Gender Stereotypes In Beauty And The Beast

Decent Essays
I have been analysing and critiquing 3 Disney films, which are Aladdin, Mulan, and Beauty and the Beast. These films all have very different gender stereotypes, and all use gender in very different ways. While analysing Beauty and the Beast specifically, I found that there are very different viewpoints on the portrayal of Belle within the film, and there are arguments from both a feminist standpoint and a sexist standpoint, which helps build up my hypothesis that “Films within the Disney brand often use gender stereotypes to make their characters more relatable and understandable, but it has little effect on a child 's mind.” My other main critical source was Mickey Mouse Monopoly which had differing views on the issues of gender stereotypes …show more content…
One big point used in this argument is that Belle is still only known for her beauty, as it’s not only in the title, but her name also translates to the word Beauty. Around halfway through the film, Belle finds herself stuck in a room with Beast yelling at her to come out. This is an incredibly real looking show of an abusive relationship for a Disney film, and leads some of the older viewers to feel legitimately frightened for Belle’s safety. However even after that Belle is willing to stay, because after spending 30 minutes in a Disney Film she’s reverted to the stereotype of relying on having a man to be whole, and valuing a potential relationship more than her own safety. This fact gets raised by Gail Dines, a professor of Women 's Studies in the documentary Mickey Mouse Monopoly, where she states: “Well then really it is just a pseudo feminism because ultimately in Beauty and the Beast, she marries a batterer.” Beauty and the Beast is also caught using gender stereotypes within the film through the Broomstick Babette and Lumiere the candlestick, when he tries to “sweep her off his feet.” This was also mentioned in Mickey Mouse Monopoly by Carolyn Newberger, a Harvard psychologist, who says: “In Beauty & the Beast, you have Lumiere, the candlestick, and the broom, the feminine broom, acting out these male/female themes, where he 's the aggressive, and she 's saying ‘oh, no, no, no’ and then by golly, he sweeps her off of her feet after she said no, no, no, no.” Another film that blatantly uses sexism and gender stereotypes to make a relatable character is Aladdin. In the film, Aladdin is a poor, homeless beggar who lives only with his monkey, and falls in love with the princess. However the rest of the film focusses on Aladdin’s quest to become more like the stereotypical

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