female gender stereotypes in disney films

[Ellsbells876]

As part of my A-level film studies project I am researching the impact that female gender stereotypes in Disney films has on people and their view of what physical attributes society accepts as 'beautiful'. I would be very interested and grateful to hear some thoughts on what you think is wrong with the representation of women in Disney films and also how you feel it impacts young children's perceptions of beauty. thank you.

My four year old boy loves Moana and now dresses up like Maui on occasion I thought Disney got that one right. I think it was a great film and had a decent female lead.

And I also know Pacific island people who loved that their culture was shown in a positive light.

The impact on Moana has been positive in our household.

The other positive Disney film and show is the lion king. Seeing it live shows a fantastic example especially of African dancing and singing. There was an interesting article on the impact of rafitki in I think the New York Times.

Now I watched frozen once with my boys and dislikes especially how thin waisted the female characters seemed to get so I didn’t encourage it.

I have heard good things about Brave.

I dislike the commercialisation as I think that breads entitlement and causes social issues.

Oh and as to the beauty thing they are guilty of the beauty is good stereotypes and with the commercialisation it means lots of fluffy princess dresses for sale etc and I hate the way gender stereotypes are being used in the trans movement.

I mean you hear of toddlers obsessed say with pink dresses and long hair and maybe Disney really Hamm up that kind of bullshit.

So in many ways Disney contributed to stereotypical views of girls and beauty.

See Cinderella and Beaty and the Beast.

I should clarify kids should be able to wear what they like but when it is used as some kind of evidence that by expressing themselves that they are somehow in the wrong body then that is strange and I think somehow getting more prevalent.

So I don’t think Disney helps matters when they are so stereotypical and Push endless merchandise.

I actually think that the positive role models - being courageous, good over powering evil, seeing the true heart blah blah fad outweighs the physical manifestation. Moana, Ana, Belle, Pocahontas, Brave, Rapunzel actually all fit this.

*far outweighs

Leave Disney alone. They just make movies, mostly out of already existing stories from Andersen, the brothers Grimm etc..
So what if Rapunzel or Cinderella are beautiful? Do you want to give them warts and a hunchback? How exactly do you think it would be helpful? All little girls want to be beautiful, it is deeply ingrained in the feminine nature and there's nothing wrong with that. Stop smearing shit onto Disney. They have plenty of movies with average looking females in them too.

There has been lots and lots of research on this. The one that stuck with me is the piece about face shape. Almost every female face is exactly or almost exactly the same shape. The male faces differ very much from each other.

Make of that what you will.

Yes I read that about the face shape as well.

There was a documentary available on YouTube about disney and the depiction of females and quite scary it was too. It probably exists on these threads, the link that is. I'm sorry but I can't seem to find it now. The title had micky mouse in it.

Howling with laughter in a disney female antagonist way at JoanLenin

Interesting topic - and as others have said, there will be lots of reading available for you on this one! As a personal rather than academic view, I avoided Disney films when my two were little (they are now 13 and 11, so this was a while ago) - partly because I felt the look: tiny waisted; long dress-ed; huge eyed; long-hair swishing stereotype was just so .... dull and played to the most boring of feminine stereotypes! But more because I felt the narratives spoke to a vision of femininity that was all about being beautiful and attracting a husband (not a key message for the 3-7 year old demographic imo). Dd still had Disney dress-up clothes and knew the stories - but we are a Studio Gibli family instead (if you don't already know them, Ponyo is a really interesting counterpart to Disney fairystories - it's a retelling of Little Mermaid, but oh so different in it's messages. And the 'little mermaid' is a child, rather than a woman, looking for family and friendship. And with a repressive father, rather than the sea witch character...

We've come back to Disney in recent years - in fact, we all watched the live action B&TB last weekend for the first time (& they were lectured on the fact that EW chose not to wear a waist-tightening corset for the part!), and Moana is a huge fav at the mo. Partly because I think they are old enough to both enjoy AND critique the look; and also because I think the Disney aesthetic and sensibility is so much better nowadays. Moana is a great case in point: smart, rebellious, resourceful - and not a sniff of love interest.