Happily Ever After..?
Fairy tales
tell a story of tragedy, triumph, love, domestic violence, disobeying parents,
degrading women? Hmm…those last few usually aren’t used to describe Disney fairy
tales a lot of people grew up to love. The story where the old lady bestowed
some sort of curse on the princess and the prince comes to her recues while she
waits unable to fend for her own. Sounds a little bit like five Disney movies.
Or the one where the princess makes a deal with evil but true love sets all
things right. Looking at children in society and young girls in particular what
messages are actually being implied here? Are we as children, even adults
missing something? Disney movies suggest very strong roles for gender (male and
female specific) and how their lives ultimately end happily ever after.
We
all have responsibilities we can't ignore. And don't trust that creepy uncle. Simba
always knew that he would follow in his fathers, Mufasa, footsteps as the next
Lion King. But as fate would have it Samba’s, his dad got trampled to death by
wildebeests. Of course, Mufasa's death was really caused by the evil Scar,
Simba's uncle. Later, all grown up, he reclaims his thrown and Scar falls off a
cliff and gets torn apart by hyenas. So after two particularly nasty and
horrendous deaths, Simba finally becomes the lion king. Looking at this in text
and taking away hakuna matata it would seem that the message is that in order to
succeed someone will have to pay. However, in the end it is okay because the
ends justify the mean. First looking at this movie it was hard to find where
feminism would tie in here. However, after watching the film I was finding it
hard to find one of the girls in the main focal point. Then I realized that’s feminism!
The male is the center stage putting his pride at stake and having to leave and
then coming back to conquer his town and regain his pride. The women very much
in this movie take the back seat and are submissive to their male counterparts.
They show the passive and nurturing sides. Simba, Mufasa, Scar, Rafiki, Zazu, Timon, Pumbaa all take quite a bit of
time in the movie where as Nala has very little time in the movie and the
mother of Simba her and the relationship they have is very over shadowed by
Simbas and his fathers. Also, when it comes to Nala very early in the film they
show Nala and Simba as equals. However, when Simba leaves Nala doesn’t take
over or at least have some kind of fill in for him. She is very smart and has a
lot steadier head on her shoulders than Simba, who is a little more immature
and need of guidance. It is only when Simba returns that they all stand up and
over throw Scar because they have a male to lead them. All the strong, independent,
smart lions including Nala are unable to stand up to a male counterpart. “The
characters are animals, but their voices show racist stereotypes. Even though
The Lion King takes place in Africa, two white American actors are used for the
voice of Simba, the hero. However, the hyenas who are bad characters in the film
speak non-standard English and are played by actors like Whoopi Goldberg and
Cheech Marin. The villain, Scar, suggests homosexuality.” (Women, Race and
Culture in Disney Movies) Lion King was one of my all times favorite films as a
child maybe even my favorite but looking at some of the messages I saw being
implied here made me wonder if this type of scenario is being too “normal” to
be seeing at such a young age.
Mulan is finally a story
about a female character fending for her own and has all the power! Not quite…
Looking at the movie Mulan she does express power and independence and enters
the war to fight in place of her father. The movie starts off by showing how
Mulan is not the typical women and simply cannot full fill the duties that women
must. She shamed her family by her actions and inability to learn these traditions
held so highly in her society. She enters the army and pretends to be a male. The
movie introduces a male Shang a hero for Mulan. Once Mulan is found out to be a
women and not a male she is sentenced to death however, Shang cannot kill so he
just sends her away. He literally decides whether she lives or dies. A man still
has the power here. He is still the deciding factor and the one with the upper
hand. Again, in the end the best thing that can happen is for them to get
married and live happily ever after. Even after everything she does for her
country, family and finding her sense of self her biggest feat of all is
finding love.
Treat others the way you
want to be treated. This is engraved in many young people and just a general
message of how to behave. Looking at Beauty
and the Beast it would seem as though because of Belle and her heart saved
the beast and he was able to be the charming prince once again. Harmless? No.
To me, this is showing how it is okay to be treated awfully and held against
your own will as long as he has enough books for you to read. No thanks. The
beast would send insults to Belle her whole time she was (held captive) there.
HE on more than one occasion almost hit her and was unable to control his
anger. She was patience and eventually he learned how to love again. So what is
that telling girls in abusive relationships? Underneath his hard abusive
exterior is a soft warm loving side to him he always wanted to share with you.
This can be a serious problem because children, girls especially if exposed to
domestic violence at home or once are grown that you have to stay and be nurturing
because he is just a lost soul or prince in a beast. Not always the case.
Tue love is the thing that
can and will conquer everything. Seems a little far fetch but that is the
ending of many fairy tales. Many rational people understand this fact but we
get disappointed that our lives don’t end up with the price and the palace. Little Mermaid holds true to the phenomenon.
Ariel is a mermaid who dreams to live on land. Ariel so desperate to get on
land exchanges her voice for a pair of legs with the evil Ursula. Every evil appointment
is an old gross looking woman. The wicked step mother or the evil power hungry
witch. What is that saying about old women? That because they are old they are
automatically evil and will take any step to be young and beautiful again? It
is teaching kids to see elder women as something to undesired and something to
avoid. Not all women at their older age are trying to be young again but are fairly
happy with getting older and that not being accompanied by some potion to make
them look young and manipulated a man or taking advantage of a young girl’s
innocence and beauty. But I digress. Ariel gets her legs meets a prince who her
father is not pleased with but she decides to go after any way and the prince
kills Ursula and Ariel gets her legs and voice. So even though she found her
true love she never would have unless she had made the deal with evil. She
makes a deal with the devil but ultimately gets everything she ever wanted.
Happily ever after. A little compromise with evil is alright as long as you
find your prince charming and let true love take over.
Disney is one of the
biggest movie making industries and make some of the most influential films
kids see. These movies are seen as something to mimic or see as a part of
history or cultural norms. They are just movies though and kids need to be
taught that. They should not be the frame work for how women or men should
behave or how their lives may be hard but true love and happily ever after
awaits them.
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rT28Z0xM88
http://newint.org/easier-english/Disney/diswomen.html
