Based on the film and your own knowledge of Disney, answer one of the following questions:
- Do you think gender stereotyping in Disney is more pronounced in the depictions of male or female characters? Cite specific examples.
- Is racial/ethnic stereotyping in Disney more pronounced for any particular minority group(s)? Cite specific
examples.
- How have portrayals of gender and race in Disney films changed over time?
- How would you assess the overall effectiveness of this documentary? Were there any points that you found particularly strong or weak?
Do you think gender stereotyping in Disney is more pronounced in the depictions of male or female characters? Cite specific examples.
ReplyDeleteWhen looking at the gender stereotyping in Disney movies, it is apparent that female biases are more pronounced. The creating of the Disney princesses draws attention to the fact that females are more targeted than males. For example, in Pocahontas the original story is twisted in order to make her look like a desperate and helpless villager. In reality, Pocahontas was 12 years old and did not seek love or a relationship with John Smith. Other examples include Snow White being saved by the seven dwarves, Cinderella being rescued by a glass slipper and the Prince and Ariel being held at the mercy of Triton. Women appear to be the weak links in each story that need to be rescued by male characters. In the same sense, men are believed to be the strong ones who will come in to save the day. Saving the day and being a hero/heroine is not as gender-specific as Disney makes it seem.
Some other examples include:
- Cinderella: She was a maid- a primarily female job.
- Beauty & the Beast: Belle is abused; yet she sticks around.
By: Melissa Peale
Do you think gender stereotyping in Disney is more pronounced in the depictions of male or female characters? Cite specific examples.
ReplyDeleteI think that the gender stereotyping in Disney movies is pretty well balanced between depictions of male and female characters. While female depictions may be more upsetting since it involves sexualization of girls, it can be seen that the male characters are generally stereotyped in similar ways.
In Disney movies female characters are usually limited to princesses in need of rescuing whose main roles involve cooking, cleaning or taking care of something or someone. This can be seen in movies as early as Snow White, where she was rescued by Prince Charming and cared for the 7 Dwarfs, and many subsequent Disney princess films including Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Even the more progressive films such as Mulan still keep a strong sense of these stereotypes as Mulan is still seen caring for her family and the men she fights with and at the end of the movie returns home to be with the soldier who falls in love with her.
Male characters also have limited, stereotypical roles in Disney movies. The men are usually kings, princes, soldiers, or protectors of some kind. Prince Charming, Prince Eric, Aladdin, King Triton, and the Beast all show men as powerful rulers with wealth and high class status. Rarely are the male characters seen in professions such as teachers or the ones taking care of the home. There is also an emphasis on male characters being extremely strong and tough, as represented both in their physical attributes but also in the violence seen in Disney movies. Gaston for example was the epitome of physical strength that he used as a way to gain attention and devotion from both males and females. All the male characters are usually put to the test and must fight some evil creature or being in order to save their princesses, reinforcing the stereotype that boys must always be tought and ready to fight to get their way.
Although the general consensus is that female characters are stereotyped in Disney movies to be beautiful, kind, sweet, and docile, the male characters are also stereotyped to be powerful, strong, tough, and ready to fight. These stereotypes resonant with the young children who watch them because not only are the repeated in all Disney movies, but in the majority of children films in general. It is hard to say whether Disney started the trend that now all other movies rely on or if they were just following suit to what society is already teaching children.
(Khyre Dean)
ReplyDeleteHow have portrayals of gender and race in Disney films changed over time?
The documentary did a good job of pointing out gender and racial stereotypes and ideas about them that permeate through the characteristics of certain Disney characters. For example, the crows in Dumbo that speak with a stereotypical southern dialect that is often associated with uneducated blacks or slaves.Other examples used in the film are Latino characters being portrayed as dogs, the representation of ancient Chinese culture as oppressive, and the voluptuous, hours glass body shape that appears on many of Disney's female characters.
These characters reinforce stereotypical ideals concerning race and gender. In an unmediated setting in which children aren't exposed to a voice of reason that gives the opportunity to form a realistic perspective of the world, these ideals can become adopted by viewers of Disney films.
Despite these flaws, I feel that Disney has made a progressive step towards washing away, or at least bandaging, the sins of their past. As times change, and our society has become less dominated by white males, Disney has reflected these cultural changes in their films. In Mulan, the main character is a Asian woman who stands up for herself and is a warrior, a sharp contrast to the traditional damsel in distress Disney princesses of old.
