The Portrayal of Women in Disney Films
Introduction
It is often said that a society’s various forms of expressionism move hand in hand with belief systems that exist within that community. The portrayal of issues in popular media not only reflects what a group of people believe. It also shapes the opinions and perceptions they have about the matters being portrayed. One of the most influential contributors to popular media in America and the Western world in general is Walt Disney whose company pioneered the area of animated films and cartoons for most of the 20th and part of the 21st Century. The art forms that were pioneered by Disney are a form of expressionism and as such can be used as an appropriate case study on the portrayal of social issues (English et al, 2011).
In this exercise, the manner in which women’s issues are portrayed in specific Disney films will be analyzed. Disney is an appropriate choice for study considering the fact that it has in several instances been placed on the limelight for the occasionally controversial manner that these issues have been portrayed. It is yet to be known if these depictions to be discussed were presented deliberately or innocently by artistes who believed they were putting their artistic freedoms into good use. Another reason why films from Walt Disney are being analyzed is the fact that these productions were mainly meant for an audience composed of children. Children are highly impressionable and this implies that the notions carried in these films were bound to remain imprinted in the mental frameworks of these children and in effect contribute to the shaping of their present and future opinions on the issues portrayed. The films to be analyzed for the portrayals of women are Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty the Portrayal of Women in Snow White (English et al, 2011).
In Snow White the women who are featured are snow white herself as well as her evil step-mother who happens to be a witch.
When we look at Snow White we see a naïve girl who is unable to notice the fact that her step mother is openly evil and intent on eliminating her. Throughout the film her step mother is seen devising scheme upon schemes that are aimed at trapping the princess but these seem to bypass her attention and as a result, she sees the woman as being friendly (English et al, 2011). The fact that she was overly beautiful with limited intellect indicates to one analyzing the film through a lens of the portrayal of the genders the impossibility of wit and physical attractiveness going together. It is even possible that having a developed intellectual capacity is not a necessity for women or girls. The reason for this is the fact that her in the wishes made by the queen about her future daughter, everything was focused on her outward beauty and nothing on her character and ability to reason out things diligently.
When she escapes the confines of the castle to cry in her sadness she comes across the dwarves’ cottage which she gladly cleans. Other than this, she also took the responsibility of making their foods and serving it up for them to eat. These are roles that are traditionally played by a housewife or stay at home mum. The fact that she was accustomed to these chores suggests that that is the place of women in society. When she gets poisoned by the apple given by the evil step-mother, she goes into a deep sleep resulting in her being placed in a glass coffin as she waits for the right prince to come and awake her from this slumber. This action by her next of kin to do this also helps to affirm the idea of women being paraded and showcased (Hynes, 2010). The appropriate term in today’s informal English would be ‘the ideal trophy wife.’ Her act of waiting for a man to help her overcome the spell cast by her evil step mother is representative of her complexion.
The image passed by the antagonist who the girl’s evil step mother can is easily assumed to suggest the author’s intention to make Snow White suffer. This makes them appear to be conniving and ever selfish in the plans. This is in stark contrast to the idea of women as lovely and caring. The evil step-mother also brings out the image of a woman who is abnormally obsessed with her beauty, leading her to take a host of magic potions which help to preserve her ravishing looks despite her being quite old. The use of a talking mirror to constantly remind her that she is the fairest of them all also emphasizes the obsession she had.
Cinderella
In Cinderella, women are once again portrayed as their own biggest enemies and this is brought out by the behavior and attitude of Cinderella’s step mother and step sisters who are out rightly jealous of her because of the beauty she possesses. As a result they isolate her and constantly overwork her (Davis, 2006). Cinderella herself also seems best suited for housework as this is what she busies herself with in the beginning of the story while every other lady at home is preparing to go for the ball that has been organized by the Prince (English et al, 2011).
The sisters are desperate in their bid to be noticed by the prince and this once again shows the desperation that women seem to have when a man or the ideal man is absent from their lives. In this regard, the wealth of the prince seems to be the element that makes him most attractive to these ladies, Cinderella included. When Cinderella managed to get a horse drawn carriage through some form of magic, the audience gets presented with or introduced to the idea that it is only through supernatural means that a woman can enjoy the preserves of the wealthy. Her reaction to this and intent to finish everything before the stroke of midnight as instructed by the witch further drives home the fact that such opportunities were scarce. Another element about women that is portrayed through this film is that the only thing about them that mattered to men is the amount of effort they put into being physically attractive. In the case of Cinderella, the only thing the prince remembered about her was the fact that she had the glass slippers on.
