Introduction:
Disney has shown the portrayal of women over many years in the movies by the use of animation characters. The role of women is portrayed to have changed over time in times of nature and the scope. There was a very big change since the early 1900’s to modern day in the personalities of the women, their attitudes and ideologies towards men and the way they were portrayed in the movies, as the passive damsels in distress to being their own superhero. The evolution of women in Disney movies shall be analyzed through the use of feminist essays written in universities as well as a research paper written about gender roles in Disney animation. The evolution shall also be analyzed through clips of the movies themselves. The analysis of the male’s role in Disney movies will not be analyzed as the males have always been portrayed as strong due to stereotyping while the stereotype of women are the ones that are evolving. The aspects relating to the personality of women and attitudes towards men in the society.
Summary of evidence:
- The princess is used to show women used to depend on the men heavily in the early 1900s.The revolution of the role of women in Disney movies and how the women changed from naïve characters to very active characters in the modern century. The women are portrayed to be helpless without men in the twentieth century. The princess depended wholly on the prince to help her during the white snow. Initially, the women are shown as naive and can be easily tricked into various traps in life by men. The naïve girl is shown to source help from the men around because she could not help herself in the difficult situations in her life.
- The first portrayal of Snow white in 1930s showed the woman to be a product of the environment around. The influence of the environment was shown to have a great impact in influencing the character of women due to their naïve and weak nature in the society. The Snow White show the role of a woman to be a caretaker in relation to her activities at home. The girl in this film of the 1930s is portrayed to be a beautiful creature with a pretty face for attracting men in the society who should take care of her. The woman is also little scope of diversity in her roles. The women were limited to the role of a wife and love to her husband in the society. The role of women in this film is shown to be servants of men.
- In 1930s, the aspects of pre-feminism in the Africa and the Hollywood movies were elaborated clearly. This helped to show how the women were given limited roles in the movies. The women were portrayed as symbols of love in the movie. The women never participated in other active roles, in the movies. The women were portrayed as weak creatures who could not perform other challenging roles in the society. The women were also presented to victims of the environment they live. The women are portrayed as weak creatures who could not protect or defend themselves in the movies of 1930s.An example of a woman who was almost murdered is shown in the movie due to her weak and naive nature, but a man saved her. This shows that men were considered to be stronger than women in the early 1900s.
- In the 1950s Disney like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty to show how women were still innocent and meek. The women are still shown living in the unfortunate circumstances where they are saved or rescued by their handsome men in their surroundings. The women in this era play no role in defending themselves in the desperate situations, but they still depended heavily on men to save or rescue them from such difficult circumstances. The women are criticized and given the role of meek and naïve characters in the 1950s films. The criticism of women in the 1950s movies is harsh. This era, therefore, still portrayed women as naïve and meek.
- The 1980s films represent the turning point of women where they engaged in active roles. The princess is active, and the meek and naive character is eliminated in this film. The opinions and views of women are represented well in this films. The interests of women in the film are also reflected in this era, therefore, showing how women gained an active role in the society at this era. This is a general improvement in the character of women from the meek and naïve nature. The princes in this film of 1980s is still silent, but her interests, views and opinions are shown by how she left her family in order to stay with her prince. Ariel showed a balanced character in the film where the intensity of naivety and meekness are reduced effectively in the film. The women are portrayed as intelligent characters by the way they went against the social expectations. Belle in the 1980s film sacrificed her own life in saving her father.
Evaluation of sources:
"How Disney Princesses Went From Passive Damsels to Active Heroes." PolicyMic. N.P., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
The origin of this source is the web. The purpose of this source is to provide information concerning the transition of the role of women from 1900s to the twenty first century. The values that this source gives relates to validity and sufficiency of information. The use of animations also helped in passing of the relevant message. The source also provides credibility of information. The limitation of this source involves the lack of clarity in relation to eras of information. The logical flow of events in Disney movies over time is also clearly elaborated by the author in the most appropriate manner. The author of this article is experienced in mass media studies making it valid and reliable for research of this topic .The aspects relating to the personality of women is not elaborated very well.