In newer movies, Disney has relied less on stereotypes and has moved to portraying minorities groups as normal people, rather than an exaggerated caricature of a minorities culture. Examples of these types of progressive films are the Princess and the Frog, in which the Princess is a black female who is not deviant and is not portrayed as uneducated, Up, which tells the story of a young Latino boy who makes unlikely friends in unlikely places, and Lilo and Stitch, which is a story from the perspective of a Hawaiian American girl.
These movies do not play to stereotypes, but celebrate the unique aspects of each character's culture and world view.
How have portrayals of gender and race in Disney films changed over time? Disney has always gone with the times. The more blatant examples of racism are usually seen in older Disney films, like the crows in Dumbo or the black centaur in Fantasia or the "Sambo-like" character in Song of the South. At the time of the release of these films, such portrayals of minorities in mainstream media widely practiced and accepted. Disney has always strived to be "family friendly," so as what is acceptable has changed over time, so has the type of racism we see in the films. Certainly today, and racism or negative gender portrayals are much more subtle, and most likely unconscious. Disney is well aware of its own past, and tries to be very careful in how it approaches minority and female characters. For example, when Disney was creating the Princess and the Frog, their first film with a black princess, they were very careful to try and not be offensive or degrading in any of their depictions. The went so far as to change the name from "The Frog Princess" to "The Princess and the Frog," because it was thought that the first title made Tiana seem like a lesser princess, a frog princess. However, despite Disney's many steps to avoid racism, The Princess and the Frog has still come under a lot of criticism. Critics ask why the one Disney black princess had to spend the majority of the movie as a frog, whereas the other Disney princess were always beautiful throughout the film. There is some argument that movies, with their need for simple support characters and condensed story lines cannot, as a medium, support of fully equal and un-sterotyped portrayal of everyone in the film. Disney is certainly not alone, even in animation, in having racism or sexism seep into their movies. (Like Chris Rock pointed out in his Oscar speech, "I love animation because in the world of animation, you can be anything you wanna be. If you’re a fat woman, you can play a skinny princess. If you’re a short, wimpy guy, you can play a tall gladiator. If you’re a white man, you can play an Arabian prince. And if you’re a black man, you can play a donkey or a zebra.") The whole film industry is part of the problem. But over time, things have gotten relatively better, and hopefully will continue to improve.
ReplyDeleteMarisa Seitz
Throughout Disney’s history, female depictions have always been the most stereotyped. In almost all of the Disney films, women are portrayed as housekeepers, sex symbols, weak to a man’s love, or pushovers. Even when women are the main lead in a movie, they still fall under these stereotypes and never end up being able to accomplish anything without a man’s help. In the earliest Disney princess movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Snow White cleans the dwarves’ house in order to make them like her, portraying the stereotype that women should clean up after men to gain their approval. In The Little Mermaid, Ariel lets Ursula take her voice so that she can gain legs and fall in love with the prince, therefore having to use her body to capture his affection.
ReplyDeleteIn Tangled, Rapunzel is not able to escape on her own and is only saved when Finn rescues her (she also wields a frying pan when she tries to fight him off at first, signifying the ‘homemaker’ stereotype). Finally, in Princess and the Frog, Tiana is a hardworking waitress who dreams of owning her own restaurant. In the end, she is able to open her own restaurant…with her husband’s help. This furthers the female stereotype that females cannot be successful or fulfill their dreams without a man’s help. While male characters change roles throughout different Disney movies, it seems as though female roles, even those trying to represent a new type of female character, always ends up with the common female stereotype in the end.
How would you assess the overall effectiveness of this documentary? Were there any points that you found particularly strong or weak?
ReplyDeleteI thought the "Mickey Mouse Monopoly" documentary was extremely interesting. When we first started discussing this idea of deconstructing Disney movies and looking at the sexism and racism and all the other -isms that were embedded in the texts, I really wasn't on board with some of the claims made about the films. However, I also hadn't seen some of the films we were discussing in 5-10 years, and am not as familiar with some of the Disney Princess films which seem to be the most problematic from a feminist standpoint. After watching this documentary, I can definitely understand the argument being made about what kids are absorbing subconsciously from watching these films.