He hardly made a mention of her beauty, the dress she was wearing or even her name. This suggests a very shallow perception of women by men. Something else that is seen in the story told through the Cinderella film is the fact that women draw their confidence and value from the things they have or how beautiful they believe they are. One only needs to look at the way Cinderella mattered for the first time when she went out on a horse drawn carriage while dressed in a beautiful blue dress and the nice slippers. This is suggesting that in her previous state as the servant girl at home, her presence was rather negligible to all those around her. This is the same reason that drove her sisters to so desperately want their leg to fit into the glass slipper.
Sleeping Beauty
This fairy tale is about parents who are influenced by the queen to send their daughter to go and live amongst three fairy god-Mothers in the Forest. This is because they need someone to help them keep things in their cottage running. The strange thing about this is the fact that these women have the ability to change the color of her clothing among other magical powers yet conspicuously lack the ability to maintain their home. This is representative of women’s inability to realize the full potential of their abilities. In a way it also illustrates vanity in a sense since they may have felt that they can put their magical powers into better use.
Aurora’s acceptance of this task goes on to show naivety on the part of the main character. She accepts this situation in exchange for the prospect of being nurtured into a princess who will eventually meet a prince and later on live happily ever after. This again brings up the social concept of a woman’s lot being to meet a man who will marry her and in the process improve her social status. Something else brought out through Snow White is the fact that women are generally in a state of redundancy so long as they have not met the right man (Hynes, 2010).
The sanitization of these themes presented
In all of the Disney stories portrayed in film, there is always the phrase “and they lived happily ever after.” What this goes to imply is that the sequence of events that followed were all geared towards ensuring they have a pleasant life afterwards. Given that the main characters are always highly pampered princesses, it is likely that this will make it appeal more to the girls who will admire the ‘happily ever after’ component of the story. This has the potential of lowering the audience’s view of women. This will possibly lead the boys who watched these films to become chauvinistic as they will see princesses being treated in this manner.
This will also have the possibility of negatively affecting the way children view women who are less fortunate by mistreating domestic servants they may have at their homes as well as meting out unfairness towards people whose poverty they are aware of. Girls who take these films to heart will also have a very low perception of what their rights to enjoy their lives are. This encourages girls to let a person in their lives treat them like door mats which basically means that their feelings and rights will be trampled over with ease by those who have positions of authority. In ordinary situations these girls are expected to grow into assertive women but instead they are being told that it is alright to be overly submissive and naïve. The hope of one day being rescued by some prince seems like a viable justification for this.
Conclusion
From the above tales it is evident that the selected films seem to carry with them a common theme that is reflective of notions favored by patrilineal society. The only difference that comes out is the fact that these social systems oppressive to women are encouraged and enforced by the very women who are negatively affected by the same. At the time of their initial productions, there was very little effort being made towards gender equality and the right of women and this served to give the producers a leeway to portray such matters. The recurring themes seen in the above stories suggest the fact that these characters were modeled as generic versions of a real life princess who most likely was the common woman of the day.
All of them seem to feature an extremely attractive girl or princess whose beauty attracts the jealousy of other female member of the family who are then vilified. In this day and age it will be very difficult to produce such a film targeted at children in the global audience because of all the opposition that will come from rights groups as well as film critics. While the portrayals probably help a great deal in the formulation of the film plots, it is also necessary to take into consideration the fact that the content is directed at a young impressionable audience.
References
Davis, A. M. (2006). Good girls and wicked witches: Women in Disney’s feature animation. Eastleigh: John Libbey.
England, D. E., Descartes, L., & Collier-Meek, M. A. (2011). Gender role portrayal and the Disney Princesses. Sex roles, 64(7-8), 555-567.
Hynes, A. (2010). Raising Princesses? Gender socialisation in early childhood and the Disney Princess franchise. Practice, 2.
