#Discussion: Gender Roles in Disney: Academic Paper

[weber_dubois22]

SO I WENT BROWSING through feministdisney once again and came across a post detailing a few points from what appears to a college paper on the breakdown of Walt Disney's archetypes within the Disney Princess brand and feminist outlook and opinions on how Walt Disney market's its animated features to children, specifically women. Unfortunately, it centralizes its argument/thesis on Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, Belle and Tiana only and I was rather hoping to see a breakdown of them all, but alas it is an interesting (if not linear) research paper that brings up great points about the company and its methods of advertisement on a subliminal level.

THE PAPER:

“This research paper is designed to look into gender identity and gender roles through Disney movies. In order to do this, Disney princesses are being researched through four main Disney movies that have a quintessential Disney princess. The research is designed to look at how media exposure affects gender, in particular young girls. It is done in order to see how identity is transformed through long term ideals and virtues set forth from the animated films and from the standard viewpoints of feminists.”

[...]“Four themes emerge from a study done by Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund, and Tanner (2011), three themes emerged related to what it means to be a girl/woman:

(a) A woman‘s appearance is valued more than her intellect;
(b) Women are helpless and in need of protection;
(c) Women are domestic and likely to marry. Women‘s appearance is valued more than their intellect. ―In Dwarfs, the Queen‘s motivation to kill Snow White derives from the Queen‘s jealousy that Snow White is the fairest in the land. In Sleeping, the first gift given to the baby princess is beauty.‖ (Towbin et. al, 2011) Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Tiana from Princess and the Frog are admired for their appearance and intellect, but their intellects are ridiculed in the films for love of reading or owning a restaurant. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty show how women are helpless and in need of protection, Belle and Tiana are independent but also show a need for protection. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle are all domestic and show a desire for marriage. None of these three themes are conducive to the atmosphere of playing princess that little girls would be playing and imitating.” [READ PDF]

METHODOLOGY: SERPENTINE:

Princess and the Frog made in 2009 is
the first African American princess film.
Disney wanted to expand their princess
movies, they already had Mulan, the
Asian princess, which was criticized for
stereotyping. But, this new movie was
going to show an independent female
who was going to own her own
restaurant in the time frame of 1920‘s
New Orleans. They wanted to show they
have been listening to the feminists are
want to promote a more independent
woman then previous movies.

Archetype - Disney princess movie
Culture-2000‘s America
Community - Audience is young girls
Family-Aimed to be a wholesome
family film
Self-Autobiography - They want
Princess Tiana to be independent, a hard
worker, and set goals for herself
Relationship – Making young girls want
to be princesses and believe in fairy tales
but now they also want to fulfill their
dreams and what they want to become
Episode – Show girls that they can do
anything they can set their minds too,
like Princess Tiana by working hard to
own her restaurant and a prince.

Feminist Response:

Originally, feminists were really looking forward
to seeing The Princess and the Frog because it
was the first African American Princess. Right
before 2009, women have made huge strides
such as first woman being elected Speaker of the
House, first to win a presidential primary, and
first 4 star general. In association with this
movie, women were excited about Princess Tiana
having a desire to fulfill her dreams, and they
like the idea that there is not the patriarchal
outlook that most other Disney films have held.
They did not agree that 80% of the movie if not
more she was a frog. It goes against having an
African American Princess if she is going to be a
frog. They did not agree that the Walt Disney
Company portrayed Tiana as a woman who does
not know what is right for her. Mama Odie, a
witch doctor sings a song that asks Tiana what
she really needs out of life. Which the correct
answer would be a partner not a restaurant. They
argue that even though Tiana gets all that she
wanted in the end with the restaurant, she also
gets the Prince. It portrays that you cannot be
single and happy, it shows in the film that you
need a man to really be happy.

Archetype - Want to prove equality and
women are striving to achieve
everything they can
Culture - Third wave of Feminism
Community - Aiming to achieve high
status in the working work and be
successful
Family - Women are working and taking
care of the family but men are taking
more of a role in the housework.
Self-Autobiography - Fighting for
equality and want the Disney films to
show a stronger princess role without
the fairytale ending promoting a partner
will make you happy.
Relationship – Want a Disney character
that does not need a fairytale ending.
Episode – Tiana is admired for her hard
work and independence, however,
feminists argue that she should have
been able to do it on her own. They do
not agree with the issue of needing a
man to be happy, and they want to see a
film without the fairytale happy ending
that is portrayed.

Comments

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

This is a bit of ftopic here, but my favorite Disney movie is Hunchback of Notre Dame and my favorite heroine is Esmeralda. I often wondered, if she had been white and blonde, would she have appealed to more girls? Because I DID see some Latina and black girls who had Esmeralda things like backpacks and dolls, but hardly any white girls. And Esmeralda was one heroine who SAVED the guy! Remember when Phoebus fell into the river after getting shot with an arrow? Esmeralda needed no man to help her. That, along with her being a gypsy, I can't help but think this made her an unpopular heroine/princess for Disney.

[weber_dubois22]

I can definitely see where you're coming from this angle. In regards to Esmeralda, I think it's a combination of being in a film that didn't do well successfully (or successfully for Disney), Disney treating her not unlike Kida (another POC heroine) --- a throwaway --- and being a woman of color character. She's quite unlike the previous heroines of the Disney canon, I don't even think you could compare her to someone like Megra and for that she is in a league of her own here. I do think that if she was characterized and even modeled after the popular Ariel or Rapunzel or was white, she may have been better accepted by a larger audience. As it stands, I do think she has a strong following --- especially among young girls of color (I vaguely remember seeing a lot of girls with Esmeralda merchandise as a kid), but said following is typically overpowered by the larger Disney Girl fandoms (Ariel, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Snow White, Belle and Aurora) and forgotten like so many female characters who aren't under the "Disney Princess" label and that's a truly disappointing fact.