Gender Stereotypes In Disney Films

Snow White and Cinderella reinforce the idea that women should cook, clean and become a domestic servant for the man they love. When women who are looking for a distraction view this film, it is subtly showing them that in order to live their perfect, happy life they must work for it. That they are only worthy of love once they have served their “prince charming”, as that is what their fantasy is showing them. This representation is extremely harmful to women. They may view these movies and see that they are not these things, that they do not currently cook and clean for their lovers and they may wish to maintain a full time job instead.

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.

Yet, Orenstein claims that they have focused largely on the princess culture and also that these princesses have advanced from being simple storybook characters to now representing a negative influence on a female’s expectations in life. She suggests this idea in her article with the notion that other women, especially mothers, would agree with her opinion. Although, what she fails to acknowledge is that Disney isn't trying to sell messages of the “nice and pretty” girl or the perpetual “happily ever after” ending to young children. Instead, they are only marketing their products to a specific, easily influenced audience. Orenstein places blame on Disney, shaming them for taking advantage of the pre-existing princesses for their own profit.

Reading books shouldn’t describe anything about a gender, males and females should be equally allowed to read without faulty representations of gender. In addition, Belles favorite chapter in the book is her ability to strive to find her prince charming which also presents females as only living to find their price charming, which is a faulty gender perception in the town or in the film. Disney portrays Belle as being like all other Disney princesses on the basis that she is looking for her prince charming which she will eventually get married to and become a happy housewife. All Disney princesses are presented as being incomplete without their prince charming, which portrays females as being dependant on their husbands and independent on their own. In addition, in the film “Beauty and the Beast” there are some racial stereotypes which include skin color and nationality.

“Doing gender is unavoidable. Doing gender means creating differences between girls and boys and women and men, differences that are not natural, essential, or biological. Once the differences have been constructed, they are used to reinforce the “essentialness” of gender (West, 56).” Gender roles are represented within movies such as Mulan, Pocahontas, Snow White, and the Lion King. In these movies you can observe the gender roles within the family dynamic. None of these movies have a nuclear family, however, the observation of gender roles is still apparent.

I Love Lucy Too In the classic show “I Love Lucy”, Lucy Ricardo was the title character that everyone adored. While she was a housewife and later, a mother, Lucy was also a humorous character that naively believed she would be in show business and become a star. This plot device was used to show women, in a comical way, that they should stop having ambitions and remain at home. Lucy is always getting into shenanigans, dragging her friends and husband into the mess as well, and the message the show sent was to avoid being like her. Though the show is well-loved and surprisingly modern for the time it aired, Lucy Ricardo is still seen as someone an everyday 1950’s housewife should not aspire to be.

Batista and Egeus both have a hand in the marriages of their daughters, but vary on the decision of whom should marry their daughters specifically. Both Batista and Egeus ignore their daughters when their daughters want to have a voice in who they marry. Unlike Egeus’s lack of involvement throughout the play, Batista is quite presence in his play and has a hand in the marriages of his daughters. At the end of the play, Batista accepts his daughters’ marriages, whereas, Egeus needs more persuasion by Theseus to accept the marriage of Hermia. The parallels between both Batista and Egeus show the similarities of the two fathers over their concern for their daughters’ futures.

The story of prince charming saving his damsel in distress is always the basis of every fairy tale, but one cannot forget about the evil stepmother and the damsel’s angelic fairy godmother. All of these characters represent the generic fairy tale that everyone knows and loves. The damsel and the prince long to be together, but the evil stepmother does not allow them to do so. In response to this, the fairy godmother helps the damsel escape her stepmother, and once she does, the prince and the damsel live happily ever after. But, In Henry James’s novel Washington Square, this is not the case.

This issue wasn 't just prevalent in the olden times as we still witness the belief that in order to be accepted one must be thin and beautiful. But, the important and underlying fact is that NO, you don 't need to be. All that matters are your virtues and graces. It is much more important to be kind hearted than the prettiest woman alive who is arrogant and selfish. Though this is highlighted in the story with some instances of Cinderella forgiving her sisters and always been kind to them in spite of their torture, this is suppressed by bringing out the importance of beauty by transforming Cinderella into a beautiful girl to attend the ball and the Prince falling in love with her at the first glance.

Also, we had demonstrate that Disney’s Movie “The Humpback of Notre Dame” does not portrayed the relevant ideas exposed by Victor Hugo’s book. Even more, the movie introduce certain subliminal messages to the young audience. Books are better than movies because the education does not depend on a graphic resource. Most of the times movies or other graphic presentation violate the main concepts an author want to express with his book and they introduce new ideas that would change the interpretation of the book for many