From every Disney Movie, it is easy to pull out the gender stereotypes. In most Disney films, their is the heroic male that saves the female and wins her over. Which i think sends a message to young girls that they need a man in their life just to survive. The female characters never show the women being intelligente,successful or smart. Most of the Disney princesses are either working or cleaning. The Disney princesses are portrayed as weak and powerless, they can not stand up for themselves and need the help of a man. They portray powerful women as evil. The men are portrayed as brave and strong. Young girls/boys look at these movies and think hey i want to look just lik him or her and i think that is why most kids minds are corrupted with alot of nonsence. I think children need to learn that being poor does not necessarily mean you have to be helpless and unhappy & being a powerful woman does not mean you have to be evil.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWMCt35oFY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWMCt35oFY
4 comments:
Exactly! Disney has a great platform to make some real change in how masculinity is defined, but instead inadvertently focus on how establishing dominance, being buff, and being violent is how you become a hero. I don't think Beauty and the Beast is a great example of this though because the steroid crazed Gaston is the bad guy. Belle is turned off by him specifically because he is overbearing and objectifies women. The beast, on the other hand, turns out to be more caring and sensitive and therefore wins her love.
Though these movies do illustrate the concepts Ashley Is talking about, I don’t believe that children are taking them to heart. Children do not sit in front of the television and analyze a movie. They sit in front of it and see that Belle is pretty and that the Beast is furry. I do not think that children have the capacity to watch a movie and analyze the fact that the women are doing house work ect. These ideas that women are weaker than men and that men should be strong and resourceful are clearly illustrated in these movies, though history shows that these movies do not affect children in such ways. Look at the children that grew up watching these movies, most of them are in their teens or upwards to thirty years old. These women and men are not molded like those in the movies.
Its not that kids sit there and analyze the movie, its that they absorb the movies messeges with out even realizing it. From observations made in the movies kids draw their own conclusions very early on about what a hero is, what beautiful is, etc
A few years ago I was given the job of cleaning out a closet in our basement. I found a stack of old Disney VHS tapes. When I started watching a few of them I remembered the scenes that were coming up but I realized that I actually never understood what was going on in most of the films. Many of the messages presented in Disney movies I think were meant to amuse the parents of the children who watched the same tapes three or four times a day. I can see how characters can unknowingly leave an impression on kids but they are not responsible for any gender stereotypes that we have.
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