Disney’s Distorted Image of the “Perfect” Family

By: Nikki Felice

When I reflect back on my childhood, one of the first things that comes to mind is my obsession with Disney movies. Yes, I was that child, the one who watched The Little Mermaid or The Lion King four times in row without moving from my seat. I was Disney’s biggest fan.  I used to own every single movie on VHS – my basement was covered in Disney films from floor to ceiling. There was even a time in my life when I refused to eat any food unless I was also watching a movie. So every day during breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I would be sitting at my little plastic table in the middle of the living room eating Macaroni and Cheese while being absorbed into the world of Disney. I don’t know how my parents put up with that.

Actually, I do know how they put up with that; Disney films, and many other children’s films, are scattered with subtle adult humor and ideas. My parents were able to listen to my movies play on repeat because they did not consist of childish themes. For example, Mulan is about a young woman who sacrifices her entire life for her family and her country in an unforgiving war. What I’m trying to say is that many Disney movies contain much more than sing-along-songs. However, as a child, I did not understand much of the content or context of the films; all I wanted was to hear the songs and see the princess find her true love. However, as the years have passed and I have grown, I began to realize that there are some not-so-nice underlying messages that are portrayed through Walt Disney’s movies. Besides the dominant storyline, these movies are often full of many forms of discrimination. Specific scenes contain text and images that portray inequalities, but nobody would ever notice these subliminal messages if one was not looking for them.

More specifically, Disney movies contain very specific discrimination and stereotypes relating to the idea of family. Disney paints a very clear and definite picture of the “ideal” family throughout their films, and it I cannot help but notice more and more in every Disney film that I see.

To really kick off my pop culture playlist, I would like to introduce you to five different scenes in five different animated movies that represent the distorted images of Disney’s portrayal of the “ideal” family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__dlFEWclNI

Though it may not be visible to the untrained eye, this movie clip from the classic Disney movie The Little Mermaid (1989) has a lot going on in it: stereotypes about females, prejudice about daughters, and rules for how fathers should act.  Let’s start with the most visible issue: Ariel’s body. Ariel has an impossibly beautiful figure, a waist that is literally the size of a toothpick, and the biggest and most innocent eyes that Disney could create. Little girls across the country dream of becoming a mermaid and taking after this princess, even though Ariel has an unnatural body figure. Society allows girls to idolize a young woman whose features are sickeningly thin. Linda Christensen, author of “Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us: Critiquing Fairy Tales and Films,” sums up the reality of today’s media very well: “It can be overwhelming and discouraging to find out my whole self-image has been formed mostly by others.” (Christensen). From the start, we are setting unrealistic expectations for young girls, so it is no wonder why so many girls develop body issues when they get older. However, our society is greatly based on image, and the audience has a distinct gaze as they watch a film (Mulvey). And the audience always wants to be gazing at a young, skinny, beautiful girl, for the audience is always based on the man’s appeal. (Mulvey).

This scene, as well as the movie as a whole, is a great example of how society expects daughters to act. The exchange between Ariel and King Triton focuses on how King Triton is punishing his daughter for going to the surface of the ocean, a very dangerous and unknown place. The surface is home to mysterious, physically appealing men (such as Prince Eric), and thus no place for a lady to be. King Triton wants his daughter away from men and with her sisters at all times. The reasoning behind the King’s strict rules subtly touches upon Lorde’s explanation of the virgin/whore binary; Ariel is a young princess, and so of course must be a virgin. That’s just how all fairy tales go. However, if Ariel were to disobey her father and swim to the men above the surface, she would be straying away from the “virgin” part of the binary. Consequently, she would be labeled as a whore. As a result, King Triton must strictly reprimand his daughter so that she stays safe and close to home, staying well within the boundaries of being a virgin. The message that we are receiving, then, is that daughters must be pure, honest, and conforming to their fathers.

Looking at this scene from the complete opposite angle, it is subliminally telling us that fathers must be overprotective, uncompromising, and in complete authority over his daughter. From the beginning of time, we have been taught “that women are passive, men are strong, and people of color are either absent or evil” (Christensen). King Triton exerts his strength and power over Ariel to prove his rightful place as the man of the household and the man of the kingdom. By exposing young boys to movies such as this, they are learning that they must have complete power in every situation, especially his family, when he grow up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAFKRlVbb6U

This second artifact is a clip from Disney and Pixar’s film The Incredibles (2004). This movie is about a white family of superheroes who have been living like “normals” for many years, but must come out of hiding again when a new super villain emerges.

