Snow White was the heroine of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. She was young, pretty, virginal, sweet-natured and obedient. She doesn’t mind housework because she is sure that a rich young man will soon come and take her away. When she was afraid, she ran away and fell down in tears. When she found shelter in a dirty little house, she immediately cleaned it up. She lived there and ‘looked after’ seven males (the dwarfs) and did all the housework. That became Snow White’s natural role.
This is typical of Disney’s films. Young women are naturally happy homemakers and wait for a man to come along and ‘give them a life’ (Snow White is in coma till the prince kisses her). This happens in various films such as THE LITTLE MERMAID, THE LION KING, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and MULAN.
There are many other heroines that with a cliché role. Ariel, the heroine of THE LITTLE MERMAID, has a similar character profile except that she is shown wearing a bikini made out of shells (she is shown to be more attractive). However, her role is still male dominated. She will do anything to make the prince fall in love with her; even give up her voice. In the end, she does get her voice back and she also marries the prince (all Disney movies have happy endings). But just for romance, she loses everything else including her underwater home, her father and all her friends. This story is ‘romantic’ but not advisable to young girls in real life.
Belle, the heroine of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, also has a similar character except that she loves reading. The movie says if a young woman is pretty and sweet natured, she can change an abusive man into a kind and gentle man. In other words, it is a woman’s fault if her man abuses her. This is another dangerous message to young girls because it does not happen in real life.
In LION KING, when Simba’s father (the king) is killed, he runs away and Scar takes over. The lionesses are shown to be very weak and they have to wait for Simba to come and save them. Actually, the Lion King also shows racist stereotypes. The movie takes place in Africa, but the actors used for the voice of Simba are white American’s. However the hyenas that are the bad characters speak non-standard English. This is a mild case of racism.
In MULAN, Disney created Shang, a male hero for Mulan. When everyone finds out that Mulan is a woman, they decide to kill her. But Shang cannot kill her, so he tells her to go away. Afterwards, he comes to marry her.
Disney has made another blunder. Even though Mulan has a different character than Snow White, the life of a Disney heroine has not changed very much. Men still are dominant and in the end they get married to the heroine. (Shang marries Mulan).
I am going to look into Snow White and Mulan in more detail
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) was Walt Disney’s first ever animated feature. Walt Disney’s choice of Snow White was more realistic than sentimental. He recognised it as a splendid tale for animation, containing all the necessary ingredients: an appealing heroine and hero, a villainess of classic proportions, the dwarfs for sympathy and comic relief, a folklore plot that touched the hearts of human beings everywhere.
One day Snow White is sitting and dreaming about the day her prince will come. A man spies on Snow White and goes to meet her, but she shyly runs away even as he pleads her to stay. Elsewhere, the evil queen questions her magic mirror as to who is the fairest in the land. On this fateful day, the mirror answers that the queen's stepdaughter, Snow White, is the fairest. This disgusts the queen and she orders Humbert, her huntsman, to kill Snow White. As proof, the huntsman is to bring back Snow White's heart to the queen.
The huntsman does indeed take Snow White out to the woods to kill her, but does not kill her. He instead pleads with Snow White to run far, far away and never make herself known to the queen again. Snow White runs away into the forest and after a while collapses to the ground and begins crying. When she looks up, she is startled to see that a group of forest animals have surrounded her. Snow White asks the animals if they know of a place where she can stay and they lead her to a small cottage.
The grateful Snow White proceeds to make herself at home, cleaning the cottage up and making a home for herself. After working so hard, Snow White falls asleep on one of the seven beds she finds in the cottage. Later on, seven dwarves come back to find Snow White sleeping in their cottage. The dwarves and Snow White are all understandably alarmed, but soon come to realise that neither means to harm the other. The dwarves decide to let Snow White stay with them so that she may take care of them and their home while they work in the mines.
