Woman Stereotypes in Disney Movies

                                                                                Female Characters in Disney Movies

      Children are introduced to Disney movies at a very young age. Due to the fact that children often choose role models to look up, it is reasonable to assume that they often aspire to be just like their favorite Disney characters. Since the majority of young female characters within Disney movies portray stereotypical roles of women, this can have a negative impact on young girls who grow up watching Disney movies. Each of the Disney Princess movies except Mulan have a central Princess/Prince pairing. These Disney movies include: Aladdin, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Anastasia, and The Princess and the Frog. While Disney movies offer some positive elements, the danger of Disney's female characters are that they are over sexualized, gender stereotyped, racist, and they are repeatedly told that beauty equals goodness.

      Over sexualization is a big problem in Disney movies. For example, in the movie Aladdin, the women are overly sexualized.  They are all portrayed as beautiful, exotic, and sexual creatures. In the scene where Aladdin is trying to escape the royal guards after stealing a loaf of bread, he somehow ends up in a room full of half dressed women. It is immediately assumed that Aladdin has landed in a brothel. The women are dressed in figure accentuating clothing that reveals the middle part of their bodies. They do not flock to him because they can tell by his appearance that he does not have money to pay for their services. The negative portrayal of Arab women in the movie does not match up with the cultural reality. Agrabah is a Muslim city. In Islam women are supposed to be fully clothed to avoid sexual provocation. In addition, I have not seen a single Disney movie, where the female protagonist was not a complete sexual object. Looking at modern movies, Jasmine, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Belle and old movies, Snow White, Cinderella, and others. All of them feature extreme hourglass figures with large breasts and tiny waists. Even the animals are portrayed as sex objects, with their long eyelashes and flirtatious ways.

         In addition, gender is portrayed in stereotypical terms in Disney movies. In so many stories you have the beautiful maiden who is suffering. She must endure mistreatment, sometimes even cheat death, to be happy. However, usually the only way the princess is saved is by her prince. This could be interpreted as females being weak and unable to help themselves. This type of scenario is found in Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. But notice that these heroines are suffering due to another female. Cinderella suffers due to her wicked stepmother and two wicked step-sisters. Sleeping Beauty suffers due to an angered fairy, and Snow White suffers because of the wicked Queen. So females are portrayed as weak, cruel, and powerful. Usually the beautiful and kind female is weak, and the unattractive cruel female is powerful.

        Race is also a problem in Disney movies. In Princess and the Frog, Tiana is originally a maid that wouldn’t necessarily be different from Cinderella in which the white protagonist is basically a maid too. But of course an image of a black woman as a maid carries differences than a white woman doing the same job. Mama Oddie, a servant pleased to take care of the white family she worked for, was applied exclusively to black women. She is defined as a black woman by her big behind and big boobs. Depicting Cinderella as a maid it doesn’t play into stereotypes of white women; it’s just an individual portrayal. A black character cast as a maid to many people reproduces an image of black women that goes beyond the individual whether the creators intend to or not. Which bring images that associations to Mama Oddie and real oppression of African American women in a culture that sees them primarily as servants for more privileged groups. Also black woman wear a perm which shows that black woman's natural hair isn't beautiful. In addition, all the black womens  are described as people with big lips which is a racist stereotype.  These racist stereotypes may have negative outcomes on children. For example, a black children can be watching The Princess and the Frog ,and when they see how black woman are revealed they may feel bad or be  shocked of how they are portrayed. So parents should talk about these racist stereotypes to their children to know what they think about the racist portrayal of different people.

          Disney movies show how young girls must be beautiful to be good. For example, Anastasia is first shown as a beautiful young princess with long red hair and blue eyes. After her accident, Anastasia is depicted as a tomboyish beauty, redheaded, wide-eyed, slim and tall, but with baggy clothes that look like they belong to someone else. She is later asked to change her clothes into a pretty dress and let her hair down to look more like a princess. This teaches the little girls watching the movie that wearing comfortable clothes don’t necessarily bring out their beauty and curvaceous figures.

        Despite these serious problems, the portrayal of women as individuals in the Disney films can be positive too. Snow White in one of the earlier Disney films is portrayed as pure and loving. She takes on a mothering role and looks after the dwarfs. She also shows that she is brave to go off by herself into the woods. In The Little Mermaid, Ariel believes that her father is wrong in how he views humanity and wants to prove it by showing how strong she is and she sticks to her beliefs. The heroine in Beauty and the Beast, Belle, has a strong imagination and is smarter than anyone else in her village. Recently in the film Mulan, Mulan is brave, clever, and strong. She protects her father by going to war and then shows the other men in combat up by surpassing them mentally and physically. However when looking more closely into their actual role in the plot of the film, one realizes that every heroine’s main desire is a man. This gives a much weaker look on women. We can see that from early films, such as Snow White, to more recent films, such as Mulan, this image of women being dependent of men still remains.

          In conclusion, I am not against Disney movies. As a matter of fact, I have some favorites Disney movies: Cinderella, Snow White, and The Little Mermaid. I was also Cinderella one Halloween when I was little. I am only suggesting that America should teach children more than just the difference between right and wrong and the beauty of being who you are. When viewing these films, parents should address the stereotypes that exist in these stories. Kids can easily assume that these stereotypes are true or be confused by how people are portrayed. In addition, parents should also pay attention to the clear messages about body image, race, and gender roles that are portrayed in these movies. Children learn their behaviors and thoughts from what they see around them. Young girls look up to Disney princesses and see them as the perfect women. These movies are the highest selling and most popular among young girls and this is what they grow up striving to be. So parents should be paying very close attention to what their children are watching, regardless of what it is. I'm not saying kids shouldn't watch Disney movies, but parents should be able to talk to children about these things and also expose them to different cultures and stronger figures (especially women) to look up to.