Frog Princes and Princesses
In many fairy tales, the beauty of the heroine is always emphasized. Not only for the heroine, but the hero is always a handsome prince. The heroine is also portrayed as young and weak, and the hero is handsome, rich, and brave. But does this impact the way men and women are viewed in society in a good or bad way? Fairy tales can important values and morals, and no matter how the women are portrayed in these tales, they should never be underestimated. Therefore it is important to keep gender stereotypes in these stories. The gender roles portrayed in “The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich” by the Grimm brothers, “The Frog Princess” by Alexander Afanasev, and the Disney version “The Princess and the Frog”, define the men
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In “The Frog King” you have your typical beautiful, naïve, young, spoiled princess whose father is a king, and gets her happy ending by coming across a frog who turns into a handsome prince after being aggressively tossed against a wall. In “The Frog Princess,” the heroine does not play the typical, helpless, submissive character in the story. She’s the bride of a prince who does not love her and does something about her situation that teaches the prince a lesson. In “The Princess and the Frog,” we also see a young woman who practically fends for herself; Prince Naveen learns from her along the way, she humbles him down and helps him mature, and accomplishes her own happy ending. “Gender stereotypes deprive children of the freedom to express themselves and force them to behave in ways that are gender appropriate rather than ways that best suit their personalities” (Louie 75). Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” does an excellent job portraying different gender roles to children that you don’t see in a typical princess story. Just because you are a man does not mean you cannot be in the kitchen cooking, or be rescued by a woman. Just because you are a woman does not mean that you need to rely on a man to accomplish your
He states that rather than believing they must solely prove their independence girls recognize that they can “have the girly dream of glass slippers and true love, these films say, as well as the womanly ideal of self-determination and independence” (Poniewozik 324). Poniewozik explains how a previous generation of women simply aspired to have the ability to do anything a man could. In this new generation, however, he states that choosing the fairytale ending does not debase a woman (Poniewozik 324). A quote from Marlo Thomas, a feminist author, included in the article says, “What women have tried to achieve for other women is choice in every step of their lives” (Poniewozik 324) Through including specific movies, such as Ella Enchanted and The Prince & Me, in which princesshood and feminism blend together to form empowered women who choose to be princesses, the author of this article begins gathering his support for the claim that girls have been affected by this recent transformation in the movie-making
In recent years, there has been a movement for Disney animations to reach out to previously underrepresented audiences (e.g. Moana, Pocahontas). However, the films were not always received how the producers had originally intended. The Princess and the Frog was a Disney princess animation released in 2009, based off The Frog Princess. The story is a young African American waitress living with meager funds, working towards her dreams of opening a restaurant. When Prince Naveen who has been turned into a frog kisses her, thinking her a princess, turns her also into a frog.
The movie “The Princess and the Frog” is not your typical “boy saves girl” movie. Instead, this Disney movie presents us with a strong female lead who doesn’t need a man to achieve her goals. In many previous Disney movies, it is demonstrated that a girl needs a man in order to get her happily ever after. Without a prince, she is nothing. In “The Princess and the Frog” the gender roles are presented to us as equal, even reverse at times.
In the short essay, “The Princess Paradox,” James Poniewozik, whos is the chief TV critic for The New York Times, introduces the idea that parents have recently tried to stay away from giving their daughters princess related toys and clothes, contrasting a girly stereotype, and instead, give them a more wide variety of toys, including the ones associated with boy’s stereotypes such as legos, from which she can choose from and determine her own interests. Additionally, Poniewozik states that parents get frustrated when their “empowered, self-confident budding Marie Curie tells you [the parent] she wants to be… a princess [for halloween]” (Poniewozik). According to Poniewozik, past princess culture implies that being both a princess and self-determined
Rhetorical Analysis Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and many other Disney movies all have one thing in common, they feature a female lead who need a male figure to save them. However, things started to change after the release of Mulan 1988. It changed from only having those female leads who always needed to rely on someone, to females who were able to show off their more masculine side. In the article “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Pixar/Disney,” Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden explored the idea that Pixar movies were starting to show male characters who weren 't afraid to show their emotions and feminine attributes, to promote the “New Man” model.
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
Walt Disney has been making girls think that in order to be beautiful you have to be the perfect shape and size. (Shortridge). Some people believe that the Disney Princesses are great role models for children because Mulan teaches us to never give up on the strengths we have just because we are girls, Belle teaches us to never judge a book by its cover, and Pocahontas shows us real princesses are strong leaders. On the other hand, some individuals feel that Disney Princesses are bad role models because of their unrealistic body appearance, telling girls every marriage ends with a happily ever after when you get married at a young age, and saying every girl needs a man in order to be happy. Both sides have valid points but in reality everyone
These stereotypes have always existed but have been passed down to us, precisely, by these stories. They target the most impressionable part of society, children. The purpose of these tales is to teach children how to behave and in which social norms they must fit into. “Fairy tales are a child's world of imagination and pleasure, but
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.
Numerous schools of criticisms have attempted to find the meaning behind most of our favorite childhood stories. From Marxist who pursue the idea of social classes portrayed in literary works, to Psychoanalysts who depict the sexual tensions and desires that are subconsciously embedded behind characters’ motives and actions, to Historicists who try to show the preservation of tradition in stories, many different concepts exist for each fairy tale. The Feminist school of criticism greatly focuses on unveiling the patriarchal system and sexist roles that are displayed in stories, and more specifically, fairytales. Four versions of the well-known fairytale of The Little Mermaid will be compared and discussed while focusing on many distinctive
The Disney princess movies had a great deal of influence on many young girls watching princesses represent what royalty looked like. The princesses are always beautiful, polite and seeking the love of their Prince Charming. This plays a strong role in perpetuating the idea that being a princess means seeking only love from a man, and a man who contains all the stereotypical masculine qualities; handsome, powerful and rich. For example, in The Little Mermaid, Ariel had to give up who she was in order to win over the affection of her prince charming. She traded in her voice in order to have real legs and near Prince Eric.
The female character of Disney stories in these eras manifest more braveness, leadership, and independence which represents the concept of feminism. For example, Belle from Beauty and the Beast changes the Beast into a charming prince by a miracle of her true love. Mulan disguises herself as a man to go to war instead of her elderly father and proves herself that she is as brave as a man. Pocahontas protects her tribe from invaders along with protecting her beloved who is stigmatized as one of the invaders by using the compromising tactic. Queen Elza governs her kingdom impartially.
“Beauty and the Beast” is an original fairy tale and over time have incorporated social, religious and cultural themes. An analysis of the Disney version of “Beauty and the Beast” exemplifies the stereotypes of the more subtle forms of social manipulation that fairytales undergo to employ. The question of whether these stories are made for entertainment or send a much larger picture, depicting to children their gender roles within a society. In this paper gender roles will be represented showing the typical female and male character within a society. Historian Sylvia D. Hoffert defines a gender ideal as “the cluster of characteristics, behavior patterns, and values that members of a group think a man or a woman should have, a set of cultural expectations.”
In other words, females are expected to mannered, weak, and homemakers such as a Disney princess, at the same time the typical men are figured to be powerful, rude, governing and willing to rescue the princess in need anytime. What is more, these are not the only stereotypes which has been embedded into the young generation. Disney holding on a stable "women banking on men to achieve happy ending" theme. When we have a closer look at Disney movies such as "Cinderella", "Snow White" and "Aladdin", Disney 's princess portray is feeble and desperately in need of intelligent, strong savior. When young girls watch these movies, they are modelling Disney princesses on their