As you read, reflect upon the way fairy tales made you feel and act as a child. Fairy tales, in reality, implant unrealistic expectations and stereotypes into children’s minds. Let’s first take a look at the general Disney fairy tale movie storyline. In almost every movie, the men have full control over the women’s lives, resulting in the objectification of female characters. For example, Prince Charming is the one to “help” Cinderella get everything she ever wanted.
While many think Cinderella it is thought of a poor girl that had a good life with her parents. Cinderella had a mother and a Father at the beginning of all three versions of Cinderella. The Father figure and Cinderella had a terrible woman live with them because The Father thought that Cinderella would need a Mother figure since her biological mother had passed away, right? Well, many people think that but what if the ways the interpretation of Cinderella is about to change. The three tales of Cinderella analyzed have very similar structure and substance, themes, archetypes like the circle and of course the Godmother character deviates significantly from each other.
Although she wasn’t allowed to go with her sisters, she accepted help from her Fairy Godmother to prepare to make her way there. With her beautiful dress, she received “a pair of glass slippers, the prettiest in the whole world.” At the ball, no one is aware of Cinderella’s true identity. Despite that, the King’s son falls in love with her and she gets a happily-ever-after.
A Comparison between Traditional and Modern Day Versions of Cinderella Cinderella is perhaps one of the most famous childhood fairy tale stories of all time. Over the years, numerous versions of the story have been recreated and have been told to children all over the world. The original story of Cinderella follows the life of a young girl who is mistreated by her step mother and stepsisters. Cinderella is magically converted into a gorgeous princess with the assistance of her fairy godmother. She then goes to the ball to meet the prince.
In the early 20th century American style, the princess was shown through a traditional fairy tale and they needs rescuing by the nearby prince. For instance, Cinderella portrayed as a slave at the same time enforced enslavement for the rest of her life. However, her destiny was changed when she married with the prince. Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty were tales that drew on traditional legends, powerless of helping themselves and getting out of their own troubles. Thus, according to Michael，the gender perpectives and favouritism can influence particular film’s image and the way to emphasize the impact of each gender of characters in movies.
As society has changed in the seventy-three years Disney has been making movies, so have the animated films themselves. 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.
Cinderella is a 1950 animated fairy tale about Cinderella, a pretty young woman who is treated as a maid by her vicious stepmother and stepsisters in her late father 's estate. She defies her stepmother and through the help of her fairy godmother attends the Grand Ball, where the Prince falls in love with her. In her haste to return home before nightfall, she leaves her glass shoe behind, which subsequently becomes the tool with which the Duke searches the entire kingdom for her. Cinderella later marries the prince and they live happily ever after. Contrary to the popular notion that Cinderella is a model of hope for young girls, I believe Cinderella rather establishes and promotes the ideologies of inferiority of women.
From its onset with its first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Disney has grown to become a worldwide phenomenon today. But over the years, various parent groups, scholars and film critics have accused Disney for creating shallow, stereotypical princesses whose ultimate aim was to find her 'prince charming ' and live happily ever after. In her article, “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” in the New York Times, Peggy Orenstein expresses her concern over the effect of princess figures like Cinderella on young girls ' perceptions of themselves and how they should behave (“What’s Wrong With Cinderella?”). 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.
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. There are also negative life lessons found in Disney films. Some examples are on how it’s a must for each girl to become like a princess; ugly people are evil and immoral and that
Disney has taken the well-intended morals out of tales with substance. In return Disney has offered relentless backlash towards the female race, making young girls everywhere self-conscious about what true beauty is. The youth are beginning to question the notion of beauty because they do not fit the stereotype of what they feel Disney is saying a princess is supposed to be. Looking at these tales as a standard of what love is supposed to be and what love should be is taking tolls on relationships. Marriages are failing and Disney is a prime suspect as to why.