All of the examples they showed in the documentary provide very strong support for the argument that Disney films reinforce trite and unfair stereotypes upon some of the characters with anti-feminist or racist sentiment. Some of the strongest examples I can think of were the Chihuahua named Tito from "Oliver & Company" and Belle from "Beauty and the Beast". Granted that I've never "Oliver & Company" except for the clips in the documentary, I still found the character of Tito to be over the top with the accent and on top of that his behavior in the film was displayed as extremely distasteful, reinforcing a notion that people with a Latino accent behave like Tito. Also, with Belle in "Beauty and the Beast", another film I haven't seen in years, her character appeared to tolerate the Beasts outbursts to a fault. While the theme of "not judging a book it's cover" is present in the film, there is also an underlying message to girls that you should tolerate that behavior because deep down the beast is a good guy, which in real life is certainly not the case in most examples. I also thought the "Jungle Book" scene with the apes was pretty shocking, I totally forgot about that scene and never thought about it in the context presented in the documentary.
For me, this documentary was very effective because I hadn't seen any of the Disney films through the lenses we had talked about in class. It helped me realize some of the underlying messages in the film and even though I don't think the films effected me very much growing up, I also didn't watch a whole lot of TV as a kid either and I never watched many of these films to the extent that some children do. I can definitely see the argument being made about the Disney films and I agree that the subtle messages these films put off could be problematic for children with impressionable imaginations who are learning how to process their world.
Mason Alls
How have portrayals of gender and race in Disney films changed over time?
ReplyDeletePortrayals of gender and race have definitely positively changed since the movies analyzed in the documentary. Modern Disney films are more inclusive, sensitive, and politically correct. However I think they still have a long way to go. People say that "The Princess and the Frog" was a turning point because it featured an African American princess. However, the fact that they were promoting this new princess was such a huge deal in the media and society in general. If it was truly progressive, the fact that Disney was coming out with an African American princess wouldn't be so out of the ordinary. Disney also has not sustained this practice of American minorities featured in starring roles in their films. However, I think that Disney has made progress in terms of female representation. A positive aspect of "The Princess and the Frog" was that Tiana was a very strong character who actually saved the prince and followed her dream of opening her own restaurant. In another fairly recent film, "Tangled," Rapunzel is a strong character who is frequently coming to the aid of her male companion, Flynn Rider. It becomes a joke throughout the film that Flynn must be saved by Rapunzel.
One area of Disney that I definitely think needs more attention are the programs featured on the Disney Channel and how those are affecting children. I have a niece and nephew who are always watching the Disney Channel and I've noticed a lot of themes in the shows that the kids really pick up on. In terms of girls and body image, I've noticed that in several Disney Channel shows, there are girls of all shapes and sizes, which is a positive feature; however, the main character is always thin and pretty while the "sidekick" is larger and portrayed as more goofy. The Disney Channel also portrays a ton of racial and cultural stereotypes. One show called "The Suite Life on Deck" features a cruise ship that stops in various locations around the world. At first glance you might think that the show is promoting diversity. However, every culture featured on the show is featured in the most stereotypical, backwards fashion. An heiress goes to visit her grandmother in Thailand and finds her living on a rice farm with an elephant as a shower. When the ship visits Morocco, the kids encounter a magic lamp with a genie inside. I can list a countless number of other such instances on other programs that promote other cultures as foreign and strange. In these cases, Disney is promoting less tolerance for other cultures instead of inclusivity. While this is slight progress compared to the examples from the documentary, there is still much work to be done.
