Gender Stereotypes In Disney Films

I was reading an article about stereotypes and came upon some articles written by University of Miami students. These articles were so intriguing because they were based on characters found in Disney productions. These are movies that have been watched by billions of people all over the world and are specifically advertised towards the youth generations. It had been apparent to these students Disney struggled with moving forward with the times. For example continuing to portray women as the homemaker, and well as advertising negative racial stereotypes.

Dinsey as a company likes to portray “traditional family values” in their productions, asserting certain gender roles and ideas. For example they female characters are seen to be a princess, queen or homemaker, never really venturing out of that role, like in the Little Mermaid, and Cinderella. They also seem to be obedient to the overly masculine character, like in Beauty and the Beast and Hercules. In a lot of these movies the female is being handed off to their husband by their father, with a lack of a mother figure at all in some of the stories. This shows that

They attempted to do this with movies like Brave, where they princess, does not follow the “traditional role” of standing by a man, or conforming to the status of marriage. She chooses to be independent, self reliant, and does not focus on her body image. They also introduced a colored Princess, who lives in Louisiana, again a little less traditional from old Disney productions. A company like Disney can be so influential because they target younger children, who are more likely to be programmed to follow what values are being passed through these movies. This is why it is so important for companies like Disney to step away from their traditional values and stereotypes and move with the change that is going on in the