The movie I choose is The Little Mermaid, it was released on November 15th, 1989. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions in the United States and was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker.
OVERVIEW/RELEVANCE OF THE FEATURE FILM The movie was based off of a Danish story written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837. The writers, like in many other animated Disney movies, wanted to take a fun twist on what was originally a very dark fairy tale. Clements and Musker created this to appeal to young girls. The Disney princess franchise has always been a huge one and Disney continues to make films to appeal to this. According to IMDb, The Little Mermaid had a budget of 40 million and made …show more content…
In accordance to the lecture gendered power is the belief that males dominate over women. In the beginning of the movie Ariel is full of power and she knows herself and what she wants to do, but she falls for a man. She is then taught by the sea witch that she is to be subordinate to men. She tells her that she only needs to sit there and look the part of a wife and that is why she does not need her voice to actually get a man. It is the use of benevolent sexism that leads Ariel, a sixteen-year-old girl, to believe that she does not have to speak for herself, but that she only has to flash a smile and show some body language to get what she wants in life. The structural functionalism theory ties in nicely with this film saying that women have their roles and men have theirs. In the movie Ariel is not ever seen exerting herself with the prince and she is willing to do anything she can to be the happy stay at home wife. Ariel gives up her family, voice, and her friends just to be with a man that she has never even spoke to. In this movie the man is seen doing the hard work while Ariel is being told that she needs to do nothing more than be pretty to get what she wants in …show more content…
These little girls are watching these films and learning about how to get what they want in life all they have to do is shut their mouths and let their bodies do the talking. The Disney princesses are role models to these young children and they fill up their lives with false hope and the idea that boys are all that matters. When watching these movies, they are great if you take them with a grain of salt. It is important when children are watching that they realize that they can be anything they want to be and do not have to rely on someone else to make it as far as they want in their