Introduction
Disney has a tendency to represent gender using stereotypical manners. Too often do they expose the female character as the damsel in distress or as the honorable housewife. It is almost impossible to ignore the fact that in their movies, they always find the way to incorporate a male character whose purpose is to save the princess to grant him the right to marry her. Their inclusion of prince charming, usually serves to remind us that males are the dominant ones in society and that without their presence, a female character wouldn’t be able to achieve happiness or self-realization. For instance, let’s take one of their first princess movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a film where the protagonist Snow White, needs to be …show more content…
She lives in a castle in the Scottish Highlands with her mother, Queen Elinor, her father, King Fergus, and her three younger brothers. She is a free-spirited red-haired girl who spends most of her time doing archery. She views her role as a princess as a duty full of expectations and responsibilities. Her life is mostly planned out by her mother, who constantly reminds her that a princess is a compassionate and only strives for perfection. Instead of listening to her mother’s advices and life lessons, Merida prefers to run free through the forest with her horse Angus and her bow and arrows. Because of Merida’s wild behavior, her mother becomes irritated and arranges a meet-up with the lords of three different kingdoms to have one of their sons marry Merida. When Merida finds this out, she starts this huge fight with her mother that ends with Merida telling her mother she hates her and her slashing in a half tapestry that results in a large tear between the images of her and her mother. When the day to meet the three princes finally arrives, Merida is asked to give a challenge to the princes in order to make sure that her future husband is strong, competitive and worthy of her. Thinking that none of them will accomplish her task, she chooses archery. Unfortunately, one of the princes’ does hit the target and this immediately makes him the one who is supposed to marry Merida. However, Merida …show more content…
My initial question was, what makes Brave so distinctive from other Disney movies? I was able to find the answer to this question by acknowledging that majority Disney princess movies disclose patriarchy and express hegemonic norms about the role of women using a plot that mainly focuses on the princess discovering love with the "ideal man" or more precisely “prince charming”. To better understand patriarchy and hegemony, I would like to point out Wood’s interpretation of both terms. First, we have patriarchal, which pertains to patriarchy, “rule by the fathers”. The term patriarchy generally refers to system of ideology, generally structures, and practices created by men, which reflect the values, priorities, and views of men as a group” (Wood, 2014, p. 30) Like I mentioned above in my introduction, these patriarchal ideologies are well represented in Disney movies such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty and many other
Disney has a tendency to represent gender using stereotypical manners. Too often do they expose the female character as the damsel in distress or as the honorable housewife. It is almost impossible to ignore the fact that in their movies, they always find the way to incorporate a male character whose purpose is to save the princess to grant him the right to marry her. Their inclusion of prince charming, usually serves to remind us that males are the dominant ones in society and that without their presence, a female character wouldn’t be able to achieve happiness or self-realization. For instance, let’s take one of their first princess movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a film where the protagonist Snow White, needs to be …show more content…
She lives in a castle in the Scottish Highlands with her mother, Queen Elinor, her father, King Fergus, and her three younger brothers. She is a free-spirited red-haired girl who spends most of her time doing archery. She views her role as a princess as a duty full of expectations and responsibilities. Her life is mostly planned out by her mother, who constantly reminds her that a princess is a compassionate and only strives for perfection. Instead of listening to her mother’s advices and life lessons, Merida prefers to run free through the forest with her horse Angus and her bow and arrows. Because of Merida’s wild behavior, her mother becomes irritated and arranges a meet-up with the lords of three different kingdoms to have one of their sons marry Merida. When Merida finds this out, she starts this huge fight with her mother that ends with Merida telling her mother she hates her and her slashing in a half tapestry that results in a large tear between the images of her and her mother. When the day to meet the three princes finally arrives, Merida is asked to give a challenge to the princes in order to make sure that her future husband is strong, competitive and worthy of her. Thinking that none of them will accomplish her task, she chooses archery. Unfortunately, one of the princes’ does hit the target and this immediately makes him the one who is supposed to marry Merida. However, Merida …show more content…
My initial question was, what makes Brave so distinctive from other Disney movies? I was able to find the answer to this question by acknowledging that majority Disney princess movies disclose patriarchy and express hegemonic norms about the role of women using a plot that mainly focuses on the princess discovering love with the "ideal man" or more precisely “prince charming”. To better understand patriarchy and hegemony, I would like to point out Wood’s interpretation of both terms. First, we have patriarchal, which pertains to patriarchy, “rule by the fathers”. The term patriarchy generally refers to system of ideology, generally structures, and practices created by men, which reflect the values, priorities, and views of men as a group” (Wood, 2014, p. 30) Like I mentioned above in my introduction, these patriarchal ideologies are well represented in Disney movies such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty and many other