Introduction
Kathi Miao is a feminist, a film critic and editor. She is also a fantasy and science fiction magazine columnist. Additionally, she has authored books on film essays with the Disney Dolls article being among her most famous and most controversial criticism. In this article, Miao subjects the Disney children’s films to feminism criticism, looking at the themes and the characterization with the critical eye of a feminist. She asserts that the female characters that we have come to know and adore in the Disney animated films; from the classics of Snow White , Sleeping Beauty, the little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas to the newest Mulan, based on the life of a Chinese hero, are not mere cartoons. Rather, according to Miao, Disney uses them to show the audience how they view women in the larger society. I, however, will show that the author of this article was unfair in her criticism.
Miao gives a chronological analysis of the Disney’s animated films from the first film, Snow White, and the Seven Dwarfs. Here, like in the other films she subjects to feminist criticism, she gives an accurate presentation of the characters, indicating that she is well versed with the film and the characters. However, it is her interpretation that steers the reader towards the author’s belief. While she does not explicitly state that she is a feminist, she does not mince words in expressing her disgust on the kind of representation women get in these films. In her view, the Snow White that we admired for her sweet nature and her pretty looks was meant to portray women as clueless, a bunch of people who believe were created only to pick up after men, as is evidenced when Sleeping Beauty feels compelled to clean up the house for the Dwarfs. This theme of women’s subjectivity is echoed in the rest of Disney’s films, and the equality movement that takes place in the larger community seems to have no effect on the female characters. Even Belle of the Beauty and the Beast gives herself up to save her stupid father.
Women, in these films, are portrayed as incapable of saving themselves or even standing up for themselves. They are made to wait for a handsome man to come and rescue them as is the case with Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, who are only awakened from their witch induced sleep by the kiss of a handsome prince, and Cinderella whose only salvation from her cruel stepfamily is the handsome prince. Miao takes all these films in stride and a bitter tone, expresses how these women are portrayed as disloyal; Snow White abandons her dwarf friends without a second thought, Ariel of the Little Mermaid chooses to be cut off from her family if only to spend her life with the love of her life. To Miao, this hardly goes for living happily ever after.
Albeit in a highly subjective way, the author posits that the female characters in these films have been ill-represented. Ariel, for example, was in the original story as written by Hans Christian, searching for immortality; not for romance as the later film intimated. Additionally, Pocahontas, based on a true American story was, originally, a pre-pubescent and not the sexy teenager portrayed in the film and love was the farthest thing from her mind. In fact, the man the film purports to have courted her was indeed, her father figure. The same kind of misrepresentation is seen in Mulan based on the life of a real-life Chinese heroine who did not require a handsome man to save her. However, in the film, she is saved by a handsome officer who later courts her. Miao is not only against Disney films for their evident misrepresentation of women. She also takes concern with their racial undertones in films like the Lion King and Aladdin where the heroic roles are assumed by white actors with polished good looks and impeccable language while the evil roles are reserved for the African American and Hispanic actors whose language is less polished.
Miao raises some valid points about Disney animated films and the examples she gives are indisputable. While I agree that the way they portray women in the Disney films is not entirely the best, I feel that the author of the article was not only overly biased in her criticism, but she was also too harsh. In the end, she missed the bigger picture. The animated Disney films were, ideally, made for children audiences and the filmmakers had to make them palatable to the young minds. I doubt a true representation of Pocahontas, with the bloody genocide that happened, how her people were virtually destroyed, how she was kidnapped, forcibly converted to a Christian and made to marry a colonist who hated her origins. I also doubt that how she finally got sick and died would make a good bedtime story for a ten-year-old. Further, immortality or mortality, for a child, is an abstract concept. Rather than chiding Disney for changing Ariel’s story, we should be applauding them for interpreting the abstract concept of immortality into something that children will understand and relate to.
Wearing her feministic glasses, Miao misses a lot on the nobility of the characters exhibited by the women of Disney films. Cinderella is portrayed as a very hardworking girl and so is Snow White when she takes it upon herself to look after and clean after the dwarves. Rather than looking at Ariel as shallow, we should celebrate her for her determination and her nature as resolute. She chooses to go against her father to find what she wants. Pocahontas is able to stand up for herself and risk her life. Mulan was also able to fight off an army beside men illustrating enviable courage. Further, women characters are portrayed as selfless, thus the need for Belle to give herself up in her father’s stead.
Despite the obvious shortcomings in the portrayal of women in Disney films, we have to admit that they have come a long way. Further, films, like every other form of art are a mirror to the society. They seek to give, as accurate as possible, a representation of the society. If we do not like our reflection in the mirror, maybe it’s time we considered changing our looks.
