Research Blog Post

Do Animated Disney Characters Portray and Promote the Beauty–Goodness Stereotype?

Doris Bazzini, Lisa Curtin, and Serena Joslin, Shilpa Regan, Denise Martz

 This source talks about the beauty behind the Disney princess films. The stereotype, “what is beautiful is good” is mentioned and it proves to be true in these films. Every princess is flawless and beautiful. Even the newer princess Merida, who has crazy curly red hair, has beautiful features. Disney spends millions of dollars to create these movies, so making an “ugly” princess is a financial risk. In the source, there were 2 different studies that took place, one with adults and one with children. The basic idea of these studies was the see if physical attractiveness was associated with goodness. The people generally agreed upon the fact that if someone was physically attractive, they were perceived as a good person and had nice characteristics. This is true with Disney films; the princess is always beautiful and the villain, while although having decent facial features, has a darker and more intense appearance. The studies also found that the more physically attractive person (princess) consistently had a better life outcome than the lesser attractive person (villain). So Disney movies in a sense are saying, “if you’re pretty your life will be perfect and everyone will like you. You’re out of luck if you’re ugly”. Disney movies are intentionally made for a younger audience, so if a child isn’t the cutest thing in the world, they will grow up thinking they are less than the pretty people. That’s not a good message to be putting into people’s minds. This source provides great examples and reasoning’s behind Disney princess films and will help me a lot with my research paper.  

Research Blog

Power to the Princess: Disney and the Creation of the 20* Century Princess Narrative

Bridget Whelan

In this source, the author talks about the original fairytales that Disney transformed into their own. As someone who grew up watching these films, I had always thought that Disney thought of these stories on their own. I was surprised to find out that they actually come from authors like the Brother’s Grimm. Those fairytales are much darker and more intense than the Disney versions. The author mentions how in the original fairy tales, the princess wasn’t necessarily the main character, and she also wasn’t portrayed as the victim. She actually had masculine characteristics and sometimes was the rescuer in the book. Disney had completely manipulated the plot and turned it into a happier, prettier version. They focus solely on the princess who is viewed as a helpless, delicate girl who ends up marrying a handsome prince and they live happily ever after. This was always the case in the original versions; since it was a darker piece of work there wasn’t such thing as a ‘happy ending’. This source will be useful for my paper because it show exactly how Disney took a story and flipped it around. They took a heroine and turned her into a damsel in distress. It works well with my other sources, which are along the same lines and are academic sources.

Research Blog Post

Seeing White: Children of Color and the Disney Fairy Tale Princess

Dorothy L Hurley

In this source, the author writes about the skin color and its symbolism in the Disney princesses. Her main argument is that there are only 3 princesses who aren’t European descent and how it can be affecting the self-image of young girls. She states that young girls who watch these films identify themselves with the main characters, which is always the princess. If the viewer isn’t white she may feel left out and can’t relate to the princess. These girls can grow up feeling excluded and could believe that they are unworthy to be someone like those princesses. Another thing Hurley mentions is the color symbolism in the films of black and white. As mentioned, the princesses are typically white and are associated with the color white, like animals, their clothing, and their castles. The villains in the movies are associated with dark color, specifically black. This also can have a negative impact on its viewers especially if they aren’t white. If a viewer is African American, they don’t have much to relate to with the princesses, and it goes way beyond their skin color. Their culture and backgrounds are different, and darker colors are represented by the evils in the movies. Growing up, this can really impact girls who already have low self-esteem. If they can’t relate to someone like a Disney princess who is supposed to represent goodness and selflessness, they’re missing out on good role models. They also grow up thinking they are less than people since in nearly every film; darkness and blackness represent evil and badness. This source is very useful for my paper since it really captivates my thesis. It brings a different perspective on how these films can negatively impact young girls. It is something that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own, even though its argument is very obvious.

Research Essay: Blog Post #2

 The Production of Meaning through Peer Interaction: Children and Walt Disney’s Cinderella

 By: Lori Baker-Sperry

    In this source, by researcher Lori Baker-Sperry, she examines the gender role in young children through the reading of the book Cinderella. The focus point of this article was to show how young children reacted to this classic Disney book. Baker-Sperry read the book to eight different first grade classrooms, and explains her findings in this article. She noticed that every child knew the book and its basic story line, no matter if they were a boy or girl. She did note that the girls were more involved and actively participated in the reading, even going ahead in the book and telling everyone the ending. At a young age, these girls nearly had the book memorized and it is only one Disney book, not to mention most girls owned the movie as well. Baker-Sperry asked the class questions throughout the reading, regarding the personality and physical appearance of the characters. The girls answered by saying that Cinderella was “beautiful, kind, blonde, young, and skinny”, they said that the prince was “handsome, brave, and nice”, and that the evil stepmother and her daughters were “ugly, mean, old, and nasty”. The boy’s responses were that they were all dumb and stupid. The article also mentioned how the girls would relate their lives to Cinderella’s, hoping that one day they will have a happy ending like she did. At a very young age, girl’s expectations are being shaped around Disney princess’ lives, which automatically set them up for failure. These books and movies have such a powerful effect on girls and allow them to form an unrealistic life. The author of this article is a scientific researcher, and uses many outside sources to back up her information. This source is very reliable and helpful for my research paper. It will help make my paper solid and academic. It elaborates on most of the information in my other sources so it will all flow nicely. The source isn’t biased since it is academic research. It has truthful results that will help me write this essay. It will help shape my argument since it is exactly what my research is about. It helped reinforce my topic by proving that Disney princess movies shape the expectations and goals in young girls lives.

Research Paper: Source One

One source that I am going to use is “Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princess”. In this article, research was conducted for 3 different hypotheses. The first hypothesis suggested that the prince and princess character’s gender role portrayals would vary to their gender. The researchers displayed the characteristics for both masculine and feminine qualities in princes and princesses. In their findings they discovered that traditionally, the princes showed more masculine qualities like acting brave or being athletic, and princesses showed more feminine qualities like being fearful, troublesome, and affectionate. The second hypothesis was concerning how the rescuing actions would vary by the gender of the character. The results showed that the princes did in fact do more rescuing than the princesses did. This reinforced the statement that princesses were portrayed as helpless and powerless. The third hypothesis suggested that the gender role portrayals in the Disney Princess movies would become less restricted over time. The research from this showed that as the years went by, princesses were showing more masculine characteristics, like being brave and rescuing themselves.  It not only gives the data from these experiments but also provides detailed information about the Disney princess movies. This source will provide plenty of information for my paper since it talks about both the past, present, and future history of Disney movies. From its research, it provides how new movies will differ from the “original princess movie.” It doesn’t completely answer my research question but it contains enough information and data that will help me get there.