Seductive Women In Disney Movies Essay

In Hollywood film women 's roles have varied quiet considerably between genres, geographical placement, and period settings. These factors contribute to the different representations of women 's roles in the film they are present in. The roles are diverse going from the traditional maternal role to that of manipulative murderer. Women 's roles in movies can be almost equal to the male roles, and the co-stars are not given the majority of the acclaims just because they are male. Society has set certain standards that women are supposed to follow. The most common image of women is that they are very passive and try to avoid conflict in any situation. More and more in society women are breaking down the social barriers that confine them to their specific roles. The films Rear Window and Resident Evil show women in roles that are untraditional for our society. These two movies help to show how women are rebelling against social norms and that they are taking more active and aggressive roles. In film noir’s we can see women represented as the femme fatale, a woman whose mysterious and seductive charms leads men into compromising or dangerous situations. In action movies we see the heroine who is strong both physically and mentally, and has the ability to use weapons. Women seem to be more trapped than men because they are supposed to live up to society’s standards dealing with beauty and size, which are more physical characteristics. These specific guidelines have been set by

As explained in Judith Lorber’s excerpt from “‘Night To His Day’: The Social Construction of Gender”, gender is a socially constructed concept that everyone unconsciously adheres to (Lorber). As a socially constructed concept, representations of gender roles can reinforce or challenge the stereotypical images. In Killing Us Softly 4, Jean Kilbourne analyzed the advertisement industry’s representation of women and argued that the media plays a huge role in shaping gender formations (Kilbourne). Although objectification of women is still a prevalent issue, Kilbourne acknowledged that there are efforts nowadays that challenges the unrealistic representations of women and femininity (Kilbourne). Inspired partly by Killing Us Softly 4, the project is my way to reflect on how the Disney movies I had watched as I grow up represented gender.

In fact, when girls are sexualized or even see this sexualization in the media, they way they view themselves and others around them is altered. A recent study found that girls as young as six years old associate being sexy as a quality that is important and neccessary in order to be popular in their lives (Taylor). This comes from the early exposure to sexual messages and the hyper-sexualization of girls their age in the media. These girls grow up believing their value comes from how they look and what is most important is that other people find them sexy. And when girls don't think they are viewed as sexy, low self-esteem, depression, and eating disorders are very common side-effects (Taylor). Geena Davis, an actress who started an institute on how gender is portrayed in the media explains that one of the biggest effects of hyper-sexualization is "girls as young as 6 years old have started to self-sexualize...they have started looking at themselves through the male gaze and realizing that they need to be sexy in order to be appreciated."She says that "clearly the culture is sending a very negative message to girls, and to boys about girls, when the female characters are constantly shown in this sexy light" (Davis). Although this effect hyper-sexualization has may not seem very obvious, when girls see hyper-sexualization, the way they see themselves is changed forever. The only messages girls are getting is

The film industry has created the conventional gender roles of society into their movies; A majority of films have supported some of the male and female stereotypes. In the history of the film industry, the role of men is primarilythat of the stereotypical working class man or hero, while the roles of women are primarily portrayed as being somewhat inferior to men. In the 1930s through the 1970s, men held the leading roles in films while women played smaller roles. Men were typically employed, successful gentlemen, while the woman’s only job was a housewife. The film industry was mostly dominated by men. In terms of jobs, women were given mostly family roles and rarely were shown outside of their homes, while men had

In her evaluation, she analyzes how the princess characters sexualization may have an effect on the way that adolescent girls act. For example, she notes that Ariel, the Disney princess from the movie, “The Little Mermaid” moves and acts extremely sexualized as she only wear a seashell bra for clothing. In the plot of the movie, Ariel’s voice is taken a way in exchange for the ability to walk on land as a human, so that she may woo the man she has seen. As a result of this plot device, the only way that Ariel is able to accomplish this is by utilizing the sexualization of her body. As a result, this is teaching young girls in order to find love and happiness, the important part is that you have a desirable body and over sexualize yourself. The Prince in the Little Mermaid had no knowledge of what Ariel is actually like since she never speaks, thus showing that personality is not nearly as important as being attractive. These very same morales are further evaluated in Rachelle Michelle Johnson’s paper as she analyzes other movies such as “Pocahontas” and “Beauty and the Beast”. While analyzing these, she comes to the same result, that these movies show emphasis on sexualization over personality. The continuous exposure of these messages to these girls develop a new sense of what is important, thus making them feel as though they need to be more attractive to find happiness.

