The Walt Disney franchise was founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Roy and Walt Disney. The franchise had a rather slow start until the mid-1930s. In 1934 Disney Productions wanted to go one step further in animation than any other production company. Therefore, Disney began production of its first animated feature film in 1934. Three years later, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in December 1937. By 1939, the film had become the highest-grossing film of all times. This was not only the beginning of Walt Disney's acclaimed success, but also Disney's sexist portrayal of women in his films. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Princesses such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora were created between 1937 and 1959 in a time when women were confined to the role of housewives while their husbands were the breadwinners. The gender roles between each princess are visibly stated in how they behaved according to what was expected of women within a male-dominated society. Gender roles are defined. Social expectations about behaviors, thoughts, and characteristics that go along with a person's assigned sex. (Vechiu 2018) Today gender is one of the most controversial and discussed topics in Western society, as there are no longer just two genders. There is no doubt that the media plays a significant role in how children, especially girls, shape their identities and subsequently adhere to gender roles that correspond to their biological sex. In recent decades, Disney has been criticized for its negative and stereotypical portrayal of life. women in Disney Princess films. (Maity 2014) Despite the negative portrayal of women in films such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, they have remained popular among younger audiences over the past seventy years. Concepts of femininity will be explored by critically analyzing the messages that the princesses, particularly Snow White from Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs and Merida from Brave, send to viewers regarding femininity. As one of the first Disney films, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs places a strong emphasis on gender stereotypes within a male-dominated society, particularly what it meant to be female in the 1930s. Gender stereotypes are defined as a generalized view of the characteristics that men and women should possess and the roles that should be performed (Vechiu 2018). Especially because the United States was going through an economic depression in which thousands of American workers were deprived of their jobs and their homes. The economic depression revived the traditional arrangement that a woman's place was in the home where she cared for her husband and children. . Western society as a whole reinforced this stigma, claiming that working women were “un-American” and stole jobs from men trying to provide for their families. To escape stigma and sanctions, many women took on the role of housewife which exclusively involved cooking, cleaning and raising children. During this sensitive period, Disney used the character of Snow White and used her as a symbol to show viewers the characteristics of an ideal woman embodied in this patriarchal society. Characteristics such as passivity, virgin, naive, obedient, clean, beautiful and as always a damsel in distress. In the film, Snow White is portrayed as a happy housewife waiting for her Prince Charmingcome and save her. Snow White embodies traditional femininity, which includes relatively enduring characteristics that include traits, appearances, interests, and behaviors that have traditionally been considered relatively more typical of women and men, respectively (adapting definitions provided by Constantinople, 1973). There are many intentional messages that are displayed in Snow White's behavior and mannerisms throughout the film. For starters, astrong emphasis on beauty and that all women should strive to achieve and maintain this feature. After all, during this period physical attractiveness was considered a woman's most valuable asset. The intended beauty message is delivered completely via the Evil Queen. She does everything in her power to become the most beautiful in the land and consequently tries to kill Snow White to increase her chances of achieving this goal. In the context of Disney films, the word “woman” has become synonymous with “victim” in a patriarchal society. The implication here is that women are subordinate to men in every aspect, especially within work roles. In Snow White the message is quite clear to viewers, especially girls, that a woman's job duties involve cleaning, caring for others, and waiting for a male figure to save you. To elaborate further, Snow White cleans a dirty house belonging to the Seven Dwarfs simply because cleanliness is a characteristic reinforced by traditional gender roles. When she initially saw the mess, she thought the young children lived in the house and had never had a mother figure in their lives. Therefore, she took on that role by cooking, cleaning, and harvesting the seven dwarfs. As she completed each task, her character was described as happy, dancing and singing happily, implying that all women should be happy to clean, cook, and take care of