Gender Stereotypes In Walt Disney's Fairy Tales

Words: 1161
Pages: 5
Open Document
Although fairy tales have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, fairy tales were re popularized with the advent of the cinema in the 1920s- 30s. Now, the love story of Cinderella and Prince Charming could be glimpsed on the big screen. With the creation of Disney, fairy tales became even more popular. Though women gained immense rights and power previously unknown to them during this decade, ironically the patriarchal tales remained unchanged (largely due to Disney’s own personal attitudes.) Many historians claim, that the fairy tales remained unchanged during the 1920s, as the tales were means of escapism. “The film allowed viewers to momentarily forget the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, and otherworldly horrors and, at least for an hour or two, focus on happy endings and the triumph of good in the world” (Patel). Today, Disney and their portrayals of fairy tales remain immensely popular and influential. The Walt Disney Company, has a monopoly on children’s minds. According to the Box Office Charts, the Walt Disney Company’s films “account for 26 of the top 150 highest box office films” (qtd. in Tonn). Additionally Disney owns radio …show more content…
To save her father’s life, Belle sacrifices her life and is forced to live in the castle with the Beast. Rather than moving to England with her love interest (i.e. John Smith), Pocahontas stays behind to look after her tribe, thus sacrificing her feelings for the greater good. Although these stories of sacrifice teach children selflessness, selflessness can pose an immense risk as well. Christiane Northrup, M.D. has cited self-sacrifice, and selflessness can have an adverse affect on someone's health. “Northrup notes that it can cause serious female health problems, and occurs when women always put other first and settle for what is left. Common physical symptoms include: lumps in the breast, uterine fibroids, cancer, and heart disease.” (qtd. in
Show More

Related Documents: Gender Stereotypes In Walt Disney's Fairy Tales

Disney Media's Influence On Adolescents

Keeping the previous statements in mind, I believe that realistically, this movie (and the other animated Disney princess films) aren’t solely to blame for the negative and untrue gender ideologies kids learn from media. However, if parents show The Little Mermaid to their kids, I think it’s important for them to point out the positive things in the movie to try counteracting the subliminal messages while they watch. For example,…

Words 1790 - Pages 8

Gender Stereotypes In Snow White By The Brothers Grimm

Disney stories and fairy tales have been around for a very long time. When these fairy tales were first written, they portrayed the more conventional and stereotypical gender roles of that time. These roles included women cleaning, cooking being nurturing and caring. No one cleaned a house full of seven dwarfs faster than Snow White and never once…

Words 1962 - Pages 8

Fayes Essay

beliefs and we can be exposed to them through the media, in this case - animation. Ideologies are all about making particular social outcomes seem natural. There are different types of these ideologies one being feminist critique, this focuses on gender and sexual identity. This is evident in films such as Snow White due to most of the other if not all of the Disney princesses being perceived as a helpless victim who must be saved by a man and whose main talents seem to involve singing and doing…

Words 762 - Pages 4

The Hidden Gender Stereotypes in the Animations the Little Mermaid and Tangled Essay

The Hidden Gender Stereotypes in the Animations The Little Mermaid and Tangled Erlina EKAWATI ABSTRACT After the success of the feminist movement in the early 1960s, gender stereotypes are considered as not a big issue anymore. Many people tried to break gender stereotypes especially in mass media. However, it is undeniable that gender stereotypes are still imprinted because people have been fed by gender stereotypes from the show that they watch since they are young. It is shown in two animation…

Words 7511 - Pages 31