Am I reading way too much into this?

I will never be able to view a Disney film the same way as I did as a child. The innocence that went along with watching these films and taking it for face value is gone and lost forever replaced by knowledge that corrupts my magical world of Disney, I once had. So, what do you think?. Am I reading way too much into this or am I right?

Is Snow White guilty of this too?

I think so. Snow White constitutes a traditional female role as seen by the dominant male culture.The character of Snow White exemplifies this theme in that not only does she need to be physically rescued from her situation but must come to be “reformed” (Bean, page 54) by her love interest. She resolves herself to care for the Seven Dwarfs cooking and cleaning for them. Snow White’s character displays the appropriate traits and characteristics accepted by mainstream American culture. She is “shy, obedient, hesitant, naïve, innocent, and motherly” (Wasko, page 134). It should also be noted, that instead of trying to get control of the castle which was rightfully hers in the first place, she chooses to flee and waits until she is discovered by her prince. Here Disney is sending the message that in order to get what is rightfully yours, you must accomplish it with the help of a male.Well excuse me but I think that is full of bullcrap.

Furthermore Disney continues to perpetuate the homemaker stereotype that has plagued American women for many years, through the use of Snow White. Snow White “must be removed to a home where she can learn how to take care of a house and meet the needs of not only one man, but seven” (Ayres, page 39). Snow White’s unique beauty, in contrast to the evil Queen, and that her beauty is not enough to sustain her but only important so that she can “attract a man so that she can serve him and serve her children” (Ayres, page 43).


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Is Esmeralda from the Huncback of Notre Dame a prime example of this verision of feminity that Disney is trying to sell us?

A prime example of a Disney female character that illustrates this is Esmeralda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. This Disney film insists on “visually defining Esmeralda on the sum of her sexual parts: breasts, stomach, hair, and pubic area” (Bean, page 55). Esmeralda epitomizes the “1990s body: trim, athletic, and voluptuous – an Olympic runner in a Wonder Bra” (Bean, Page 57). Although in this particular film Esmeralda is portrayed as a product of desire, she is considered to be “slutty” and “prostitute” like. To further illustrate this, she makes her living dancing on the street seductively for coins like a stripper dances for dollar bills. Aside from her dress and physical form, her dance is seductive and highly sexual. In one particular scene a male villain Frollo, stares into a fire where Esmeralda appears, and is sexually excited. As Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan state in their book “Deconstructing Disney”, in relation to how she appears out of the flames “her body's further sexualized by the lack of detail: her breasts and lips exaggerated, her hair let loose, her body language erotic and flirtatious like a cartoon-lap dancer, her shirt is tight and cut lower” (Byrne and McQuillan, page 11). Besides from her dress and physical physique Esmeralda’s dance is seen as seductive, erotic, and highly sexual. In one particular scene, at the Annual Fools Celebration, her overabundant sexuality is further demonstrated by a seductive dance she performs for Frollo as “She flies into Frollo’s lap, playfully kissing him on his pointed nose” (Bean, page 57.) She unintentionally performs what would be perceived as a striptease in today’s world. As the dance increases, her physical sexuality becomes more prominent and her clothes become more revealing thereby able to manipulate her male audience.

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Disney Verision of Feminity: The wrong message for our youth.

Disney’s female characters are giving our children the wrong idea of what it means to be a women and feminine. According to Disney and the overwhelming male production staff to be feminine is: to be thin, have small waists, long hair, large breasts, curvy hips, and essentially have an “hourglass” figure which is represented in their female characters Women are to be feminine and sexually attractive. Women are not supposed to be of power or importance.They are to be solely women of image and objects of desire for their male counterparts. Furthermore, most of the female lead characters and story plots that revolve around a male dominated world and usually end up marrying the prince, etc. No matter what their strife or struggle may have been, at the story’s completion the audience sees the female living happily ever after with her object of desire. All in all they are subservient to their male counterparts. Furthermore, Disney enhances this overt feminine sexual tone and the typically female personality traits of the Disney women, are the exhibition of the traditional roles that women were supposed to maintain. This concept continues to perpetuate the homemaker stereotype that has plagued American women for many years. It is clear that the Disney females find themselves in a male dominated world and only finds peace and contentment through her marriage to a “prince” and living happily ever after.

Why this topic?

The other day, I went with a few of my friends to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D to relieve our childhoods. I wanted to relive the fantasy, magic, and joy that the movie brought me when I was a child, but watching it as an adult it was sadly not the same. The mysticism that came along with it slowly started to fade away in the scene where Bell drops her book in the mud and Gaston remarks to Bell " It is not right for a women to read, soon she starts getting ideas, thinking.” I was alarmed and could not believe this sexist comment. I turned to my friend and said: "oh my, that is so sexist". As the movies progressed the film was full of sexism. This got me to think about the portrayal of women and sexism in the Disney films. I wanted to know how were the Disney Princesses I looked up as a child, really portrayed.