Gender Roles and Stereotypes in Walt Disney's Films

The Walt Disney franchise was founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Roy and Walt Disney. The franchise had somewhat of slow start up until the mid thirties. By 1934 Disney productions wanted to take animation a step further than any other production company. Therefore, Disney began production of his first feature animated film in 1934. Three years later, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs premiered in December 1937. By 1939, the film had become the highest grossing film of all time. Not only was this the beginning of Walt Disney’s highly noted success, but also of Disney’s sexist portrayal of women within his films.

Princesses such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora were created between 1937- 1959 during a time when women were confined to the role of homemaker whereas, their husband as the breadwinner. Gender roles amongst each princess are visibly declared in the ways they behaved according to what was expected of women within a male dominated society. Gender roles are defined Social expectations about behaviors, thoughts, and characteristics that go along with a person’s assigned sex. (Vechiu 2018) Today, gender is one of the most controversial and discussed topics to date in Western society, as there is not just two genders anymore. There is no question that media plays a significant role in how children, particularly young girls shape their identities and later on adhere to gender roles that correspond to their biological sex.

Over the last few decades Disney has been criticized for their negative, stereotypical portrayal of women within Disney Princess films. (Maity 2014) Despite the negative portrayal of women in movies such as Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, they have remained popular over the last seventy years amongst a younger audience. The concepts of femininity will be examined by critically analyzing the messages princesses, particularly Snow White from Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs and Merida from Brave send to viewers regarding femininity. As an early Disney film, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs places a heavy emphasis on gender stereotypes within a male dominated society, particularly what it was to be feminine during the 1930’s. Gender stereotypes are defined as a generalized view of what characteristics men and women should possess and roles should be performed (Vechiu 2018). Particularly because the United States was going through an economic depression where thousands of American workers were put out of jobs and their homes.

The economic depression brought the traditional disposition that a woman's place was in the home taking care of her husband and children back to life. Western society as a whole reinforced this stigma, by expressing that working women were “un-American” and stole jobs from men who were trying to provide for their families. To escape stigma and sanction many women took on the homemaker role which solely entailed cooking, cleaning, and rearing children. During this sensitive time, Disney utilized the character of Snow White and used her as a symbol to show viewers characteristics an ideal woman embodied within this patriarchal society. Characteristics such as, passivity, virgin like, naive, obedient, clean, beautiful, and as always a damsel in distress. Within the film, Snow White is portrayed as a happy homemaker who is awaiting her prince charming to come and rescue her.

Snow White embodies traditional femininity, which includes relatively enduring characteristics encompassing traits, appearances, interests, and behaviors that have traditionally been considered relatively more typical of women and men, respectively (adapting the definitions provided by Constantinople, 1973). There are many intended messages that are displayed within Snow White’s behavior and mannerisms throughout the film. For starters, a heavy emphasis on beauty and that all women should strive to achieve and maintain this characteristic. After all, during this time period physical attractiveness was considered a woman’s most prized asset. The intended message of beauty is thoroughly delivered via the Evil Queen. She does everything in her power to become the fairest in the land and as a result tries to kill Snow White to improve her odds at achieving this. In the context of Disney movies, the word , “woman” has become synonymous with, “victim‟ in a patriarchal society.

The implication here is that women are subordinate to men in every aspect, especially within work roles. In Snow White the message is quite clear to viewers specifically girls, that a woman's work duties involve cleaning, taking care of others, and waiting for a male figure to save you. To elaborate further, Snow White cleans a filthy home belonging to the Seven Dwarfs simply because cleaning is a characteristic that is reinforced by traditional gender roles. When she initially saw the mess she assumed small children lived in the home and never had a maternal figure in their lives. Therefore, she assumed that role by cooking, cleaning and picking up after the Seven Dwarfs. As she completed each task her character was portrayed as happy by dancing and singing cheerfully, implying that all women should be delighted to clean, cook and care for others all the time. Within traditional femininity, adhering to gender roles was heavily prominent. On the grounds that Snow White was the only woman around the Seven Dwarfs it was her job to accept that maternal role within their lives. Suggesting that a woman’s job was to be maternal and devote all of her time to her husband and family with no pay and little appreciation for her hard work.