I am not sure that I can definitively say that racial stereotypes are more pronounced for a specific ethnicity, because I have not seen enough Disney movies recently to know. However, I think there are definitely racial stereotypes for just about every ethnicity besides white people. The documentary only shows a few examples of stereotyping Asian people, one being the Chinese people in Mulan and the other being the siamese cats in Lady and the Tramp. I think the differences between these two stereotypes helped explain the third question, how has the generalization and stereotyping changed over the years. The siamese cats, which I had not seen since I was about five years old, really struck me as offensive because of their buck-teeth and ridiculously slanted eyes. This reminded me of Asian propaganda in the US around World War 2. In Mulan, the people look significantly less ugly and stylized, but there are still some stereotypes being used. Mulan is a good example of how Disney's stereotyping has become more subtle, but I think it has a similar effect on viewers. Chinese culture is painted as very male-dominant and "traditional," showing a little boy beating a girl for fun at one point. When I saw Mulan the first time, I was aware of what racism and stereotyping was, but I do not think I ever identified this as racism because it was subtle enough for me not to realize it. This is what is troubling to me, because the same themes are being conveyed that Asia and Asian people are inferior and archaic in their traditions, but it is harder for someone to notice. I do not exactly know why Disney would want to teach racism to kids or if it is simply a byproduct of subconsciously-racist writers and cartoonists at Disney, but I see why a change in racism would be more effective now. Years ago, the siamese cats were probably not seen by many as racist, since racism was much more commonplace in society than it is today. Today, racism is declining, and racist people tend to conceal their feeling much more since it is not politically correct. So, the siamese cats in a movie today would certianly raise eyebrows, but the culture in Mulan can probably pass as simply part of the story.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of racism and its change over time is with black people. Probably the most famous in this category are the crows in Dumbo, who talk like uneducated, stereotypical black people of the time. Now, the remake of Tarzan completely removed the black people from its notoriously racist original version and replaced them with gorillas.
My favorite part of the documentary was the segment on Native Americans. The stereotypes of Native Americans in multiple movies were obvious and offensive, and I think that Disney has played a large part in Americans' perceptions of Native Americans. I remember first learning about the Native Americans in history class and being dumbfounded, along with the rest of the class, that Pocahontas did not marry John Smith and single-handedly establish peace between the two groups. I also was interested in this portion of the documentary because I recently came across an article on the Native Americans that completely threw out what I thought I knew about them. They had trade routes as big as the Silk Road when we were using it, and they had fought off invasions from the Vikings multiple times. The Vikings who were allegedly the biggest badasses in Europe. So, they had to have been at least a bit more organized than people tend to think today. Also, about ninety percent of their population died just before the Europeans colonized them, so we were essentially fighting them after an apocalypse. Just a few fun facts on the Native Americans, to contrast Disney's depiction of them.
Braden Tanner
How would you assess the overall effectiveness of this documentary? Were there any points that you found particularly strong or weak?
ReplyDeleteMickey mouse monopoly was overall extremely effective. The documentary featured individuals that were specialized in the subject matter at hand, and they had multiple sources from which to draw their conclusions. Further, the people they used to support the thesis of the documentary, were mostly well-respected scholars with published work dealing with related issues. If we do not look at society with a critical lens, we are melting into a pot of control, but we’re comfortable with it from day to day so we never raise questions about it.
There were several points I found to be particularly strong in this documentary in addition to the ones just mentioned. The producers of this film interviewed kids that were currently immersed in the Disney phenomenon, and they did it in a way that didn’t seem inappropriate. The kids were describing the story, the theme and the messages they were taking from the movies. I think it was important that they had kids on there to show that part of the reason this discussion is so important is because it directly affects children. Another strong point in the documentary is the sheer video-graphic evidence that makes a viewer SERIOUSLY think twice about the movies they watched as children, and if they will show those same movies to the children. While I don’t think its directly harmful to watch Disney movies, I do think its crucial that for children, their parents need to have a conversation about certain things. For example, after watching Pocahontas, my dad explained to me that it wasn’t really our country’s history but he did this in a way that was palatable for a seven year old. These conversations are important to have if you are going to expose children to movies that have stereotyped racist, sexist and oppressive undertones.
-Maddie Wigle
I think the depiction of gender and race has improved slightly. The male is no longer the invincible hero. In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast could not be saved without Bell. Aladin could not win without Jasmine. Even in the newer movies such as Wreck it Ralph, Ralph could not have saved the day without Veneloppe. Arguably the I think the damsel in distress is pretty much dead. I think in new Disney movies, especially Tangled and Wreck it Ralph, the female protagonist is much more impulsive and free spirited. The female protagonist takes the lead and forces everyone to act. The male protagonist is now someone who makes a lot of mistakes. He can act out of misplaced goals or simply plain manipulation, or being at the wrong place at the wrong time, but the standard Disney classic happily ever after ending still exists, but now with room for sequels.
ReplyDelete__Ethan Hughes
How would you assess the overall effectiveness of this documentary? Were there any points that you found particularly strong or weak?