American University Washington D.C. | Schools, Colleges, Undergraduate, Graduate, Admissions, Academics, Degrees, Faculty. N.P., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
The origin of this source is the American University Washington D.C. The purpose of this source is to provide adequate information concerning the personality of women and their attitude towards men in the society. The values that the source gives are the adequacy or sufficiency of the information relating to the role of women in Disney movies from 1900s to the modern day. The purpose of this source is to show clearly the revolution of gender roles in the society as indicated in the movies, in different parts of the world. This source also shows the significance of women in the Disney movies, in the presentation of themes and gender roles.
Analysis:
As opposed to the twentieth, where the role of women was just about love stories as well as happy endings, women in the 21st century were quite different. They are characters in the films that fight for their independence. They also advocated to live the life of their choice, as opposed to the past life where they guided on how to live it. This change took a lot of time before the female characters in these films started living independent lives. This independent life of women started in late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Female characters shared most of their features. For instance, Cinderella was the first one to take her charge. She made up her mind to the ball ground and work as hard as possible in order to make the demands of her step mother. She was also determined to do whatever in her ability to brighten her future.in the story of The Little Mermaid, there is a character by the name Ariel, who argues with her father because of the rules imposed to her by her father. She tells her father that she is living her life, and she wants to live it the way she wants. But, the father furiously opposes Ariel's opinion. He claims that if her daughter were to live in his little ocean, she had to live as per his rules. This clearly showed another female character that started to fight in order for her to live her independent live. Ariel was just one among the many young girls of her age who were fighting oppression from the society in order to live lives of their own.
In the film The Beauty and The Beast, we find female characters like Belle as well as Jasmine in the story of Aladdin. They were a little bit older than Ariel but found themselves in almost the same situation. Despite all the limiting factors around them and the oppression from the society as well as from those close to them, they fought courageously for their freedom. There was also Pocahontas, who was a fully grown woman. She was raised by her single father because her mother had died. Her father put several harsh rules that such rules expected the daughter. She fall in love but couldn't show it out because of the fear of her father. When her father knew about it he wanted to kill her boyfriend, but Pocahontas was so brave that she shielded her lover from the father. She disagreed by her father, thereby, living her own life. She as well began to make decisions for the world around her advocating for the rights of women living their independent lives. The film also described Mulan, who was one of the most independent characters. She was a very brave woman as well as independent. She faced all the challenges encountered by other females before her with a lot of courage. She was denied getting married to a man because she believed she could be subjected to more oppression. This is because the society in the 20th century considered men to be powerful than women, and she wanted to proof that wrong. She believed that staying unmarried was the best way possible to start it off. She also wanted to get into her father's army, and she could not do so because she was a female. To achieve her aimed she had to transform herself to look like a man in order to qualify. She first cut her long hair and dressed in men clothes. She was so determined and discipline in her training that she became one of the best soldiers in the army. As a result of this, she was able to become independent, and she could rescue herself in case of danger as opposed to female in the early 20th century.
Conclusion:
As evident from the above, Disney movies clearly portrays a consistent transition of women life from the 1900s to today's modern life. For instance, women life in early 20th century was more dependent on men. This means that they lived under the shadow of men. They did not make their own choices instead men required them. They were supposed to marry men of their male parents' choice and not of their own. If they fell into any problems, they could not get out without the help of their male counterparts as shown in Disney movies. As it approaches the 21st century and beyond, the lifestyle of women started to take another direction. Most of the women started assuming roles that were initially meant for men. Some of them started making decisions on their own behalf as Ariel and others who chose to live their own life and make their independent decisions. The characters also started getting married to the husbands of their own choice as opposed to the past. Ladies of modern life in Disney movies also could participate in battles as opposed to the past where they could not get themselves out of dangers. This there is a clear transformation of the society to a more gender sensitive one in contrast to the early insensitive society.
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