Lastly, Snow White goes into a coma to wait for “loves true kiss” in order to save her life. This plays into the damsel in distress stereotype, where Snow White needs a man to save her and without him she is helpless and hopeless. Though they possess divine beauty, these princesses only seem to be capable of suffering in silence, and it is because of this, they are finally given the ultimate reward: salvation through the handsome Prince Charming. (Maity 2014) The implication here is that because Snow White was obedient, submissive, maternal and beautiful, she was finally granted savior via Prince Charming. Ultimately, the message Snow White sends to viewers particularly younger viewers who are just beginning to shape their identities are that women are not only subordinate to men, but to adhere to gender roles and stereotypes because otherwise stigma and sanction will follow. Unlike traditional princess films, Brave offers a drastically different perspective of how the female protagonist is portrayed. This film is about a young girl who gains independence and ultimately a voice by challenging patriarchal standards. Comparable to other Disney princess films, Merida is born into a royal family and grows up in a male dominated society. Her mother personifies the traditional gender stereotype of what it was to be a woman within this society.

At the beginning of the film, Merida is portrayed as an ambitious free spirit by riding her horse and practicing archery despite her mother’s attempts to teach her proper princess etiquette. She is constantly challenging what it is to be feminine through sword fighting, riding her horse and archery. Throughout the film Merida’s mother lectures her on how women particularly princesses should behave. For example, princesses do not overeat at dinner, they wake up early in order to spend the day in the kitchen, they are patient, cautious, clean and most importantly strive for perfection. This is a common theme within more traditional princess films such as Snow White. Although, Merida complains about all of the regulations and limitations she faces as a princess, she she does not react against these traditions until she is forced to get married.

Merida embodies pariah femininity, which is defined as set of characteristics, attributes, behaviors that are deemed to contaminate the relationship between masculinity and femininity (Vechiu 2018). For example. despite Merida’s mother constantly pushing her to strive for perfection she does the complete opposite. Her hair is unkempt, she despises tight dresses, and enjoys archery. When Merida is told that she is to be engaged to a stranger for the realm’s sake, her anxiety grows, and she rebels against her feminine duties (patience, passivity, grace). She states to her mother: “I don’t want my life to be over. I want my freedom,” speaking out a feminist discourse. (Morante 2016) Unlike Snow White, Merida does not wish to get married and abide by the very same traditional gender roles that have oppressed her own mother. Merida continues to refute the idea of marriage and for this reason it is made mandatory.

In addition, during this time frame in order for Merida to reign as queen she needs a husband who would take over her father's place as King of the Realm. This reinforces the notion that women require marriage in order to achieve a higher status and financial stability. Although, this may have been true at the time, Merida decides she does not want to suffer the same fate as her mother and other women within this male dominated society. Therefore, she rebels in the best way she knows how through archery. As all of the first born suitors gathered and released their arrows to win Merida’s hand in marriage, she decides to take a stand for herself and compete for her own hand in marriage. This very behavior contaminates the relationship between femininity and masculinity, because not only does it contradict practices defined as feminine, but it also threatens a man’s exclusive possession of hegemonic masculine traits. (Vechiu 2018) Merida not only triumphs over the suitors and wins her own hand in marriage, but in doing so she brings shame upon her family and in turn is punished by her mother.

Consequently, she is deemed undesirable and stigmatized by not just the suitors, but the villagers as well. Unlike many princess films prior to Brave, it does not feature a prince charming. Presumably, there were multiple intended messages within the film Brave, one of them being that women are not property and are very capable of solving their problems without any help from a male figure which is seen within Merida’s actions. In addition, the film strongly conveys the message that women do not have to be subservient, quiet and obedient in order to be successful. When Snow White was created, other genders that fit outside of the binary were not heard of. Gender Binary is also referred to as gender binarism—the classification of sex and gender into two distinct, opposite and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine. It is one general type of a gender system (Vechiu 2018)

In the Snow White film, binarism was heavily propagated within a patriarchal society. Where men worked and supported the family and women remained in the home solely to serve the needs of her family by cooking, cleaning and rearing children (traditional femininity). Within this timeframe, it is possible that other genders existed, but were not explored. Furthermore, it is feasible that genders that fell outside of the binary were suppressed in fear of stigma and sanction from society as a whole for engaging in what would be considered deviant behavior. When the authors created Merida it is heavily implied throughout the film and in the photo that they wanted to create a character that embodied characteristics that were classified as both feminine and masculine within western society. Not to mention more practical and relatable. Although, it is not entirely inclusive of individuals who do not identify as male or female it surely serves as a base where others will hopefully continue to build upon.