Breaking it down, we see right away the gender stereotypes in this scene. The mom is a stay-at-home mom who cooks, cleans, and is responsible for the kids. She is feeding her baby and trying to engage discussion with her children at the dinner table, while the father seems to be very passive in regards to the children’s activities. When the kids start acting up, the mother immediately calls for the father to say something or intervene, because he is the man of the house and the biggest authority. This is a great example of stereotypes from Dyer’s “Introduction” and “Stereotypes.” Dyer argues that the way social groups are treated in representations is how they are treated in real life. In other words, how we are seen determines how we are treated. In this case, the white mother is seen as a housewife whose only job is to take care of her children and her home, and even then she is still stressed out from her difficult day. Based on Dyer’s claims, this film is proving that because this is how women are represented in movies, women will be treated the same in real life. Women will always have the low expectation of growing up to becoming just a mother and housewife, because women cannot handle being anything more than that.

The father of this family, Bob, just happens to represent Lorde’s “mythical norm” that is discussed in his article “Age, Race, Class, and Sex.” Lorde claims that this mythical norm is “usually defined as white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure.” (Lorde). Our friend Bob, whose name just screams “American white man,” contains many of the mythical norm qualities, if not all of them. Lorde goes on to explain that “it is with this mythical norm that the trappings of power reside within this society,” (Lorde). Coincidentally, (or not so coincidentally), Bob is the power figure in the family. When he tells the children to stop arguing, they stop. When the mother loses control of the family, she begs Bob to step in and use his power to take control. Therefore, we are seeing that fathers are supposed to be the head of the household, the final authority, the moneymaker, and have absolute control over every member of the family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6EpQP7tRjo

So far, we have seen two clips from two separate Disney movies that have focused mainly on gender roles for women. Ariel is an obeying daughter, and Mrs. Incredible is the housewife mother. Now, I would like to take a look at how Disney portrays the image of the ideal son ad how Disney describes the way a perfect son should act.

The clip above is one of the most famous scenes from The Lion King (1994), a complete classic that all children love. Here, we have Mufasa scolding his son Simba for running off and getting himself in trouble. Simba is obviously embarrassed and ashamed as he admits his actions to his father, which one can tell be examining his facial expressions, drooping ears, and drooping tail. Young Simba claims to have just been trying to act like his father: brave, strong, and powerful. Simba’s desires are an excellent representation of the way the majority of men feel about their own fathers. In an article titled “Memorable Experiences Between Fathers and Sons: Stories That Shape a Son’s Identity and Perspective of His Father,” an interview is taken of young men and their fathers about their relationships. Most of the sons talked about having a “super dad,” and described how they want to live up to their fathers’ expectations. They described having similar personalities and wanting to follow in their fathers’ footsteps. (Edgar and Fish). By having Simba model his father’s actions, viewers can take away the message that sons must live up to their fathers’ expectations or disobey their fathers’ orders.

Simba is still a young cub, and yet his father is already very strict with rules. Simba went out to play, and he was scolded for his childish behavior. As the only son, he must be serious, focused, and grow up faster than everyone else. He must always obey Mufasa, because according to one of the men who answered in the interview, “Nothing is worse than disappointing your father” (Edgar and Fish).

You may have already noticed, but each Disney movie that we have seen so far has consisted of white characters only. It took Disney many years to incorporate a leading role who was not white. One of the most recent movies that has a black woman as a leading role is The Princess and the Frog (2009).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDP2yPtDDLk

This clip from the movie shows Tiana and Charlotte as young girls. Charlotte is a young white girl, and she is the daughter of a very wealthy sugar baron. She receives everything that she wants, is extremely “girly,” and dreams of someday marrying a prince. Her house is a mansion and her bedroom is the size of ballroom. Charlotte is a spoiled, rich girl, and it is no surprise that she is white. Tiana, on the other hand, is a little black girl whose dress is a rag compared to Charlotte’s. Tiana is more practical than Charlotte, and Tiana’s mother has the poor job of being a seamstress for Charlotte. When Tiana and her mother leave, they return to a small home in a neighborhood surrounded by other lower-middle class black families. Tiana’s father talks to her about working hard in order to do what she loves: cooking and opening up a restaurant.

Most of this scene relates to both the article by McIntosh and the article by Springer. McIntosh talks about white privilege in “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” which is portrayed greatly thorough out this entire movie. Charlotte is a rich girl because she is white. Her father would not be so successful or wealthy if he was colored. All of the dresses, toys, and gifts she receives she takes for granted. She just assumes that she will marry a beautiful and wealthy man, because that is how life is for her. Charlotte does not realize that some people, such as Tiana, have to work for what they want.

