Disney's problem with gender

Disney. Utter this one word and thousands of people in ages anywhere from 8 to 62 know what you're talking about. For many people, Disney films are a staple of their childhoods; in adulthood, they are an ode to a simpler time when all you had to worry about was who you were going to play with at recess and how your brother stole the last pop-tart for breakfast. The films feature favorite princesses and beloved animal sidekicks that are embedded into popular culture. At the same time, however, these films often perpetuate stereotypes about race and gender.

With the first Disney films, such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, we saw female characters who had very little agency and who relied on a man, quite literally, to sustain their life. There was a period of several years where Disney was not making as many princess films, but in the 1980s and 1990s, we saw a resurgence in films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas and Mulan. These female characters were given more dynamic traits than their predecessors, but save for Mulan, still relied on men to save them or provide for them in some way. Not to mention that most of these princesses are white, with the exception of Jasmine and Mulan.

Mulan is the exception in terms of agency, as she basically helps her people win a war against the Huns and throughout most of the film, relies not on her outward appearance and charm, but on her strength and wit. However, when she gets back home after the war, she is once again relegated to the role of the typical female, left to worry about her looks and marriageability. And of course, she still gets the man in the end; Shang, the warrior who promised Mulan and her counterparts that he would "make a man" out of them, comes back at the end to continue his newfound relationship with Mulan.

Fast forward to 2009, and you have new Disney princess films like Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Brave, which allow their female protagonists to have even more agency than their counterparts a decade earlier. Tiana is able to open and run her own restaurant, Rapunzel breaks free from her imprisonment in the tower after striking a deal with Flynn Rider, and Merida rejects the stipulation that she must marry, instead electing to be her own hero. In fact, while Tiana and Rapunzel do fall in love with a man in the end, Merida remains single. And of course, I can't fail to mention Frozen; Anna ends up with Kristoff, but Elsa ends up with no one, even telling Anna that "she can't marry a man she just met." In the end, it would seem that sisterly love, not romantic love, saves the day.

#Gender #Disney #Racism #Sexism