforce gendered stereotypes and can be harmful. The author of “I’ll Make a Man out of You” uses language to say that a female can do a male’s job but ultimately they enforce a male stereotype.

However, the later Disney films have gradually attempted to break away from this stereotype resulting in stronger female characters like Ariel, Mulan, and Elsa among others. Keeping this transition in mind, this paper uses semiotic analysis of four popular Disney films, namely, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Little Mermaid (1989) and Mulan (1998) to depict the influence of societies ' changing perceptions of women on the portrayal of Disney princesses. These films taking into account the earliest film and certain popular characters that have represented a shift from being the coy damsel in distress to a woman who plays an active role in determining her own destiny. The portrayal of the Disney princess has changed in accordance with the development of women in society over time (1937 to 2013) from demure and traditional to

The topic of self confidence is a subject that is heavily discussed when it comes to girls of all ages. Journalist, Stephanie Hanes, examines the current trend of sexualization amongst young girls. In the article “Little Girls or Little Women: The Disney Princess Effect”, Hanes examines the current trend of sexualization amongst girls. She addresses the issue of desiring to become a women too soon. Hanes develops her article by using the literary techniques of pathos and logos to describe the emotions young girls feel when they see images of women with unattainable features.

Disney movies although very popular among young children, play a very important role in displaying gender stereotypes. Walt Disney has been dominating the world of children movies for decades (Lamb & Brown, 2007). Through the extracts from Beauty and the Beast and Brave, gender roles are easily constructed. Belle from Beauty and the Beast is a very stereotypical representation of how a ‘beautiful’ woman should be. To begin with, her name itself translates into ‘Beauty.’

The Little Mermaid which was produced in 1989, was the first Disney movie to challenge the traditional gender roles, for the fact that Ariel wanted to explore, and was more independent and assertive in her desires than the earlier princesses of the 1930’s and 50s films. Also the prince in The Little Mermaid went against traditional gender roles as well, simply because he was more affectionate and loving than his prince counterparts in other Disney films. “Both the male and female roles have changed over time, but overall the male characters evinced less change then the female characters and were more androgynous throughout.” (Descartes & England, pg.566). Disney movies have been for a long time a strong media target for children, and can serve as a way to address stereotypical gender roles (Leaper, 2000).

People of all ages throughout the years are very familiar with the concept of Disney movies. Some notable classics of Disney are “Beauty and the Beast” which was released in 1991 and “The Little Mermaid” which was released in 1989. Among the children, the Disney princesses left a good impression on them like Cinderella from “Cinderella”, Pocahontas from “Pocahontas”, and Mulan from “Mulan”. However, many believe that Disney movies serve as a good influence to young audiences but people should know that Disney also has its flaws. Disney have showed negative portrayals of Disney princesses in their films especially when it comes to their usual unattainable beauty ideal and portraying their princesses as inferior to men.

The characters in The Little Mermaid are stragetically designed in a way that conveniently adheres to stereotypical ideas of how males and females should behave, value, and appear according to their gender roles in a patriarchal society that demeans women. In order to do this, the main male characters, including King Triton and Prince Eric, must depict hypermasculinity to dramatically contrast from the creation of their fragile and inferior female counterparts. This is to also exhibit the men’s hypothetical ownership over these women, and using their displayed incompetence as justification of their assumed possession of Ariel. Ariel, the central female character, is depicted as beautiful, because she meets stereotypical standards of beauty

Before she is able to meet with the Matchmaker, she must dress up and apply makeup on herself to make herself look beautiful and strong-willed. Critic, Nandini Maity, states in her article, Damsels in Distress: A Textual Analysis of Gender roles in Disney Princess Films, that Disney uses the princesses or heroines in each princess movie to demonstrate how women should act, dignified and beautiful. By doing so, it portrays how Disney has a set purpose to make society understand that women should always act this way in society, that they should be helped out by men. While Mulan is being washed and dressed, the women helping her “sing to Mulan a song called Honour us all, a song that imposes the traditional roles onto Mulan. They say that women should have tiny waists, be calm, and obedient.

For instance, if you see past the catchy melody the song “Make a man out of you from Mulan” its is clearly a negative influence on young boys with lyrics like, “a girl worth fighting for/ she’ll marvel at my strength adore my battle scars/ I couldn’t care less what she cooks like /I all depends on what she cooks like”. The use of characters like who are essentially the embodiment of toxic masculinity like Gaston from The Beauty and the Beast. Despite it being clear to any adult watching the animated film that Gaston is supposed to be the villain and almost a satirical example of a masculinity, this can easily go over the head the young boys watching. Instead of seeing him as the villain young boys may see all the male villagers respect and admire his alfa male behavior while the Female villagers fawn over his physique.

Amanda Putnam’s essay, “Mean Ladies: Transgendered Villains in Disney Films”, is a compelling piece on gender portrayal and views in Disney films. Putnam opened the essay with a personal anecdote about her daughter. Her daughter wanted a Disney movie without a “mean lady”, as in most Disney films the villains are scary, evil women. The real life evidence strengthened her claim that children are noticing the characterization of female villains in Disney films. The antidote was brought fill circle when she referred back to her daughter in the final paragraphs of her essay.

Even though it is not diffucult to enumerate a few movies such as Avengers, X-men, Fantastic Four, and Guardians of Galaxy in which women are strong, males still outnumber them, the plot is not fully focused on females and they are treated more like supporting characters. Considering other movies from the last few years such as Non-Stop or The Wolf of Wall Street it is easy to spot that men and women are still often presented in a typical gender manner. Nevertheless, recently the representation of female characters has also been improving, women are gradually becoming more prominent in the movie industry. In Hollywood, there was a certain rise of casting women as the main characters who take matters into their own hands and are no longer waiting for men to save the day. By making female protagonists as strong and independent, the