[Women’s Issues as portrayed by Disney]
[Omolabake Ajiboye-Richard]
English 102 – Fall 2012
Professor Teddy Chocos
December 12th 2012
Women's battle for equality and recognition has been a struggle documented in many ways over the years. The women activists in America such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Betty Freidan have made a name and place in society by promoting the need for women to be recognized as able bodies and contributing members of a male celebrated society. These events and struggles were documented and televised through various mediums such as movies, cartoons, news features and so on. One of the prominent yet disguised mediums was the Disney production.
Walt Disney, a company founded by Walter E Disney and his brother Roy E. Disney, is an animation company that has been in existence since the early 1900’s. Their films and cartoons have been a major contributor to the upbringing of children all over the world as well as adults too as they inculcate issues at hand in their productions with possibly subliminal messages. In the early 1900’s when the company was first established, women were considered and treated as the weaker gender and this was portrayed in his movies. His productions often had subliminal messages that both reiterated and reinforced in the minds of the viewers the issues at hand in society or they offered some form of solution to these issues. Disney has also stated in the past “Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation” These productions that played a crucial role in the shaping of the young generation by being taught subconsciously many things like the way to view women. Also “some researchers have indicated that children’s literature, including print books, plays a role – along with other forms of print and electronic media such as television, magazine images, and movie – in providing visual images to children that give them cultural information about themselves, others, and the relative status of group membership.” (Hurley, 221) In essence, the cartoons and movies the kids watched taught them about themselves and their culture. If they could identify with the characters they saw on the television, then they would subconsciously assume the ideals the program offered.
Also, Disney’s characters have obtained notoriety among children all over the globe as their movies have been featured in a number of countries and their fairytales have been inculcated in many cultures as a result. In an effort to embrace the global expansion of these movies, Disney also created characters from different counties in the world, which in essence made it easy for these people to relate to these characters as they represented some part of their culture and nationality in the movies.
America in the mid 1900’s was a country riddled with many issues with regards to human and gender rights. The 1940’s and 50’s saw the women of America fighting for their place in society and a voice amongst the men. Women in previous times were known to be housewives and home makers, and every job held was related to child rearing and pleasing the men in their lives, while the men were the breadwinners of the families. However, the women of that time were attempting to make a place for them in society where they could make a significant contribution to the advancement of society. These women hoped to break away from the damsel in distress, helpless stereotype that was normally associated with women; the idea that the women were only domestic and had no business being anything but. It was at the height of this gender battle that Disney started producing movies and as a result these movies produced material that possibly supported the issues going on at the time. The roles given to the characters satisfied the stereotypes that were in place at the time. These productions had the characters reprise the stereotypical gender roles and it therefore poses the question of what Disney’s view was on women’s rights.
One of Disney’s most popular and first ever movie production was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. This movie showed a young girl hated by her stepmother forcing her to run away to live with seven dwarfs in the woods. She is eventually poisoned by the stepmother and has to be rescued by a kiss from her ‘prince charming’. In an attempt to analyse the content being presented, one must first recognize that the target market for this movie is three to five year old girls, and this seems to be an impressionable enough age; their thought patterns are being formed and their ideologies are being shaped. Their childhood cultures are made up of what they see on the television more than anything they are taught in schools or at home by the parents. Arguably, these children then develop an identity from the material being presented. Snow White, which would appeal to young girls within that age range, would present an identity within the domestic, helpless, and dependent woman. This movie could be said to propose the social limitations of the predetermined gender expectations. Moreover, these gender expectations would include, a woman being the damsel in distress, waiting for the fairy-tale ending that would include and be provided for by a man. As seen, Snow White is shown through out the movie in some domestic light, she cooks and cleans up after the dwarfs and then is forced to rely on salvation from a man. This proposes the idea that this is what a woman’s life should ideally be, as this movie is a fairy-tale and should be idealized or magical. It can be argued that the subliminal message attached to this production is that domesticity is the natural and expected place of the woman. (Wohlwend,2009)
In many of his productions, he showed the women as the world saw them at the time they were in. In 1937 when Snow White was released, women in America were typically the housewives and the homemakers; however there were some who had jobs in factories but their rights were still not given credit for their hard work. The gender roles and stereotypes were set and influencing every part of society. However, there were feminists and women’s rights activists that attempted to bring a change. They argued for rights for the woman, rights to be educated, rights for a voice in society and many more. Stanton, a 19th century activist wrote in her Declaration of Sentiments that women were considered civilly dead because they were so hidden in the shadow of the men in their lives and supressed in society and Disney could be said to play a role in integrating these wrongful stereotypes. In the Snow White, where Snow was put under a spell till she was awakened by the kiss of her Prince Charming, one could relate it to Stanton’s argument that women were considered civilly dead, as she was practically dead till she was brought back to life and society by a man. At the time she went into the deep sleep, she was without a male figure in her life like a father or a brother and could represent a single woman. This represents the women in society at that time and as it does not identify a fault with that view, one can argue that Disney was indeed teaching the young girls to identify with the stereotype.