All is well, as Snow White and the seven dwarves come to enjoy living together, but back in the kingdom, treachery is afoot. The queen questions her mirror as to who is the fairest and still the mirror answers that it is Snow White. Knowing she's been deceived, the queen learns of Snow White's whereabouts and uses her dark magic to transform herself into an old lady. She visits Snow White at her cottage and gives her an apple, but what Snow White doesn't know is that the apple is poisoned. She takes a bite of the apple and falls into a deep coma.
The dwarves come home and find Snow White lying on the floor. Thinking she's dead, they erect a glass coffin and place her inside it. They mourn the loss of their beloved Snow White, but all is not lost as Snow White's prince rides in to give her Love's Everlasting Kiss, the only thing that can awaken her. This angers the queen who disappears in a fit of jealousy and is never to be seen again. Snow White, the prince, and the seven dwarves live happily ever after.
Disney’s 1998 release of MULAN is considered a momentous achievement for the Asian American community. Based on real events, the story has lived in the heart of Chinese civilisation for over fifteen centuries. Disney’s rendition of Mulan (written by Rita hsiao) has twisted the original text to support damaging views of Chinese culture.
MULAN, 1998, is one of the latest feature length animations to be released from Walt Disney Pictures. Based upon Chinese folklore, the film follows the escapades of a young girl called Fa Mulan. Problems arise when her aged father is summoned to join the war against the Huns. In an act of devotion, Mulan secretly takes his place in the army by disguising herself as a man.
Mulan undergoes military training to become physically fit. Being a woman, she finds it hard to train. Under Captain Li Shang, the small army defeats Shan-Yu and his entire army. However, when Mulan is hurt everyone finds out that she is a woman. She gets sentenced to death, but because she once saved Shang’s life, she is forgiven.
Later on, Mulan discovers that the Hun army is still alive and preparing to attack the emperor. Instantly, she rushes to the Emperor and protects him. She is praised and duly recognised for her bravery and courage. When she gets home, her family is very proud of her and Shang proposes to her.
At the end of the movie, Mulan has become a self-assured and independent woman. Disney has clearly grown up with her, finally realising there’s a world in which women want more than a prince, and that people, even animated people, are made up of more brush strokes than those that can be nailed down to one colour, gender or particular way of life.
Female Disney characters are traditionally placed in one of three positions: that of an idealised teenage heroine, wicked middle-aged beauty or nurturing post-menopausal woman. These are the main stereotypes. Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel and Belle are examples of teenage heroines. Cruella Deville (101 DALMATIANS), Ursula (THE LITTLE MERMAID) and the wicked Queen (SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS) are classical examples of middle-aged heroines. They have been called Disney’s femme fatales (powerful woman defined by her sexuality). Disney’s older women are always godmothers, fairies and servants. Their appearance is also common in the fairy tale genre. Because they are post-menopausal, they are not threatened as middle-aged heroines.
Sarah Underwood says in her article ‘Changing the Way We Feel About Women’ that “it is the way women are treated that affects children and adults globally. Women are not only mistreated in the workplace, but on the silver screen as well.”
Susan Riley has written an article in the Canadian magazine ‘Media Awareness’ telling us that there are few animated women in the Disney ‘mould’. She says, “Even though the latest Disney films have toned down the sexism somewhat, they continue to exhibit insulting stereotypes of unpopular minorities, most recently Arabs and gays.”
Frederica Mathewes-Green argues in her article ‘The Women of Disney’ that if a heroine has big eyes and hair she has to be Jasmine. If she has an attitude, she has to be Ariel. If she has a ‘coupla extra pounds’ she has to be Snow White and if she has mice she has to be Cinderella. If she has books she has to be Belle.
Personally, I feel that gender roles have changed ever since SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS represents women in the early 1900s while Mulan represents women in the late 1900s. However, all heroines in Disney still have a bit in common. Many people have written articles and argued against the stereotypical roles played by Disney’s heroines.
