Morgan Williams
Disney has been the foundation of Americas fairytale stories since 1937. The company has produced serval movies that tell a story of a prince and a beautiful princess. These movies include Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and the Little Mermaid just to name a few. Each movie has the same theme of the prince saving the princess, and giving her freedom. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty were saved by a kiss, and the Little Mermaid was saved by her prince killing her enmeny. What is often wonder however, is why these beautiful princess could never save them self. Why did they all intend to wait for a man to come and save them from their misery? All of the Disney fairytales include the damsel in distress theme, which inevitably gives off this message of the female gender role. Disney also gives the impression that in order for a man to fall in love with you must be picture perfect "naturally".
Disney has been the foundation of Americas fairytale stories since 1937. The company has produced serval movies that tell a story of a prince and a beautiful princess. These movies include Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and the Little Mermaid just to name a few. Each movie has the same theme of the prince saving the princess, and giving her freedom. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty were saved by a kiss, and the Little Mermaid was saved by her prince killing her enmeny. What is often wonder however, is why these beautiful princess could never save them self. Why did they all intend to wait for a man to come and save them from their misery? All of the Disney fairytales include the damsel in distress theme, which inevitably gives off this message of the female gender role. Disney also gives the impression that in order for a man to fall in love with you must be picture perfect "naturally".
The above image shows six of the Disney Princesses along with humorous captions. Each caption is a statement that states being beautiful is all you need in order for a man to fall in love with you can save you. The Little Mermaids captions is the most disturbing. It basically is saying that for a man its okay to completely loose yourself, and become something your not just to make him happy. Is this how the writers of Disney movies think women should act? Are women just meant to be beautiful, and only can be saved by some man? Can women ever just save their selves. Disney is giving this message to all little girls who adore to watch these movies, whether we adults realize it. We need to teach our young girls that being beautiful is not all they are capable of. We need to tell them that they can defeat their own dragons, and escape their own dungeons. The female gender role rules of Disney fairytales are not realistic. I hope this true message get across to as many as possible.
Mecca Abdullah
ReplyDeleteI thought that this post was very informative and opened my eyes on how women are perceived in the eyes of Disney below the surface. All the characters that I grew up watching help shape what I thought a woman was supposed to be. I actually googled some more information on this topic after reading your post because I was so interested. Great job!!