Cinderella which was Disney’s second motion picture, released in 1950, focused on another woman waiting for the fairy-tale ending, the happily ever after that would be provided for by a man. Cinderella is about a young girl who lived with her stepmother and stepsisters, who was made into a maid in her own home. However, her luck changed when she went to the ball with the assistance of her ‘fairy godmother’, met the prince and found her happily ever after. The same idea, which is proposed in this movie and in Snow White, could suggest Disney to support the social inequities. As impressionable children watching the movies, the ideas of inequality are being transferred and imbibed in their subconscious thereby creating a new generation upholding these unjust ideals. In The Disadvantage of a Good Reputation by Joel Best and Kathleen Lowney, they argue that Disney “promotes a hegemonic, uncritical acceptance if traditional values, so that children exposed to Disney learn to accept … sexism, and so on.” (Lowney, 440) Progressive critics have then suggested that Disney is against the advancement of women in society and this shows in their ‘decent’ productions.
However, as time progressed Disney’s productions and portrayals of women have been forced to evolve too. In more recent productions like Mulan and Pocahontas, we see the women taking up more involved and empowering roles as opposed to the damsel in distress roles they were accosted with. In both movies, we see women who are trying to save their countries or society as the case may be. They take on the men and come out successful and this is a big change from the earlier productions. In 21st century society, women have taken on a bigger role in society, they are no longer the housewives and the homemakers, they occupy the prestigious jobs, the political offices and everywhere they were exempted from before. This advancement of society has also been documented through films and media productions and Disney’s recent productions are an example. The past stereotypes of the women have been eradicated from his productions as in this era and time, there would be a lacking audience for the social injustices he subliminally advertised.
However, in Mulan, we see the protagonist assume the identity of a man in order to get into the army. Mulan follows a Chinese girl’s attempt to save her father from the war by going in his place under the disguise of his son. Throughout the movie, we see Mulan do everything the men are doing and eventually doing it better than the men. Eventually, Mulan is praised as a woman for her service in the army, a position that was prohibited to women, and she is honoured by the Emperor of China. This proves significant because it represents women’s struggle for a voice and a contribution to society for many years, the struggle to show that they can do everything the men can and sometimes, even better. The honour she gets for saving the country serves as an acknowledgement of the women and their contributions over time. It is therefore obvious that Disney has evolved in their messages over the years and that they carry a more recent and socially accommodating message than they previously did. The children that are the audience of modern Disney films would find an identity that is empowered and not discriminatory.
Disney however can be credited for representing women as they were in relevant society.
Bibliography
Best, Joel, and Kathleen S. Lowney.The Disadvantage of a Good Reputation: Disney as a Target for Social Problems Claims(2009): 431-49.
Ohmer, Susan.That Rags to Riches Stuff :Disney's Cinderella and the Cultural Space of Animation(1993): 231-49. Print.
Wohlwend, Karen E.Damsel in Discourse: Girls Consuming and Producing Identity Texts through Disney Princess Play(2009): 57-83.