others at all times. Within traditional femininity, adherence to gender roles was highly prominent. Since Snow White was the only woman around the Seven Dwarfs, it was her job to accept that maternal role in their lives. Suggesting that a woman's job was to be motherly and give all her time to her husband and family without pay and with little appreciation for her hard work. Finally, Snow White enters a coma to wait for "true love's kiss" to save her life. This plays into the damsel in distress stereotype, where Snow White needs a man to save her and without him she is helpless and hopeless. Although they possess divine beauty, these princesses seem capable only of suffering in silence, which is why they finally receive the ultimate reward: salvation through the handsome Prince Charming. (Maity 2014) The implication here is that because Snow White was obedient, submissive, maternal, and beautiful, she was finally granted a savior through Prince Charming. Ultimately, the message that Snow White sends to viewers, especially younger ones who are just starting to shape their own identities, is that women are not only subordinate to men, but must adhere to gender roles and stereotypes because otherwise stigma and sanctions will follow. Unlike traditional princess films, Brave offers a drastically different perspective on how the female protagonist is portrayed. This film is about a young girl who gains independence and ultimately a voice by challenging patriarchal standards. Comparable to other Disney princess films, Merida is born into a royal family and grows up in a male-dominated society. His mother personifies the traditional gender stereotype of what it meant to bea woman within this society. At the beginning of the film, Merida is portrayed as an ambitious free spirit who rides her horse and practices archery despite her mother's attempts to teach it to her real princess. label. She constantly challenges what it means to be feminine through sword fighting, riding her horse, and shooting a bow. Throughout the film, Merida's mother teaches her how women, especially princesses, should behave. For example, princesses do not overeat at dinner, wake up early to spend the day in the kitchen, are patient, attentive, clean and, above all, strive for perfection. This is a common theme in more traditional princess films like Snow White. Although Merida complains about all the regulations and limitations she faces as a princess, she does not react against these traditions until she is forced to get married. Merida embodies pariah femininity, which is defined as a set of characteristics, attributes, and behaviors that are believed to contaminate the relationship between masculinity and femininity (Vechiu 2018). For example. although Merida's mother constantly pushes her to strive for perfection, she does the exact opposite. Her hair is unkempt, she despises tight clothing, and she enjoys archery. When Merida is told that she will have to get engaged to a stranger for the good of the kingdom, her anxiety grows and she rebels against her feminine duties (patience, passivity, grace). He tells his mother: “I don't want my life to end. I want my freedom,” giving a feminist speech. (Morante 2016) Unlike Snow White, Merida does not wish to marry and abide by the same traditional gender roles that oppressed her mother. Merida continues to reject the idea of ​​marriage and for this reason makes it mandatory. Furthermore, during this time, in order to reign as queen, Merida needs a husband to take her father's place as king of the kingdom. This reinforces the idea that women need marriage to achieve higher status and financial stability. While this may have been true at the time, Merida decides that she does not want to suffer the same fate as her mother and other women in this male-dominated society. So he rebels the best way he knows how, by shooting with a bow. While all the firstborn suitors gathered and shot their arrows to win Merida's hand in marriage, she decides to take a stand and compete for her own hand in marriage. Precisely this behavior contaminates the relationship between femininity and masculinity, because it not only contradicts practices defined as feminine, but also threatens man's exclusive possession of hegemonic masculine traits. (Vechiu 2018) Merida not only triumphs over the suitors and wins marriage, but in doing so she dishonors her family and in turn is punished by her mother. As a result, she is considered undesirable and stigmatized not only by suitors. suitors, but also the villagers. Unlike many princess films before Brave, it does not feature a Prince Charming. Supposedly, there were several intended messages in the movie Brave, one of which was that women are not property and are very capable of solving their problems without any help from a male figure which is seen in Merida's actions. Furthermore, the film strongly conveys the message that women do not have to be submissive, silent and obedient to be successful. When Snow White was created, there was no mention of other genres that fell outside of the binary. The gender binary is also referred to as gender binarism: the classification of sex and gender into two distinct, opposite, and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine. He's a general guy.