Hello. I am an ALevel media student studying the represenation of female characters in Disney films. I was wondering if anyone would like to share their views on how they feel the women in films such as "Snow White", "Beauty and the Beast", and "The Little Mermaid" are portrayed. Maybe in comparison to each other, their relationships and comparisons with the male charaters around them, and generally anything else you may think i will find helpful. Any comments welcome. Thank You

Hmm, 'fraid it's been too long since I've seen any of those movies. Anyone wish to comment?

Well (layman here) they're not at all realistic. They're always "perfect" - slim, bubbly, chirply (no matter what they're situation) and no matter how poor they are, their hair is always perfect and there's not a single smear of mud on them.

thank you very much guys. i didnt really expect to get any hits back. i also signed up to another movie forum were i posed the same question and i think i really annoyed someone as he thought i was cheating in my classwork by asking other people to do it for me. this isnt the case, i have to do different forms of research for my exam and i decided that internet forums would be a good way to do part of it. so basically the fact that i have posted this on here shows my research initiative for my first paper. Any contributions you make will be helpful for my second paper. just in case anyone thought i was cheating by asking. but if anyone wants to keep the coments coming it will be greatly appreciated. thank you

Well, I dont think this is cheating, though I do wonder how seriously this will be taken as a source. But hey, consider it a form of interview, like asking random strangers on the street for an opinion.

Now for the actual question, I would think you would have to look at when each movie was made. Snow white and sleeping beauty are from a very different era than anything in the last decade or two. Also, try and make a distinction between movies that revovle around a female character and movies which have the female as a supporting character. The role of a character like arial or belle is different that the role of jasmine or nalla.

My opinion (though I admit I havent watched many recent disney movies) is that the older movies were classic fairy tale style stories. As such the females were typical damsels in distress, though I believe there were some exceptions (just cant remember) and so while it is understandabl, it is easy to look down on it given modern views.

On the other hand, I am really tired of the current trend (not just in disney stuf but all over) of trying to make sure that the women are always just as tough and just as capable as all the boys. I'm sorry, but when the girl in pirates of the caribean (the one without a Y chromosome) had her little "try wearing a corset" line, I nearly vomitted. It's not that I dont like strong female characters, on the contrary, I love them . It's just that the way it is done is so artificial and clearly just there to be politically correct and ultimately it hurts the watchability of the movie. (crouching tiger hidden dragon for example, shows strong female characters who dont seem contrived and tacked on.)

As for relationships, well, dont look for too much there. These are kids movies and therefore tend to be pretty simplistic. A lot of these characters exist for the purpose of providing motivation for a hero to take action, and to allow for a love story because millions of little girls want to see it and millions of little boys want to see it and then act disgusted so no one will suspect that they actually like it.

Really I think people sometimes put a little too much emphasis on this stuff. These are simple movies designed to appeal to little kids. As such everything must be simple enough for children to understand. Everything is idealized, reality ignored and many things are exagerated.

The only exception to all of this that I can think of is the lion the witch and the wardrobe (it may not be a cartoon but it is disney and family oriented) which has no overt romantic subplot, surprising depth and subtle hints to complex ideas, realistic relationships, and yes, 3 relatively strong female characters which dont feel fake. There is of course the white witch who is brutal and primal as to seem masculine and yet is still clearly a woman. Then there is susan, who is trying way to hard to be responsible and mature and just makes you want to slap her, but you still like the character. And then there is lucy, who is the only one of the kids who is actually happy being a kid, and clearly is the author's favorite of the four.

Woo, thorough answer makeitstop! Great contribution.

And don't worry man, I highly doubt "cheating" really crossed anyone's mind - sure didn't mine. I realize the necessity of doing random surveys for research papers.

I have to agree with the above poster about them being perfect in every way. Even their personalities are perfect. Never throwong temper tantrums or being critical. Never opinionated.....I guess that is why kids like Disney characters so much, never any stress.