Women, young and old, have been perpetuated stereotypically through the various anti-feminist messages in television programs, as well as advertisements and films. These television programs have established a stereotyped sexualization of women through the behaviors and actions of different television roles in television programs, advertisements, and films. Television programs have a variety of different anti-feminist messages throughout their television programming. These anti-feminist messages include the belief that being beautiful means being more valuable.

In the American culture today, women are becoming more sexualized at a younger age due to the influences of the corporate media. Corporate media and society form the perfect idealistic body that women should have and is constantly being promoted making younger girls start to compare themselves to them at a young age. Certain shows and movies, such as Disney, influence young children and teenagers through their characters as to how a woman is supposed to be accepted. The way the corporate media and society make this body image they want women to have starts in a very early stage in a woman's life without them knowing. There are these childhood movies, such as Disney, Barbie and Ken dolls, programs such as Netflix, teen

Beauty and the Beast is another film with questionable morals. Despite a sixty year time span between the two films, gender relations changed very little. Though the main characters come off as slightly more rounded, there are still some eerie instances that should be addressed. Belle is (yet again) a stunning young woman who is revered throughout for her

Media portrays femininity on a daily, in our lives. Femininity are the qualities that traditionally associate with females. In movies femininity are strongly showed. People of all ages are exposed to the expectations of femininity which affects our views on female. In the media such as movies like “Cinderella” the portrayal reinforces gender stereotypes to their audience.

It also has the adverse effect of creating an unrealistic expectation of female beauty, which further demonstrates the media’s sexual exploitation of the female

On all platforms of media, women and even young girls are oversexualized; thus leading to men viewing women as no more than breasts, vaginas, legs, or any other body part they prefer. Even in current television shows, movies, comic books, and advertisements, women are still depicted as sexual objects, which can damage a woman’s confidence. The oversexualization of women 's bodies can degrade a young woman’s confidence, and when girls try to boost confidence by dressing or acting like the women they see in the media, they are reprimanded for it. Girls cannot be blamed for their sexualization; they are just emulating what they see in the media.

Since the 1940’s, movies have predominately portrayed women as sex symbols. Beginning in the 1940’s and continuing though the 1980’s, women did not have major roles in movies. When they did have a leading role the women was either pretreated as unintelligent and beautiful, or as conniving and beautiful: But she was always beautiful. Before the 1990’s, men alone, wrote and directed all the movies, and the movies were written for men. In comparison, movies of the 90’s are not only written and directed by women, but leading roles are also held by older and unattractive women. In this paper I will show the variations and growth of women’s roles in movies from the 1940’s though the 1990’s.

These objectification trends are on the rise and are creating a low self-image for our young children. This will continue to spiral downward as they mature into grown women.

The roles of males and females in society have significantly changed, as opposed to the predominant roles in our history. In the modern culture of today, women have begun to break out of the mold that which society has placed her in. This much can’t be said when it comes to modern gender representation in mass media advertising. It can be safe to state that woman are seen as sexual, fragile, exotic—whereas men are portrayed as tough, in control, and aggressive. This trend can be one seen as an inhibitor to the advancement of our culture, because especially for women, it is hard to pull away from the stereotypes that are continuously represented. As examples of the given trend, the following

The presentation of women on screen is another highlighted issue in many of the gathered sources. Because men were ultimately in control of what went on the screen much of what the audience perceived were women from the male imagination or fantasy. Bernard Beck elaborates in his article Where the Boys Are: The Contender and other Movies about Women in a Man’s World that, “…women have been used to dress up a male story or motivate a male character” (Beck 15). Women were often insignificant and trivial characters. Although, Kathe Davis disagrees to a point. In her article, Davis offers a dissonant opinion to the fore-mentioned insignificance of the female character. She instead describes many female characters as “predators,” and analyzes the roles of lead women in three prominent films of the nineteenth century. In each film, she finds parallels and similarities of cases of “female emasculation” and instances where “women are turned into objects of male desire” (Davis 47-48). Davis does not perceive female characters as being insignificant, just stripped of their power and misrepresented. She discusses how females of power are often portrayed as crazy