ReplyDeleteI was very intrigued by this documentary and feel that it certainly brought up some very good points regarding race and gender perceptions related to Disney films. Because I had already learned about much of the sexism in Disney films, the distorted depictions of race surprised me much more.
On of the strongest points of the documentary for me were the scenes showing Aladin and how movie paints a very violent and untruthful illustration of Middle Eastern culture. Aladin was one of my favorite Disney movies (because Genie is so funny). I had never thought about the fact that it portrays a certain race of people in such a negative and exaggerated way. I began thinking back to my elementary and middle school thoughts, before taking more in-depth history and social studies classes, and I remember seriously thinking that people who lived in Saudi Arabia were mean and horrible people. This directly links to the Aladin movie!!! This REALLY bothers me because my sons have seen it and I'm anxious to hear their thoughts on the cultures portrayed in that film. I may have them watch it again and stop it at various places in order to "correct" any distorted ideas that they may have.
One of the weaknesses in the documentary, I feel was when it talked about children getting Disney character toys and only acting out the films, and therefore, Disney toys squelch imagination. This was not backed up with hard evidence and after hearing what others in the class said, as well as thinking about how I played and how my sons now play, I don't find this "fact" that they presented as believable. I don't feel that Disney toys hinder imaginative play in the children. Though I'm sure many do use toys to re-enact the films, it seems more likely that they use the toys for other types of imaginative play, as several people in the class pointed out and I have also observed the same with my sons. I feel that if a child had nothing but Disney toys, that could pose a big problem, but a majority of kids have many types of toys.
I am personally a reluctant buyer of Disney merchandise because 1) It's licensed so it cost more than the exact same thing without a character.
2)They aren't as long lasting--my son has "outgrown" all the Cars movie stuff and if his backpack just had an airplane or no pictures on it, then he would still use it. But because it had Lightening McQueen on it we had to buy a new one this year. However, both of these things can be said about ALL licensed merchandise including Thomas the Train, Dora, etc...But I do feel characters in general spur more impulse buys as opposed to plain or non-licensed items.
Wendy Knight-Nutty
Is racial/ethnic stereotyping in Disney more pronounced for any particular minority group(s)? Cite specific examples.
ReplyDeleteYes. Disney is known for maligning minority groups in their films, but none so much as the Arab people portrayed in Aladdin. The movie is a blatant and offensive disregard for Arabs, like in the opening song to Aladdin: Arabian Nights:
"Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where it's flat and immense
And the heat is intense
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home"
Beyond the offensive lyrics, the song is also sung by a small man with a turban, a large nose, and a few gold teeth. All of the Arabs in Aladdin are shown in the same light; a bunch of smelly, dirty ruffians. They are portrayed as deceitful, villainous and greedy
Beyond that, Jasmine and Aladdin, the two protagonists, are portrayed with Americanized characteristics. Aladdin and Jasmine both have paler skin, American accents and facial features. The citizens of Agrabah, however, all have big noses and darker skin than the lead characters and speak with thick accents.
Disney claims to create a universal message of magic and utopia, and yet their films include messages, intentional or not, of exclusivity. This is especially obvious in Aladdin
Daniel Benn
Surprisingly, I did my research paper on how Disney has changed the portrayals of the princesses over the years. The princesses are picking up masculine traits and the princes are picking up feminine traits. Disney has made a big leap from Cinderella to Tiana in Princess and the Frog.
ReplyDeleteCinderella is a maid to her two stepsisters and evil stepmother whereas Tiana is a waitress in a restaurant. Cinderella keeps wishing on a star for a prince to take her away from her current situation. However, Tiana doesn’t wish for a guy but instead wishes to own her own restaurant.
Even the princes have changed from Prince Charming to Prince Naveen. Prince Charming is one two Disney princes who don’t even have names. Prince Charming also has a title and keeps his title and money. According to Disney Prince Charming embodies all that a prince should be. When comparing Prince Charming to Prince Naveen they are total opposites. Throughout most of the movie he is only known as Naveen and not Prince Naveen. He has the title of prince; however, he has no money because he parents exiled him. By the end of the movie he doesn’t even have a title anymore because him and Tiana open a restaurant. They are also different because Prince Charming only sings one song in the movie unlike Naveen who sings all the songs and plays the ukulele.
~ Jocelyn Allen
List specific examples in the video that address the issue of Control, inclusion and roles.
ReplyDelete