In the article “Queering Black Female Heterosexuality,” Springer talks about the stereotypical representations of black women in the media and how their sexuality is represented. Springer argues that black women are either completely nonsexual, or they are over-sexualized, such as in the representations of “Jezebel” or “Sapphire.” In this movie clip, Tiana’s mother is very nonsexual. Her clothes are boring and conservative; she dresses respectably. She is stern to the girls when the act up, which is common according to Springer. Additionally, she plays both a mother figure and a Mammy type figure when she watches over and takes care of Charlotte and Tiana. Clearly, Walt Disney as refused to create an oppositional gaze by staying within the defined stereotypes of black women and families.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U0xGBNl2fE

The last Disney movie that I would like to look at also relates to families of different race. The movie Lilo and Stitch (2002) represents family much differently than the previous movies that I’ve show you. To begin with, this family is not your normal white family. Lilo is a native of Hawaii, and therefore her skin tone and features are much different than the typical white girl. However, more importantly, Lilo’s family is very atypical for a Disney portrayal of family; the family in this movie is just Lilo and her older sister. Their parents passed away in a car accident, and now Lilo’s older sister plays the role of the parent.

Family is obviously very important to Lilo, for she has grown up understanding that “ohana means family; family means that nobody gets left behind.” Lilo’s family is “broken” because they do not have parents. Because an older sister must take on the role of a mother, the family is poor and sad. They don’t have many toys because Lilo’s older sister cannot afford to spend any extra money.

Is it a coincidence that this “broken” and “imperfect” family also happens to be colored or exotic? Is it a coincidence that the family is having trouble making money when a woman is now the breadwinner? Why is it that Lilo and her sister can’t live happily? Why must an absence of parents mean that the family is not as perfect as a family with parents? I believe that none of these questions are a coincidence or a fair representation of families in general. I will discuss this more in my next part of the assignment.

ANALYSIS

I have shown you five different examples of animated Disney movies that portray families and family members in a very specific way. Why? Because these Disney films distort the image of family and create an “ideal” or “perfect” family, which leads children to believe that their own family is wrong or imperfect if it is not the same as the ones in the movies.

Children will be believe anything; a young boy may read a comic about Spiderman, and all of a sudden he is trying to use his own web to swing from one room to another. Children are delicate and their minds are malleable. Whatever we teach them and expose them to now is what they will grow up believing. If we want our children to grow up in a family that is based on equality, then we must stop teaching them through the viewing of Disney movies that sexism, racism, and other discrimination are allowed in modern day.

Each scene that I have shown you highlights either the father, mother, son, or daughter of a family and relays some sort of message about how that family member should and shouldn’t act. When we look at them as a whole, we see how Walt Disney Studios has a very biased view on family and family roles. So let’s take everything we’ve seen and put it together to create the big picture…

A Disney movie family consists of an authoritarian of a father, a petite housewife of a mother (if one exists), an obeying and conforming daughter, and a hard-working, heroic son. And the family is completely white nine out of ten times. This may sound like just my personal opinion, but it is far more than that.

In Disney’s animated movies, “typically women are portrayed as a princess, queen, or homemaker,” according to the authors of “Gender Roles in Disney Animation” (Yerby, Baron, and Lee). And this heroine always “needs rescuing by the nearby prince” (Yerby, Baron, and Lee). Why do the female characters always need to be rescued? Because Disney wants to portray women as weak and incapable of taking care of themselves. However, “a Disney princess is a female heroine that many children look up to as role models…” so young girls’ role models are merely damsels in distress. If this is what young girls are exposed to, they will never set higher expectations for themselves. They will grow up believing that they will need a male figure to guide them and protect them throughout their lives. For example, Ariel in The Little Mermaid needs both her father’s power and protection to keep her safe. But even this is not enough, so her father makes sure that Sebastian (the male lobster), also watches over her and keeps her out of danger. Furthermore, Mrs. Incredible shows much weakness when she cannot do her one job of being a stay-at-home mom successfully. Therefore, as little girls watch these movies, they are taking away the message that they can never act independently. While still adolescents, they will believe that they need to obey their father’s demands in order to stay safe and pure. Have you ever stopped to think about why little girls always want to play “house” and just cook clean, and feed a baby in their imaginary game? Why don’t girls pretend to have jobs when they play house? It is because that we are feeding girls images of delicate, incapable, and dependent women. Girls “go from being the possession of their father, right into being the possession of their husband or another male” (Sherman). When these girls grow up, they will never aspire to be anything more than a co-dependent housewife whose only job is to take care of her kids and look pretty for her husband, because that is all that girls have been taught that they can do.

Many times, mothers are not even portrayed in animated Disney families. Think of Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Elsa and Ana from Frozen. Not a single one of these Disney female characters has a mother character that stays on screen for longer than ten minutes. WHAT? That is absurd! In these Disney films, mothers are completely absent, or an “absent presence.” Only Elsa and Ana’s mother shows up in the beginning of the movie, but Hooks would consider this type of mother an absent presence because she does not take on a significant mother role. She is mentioned fleetingly, and then she disappears without leaving any substantial memory. She was merely added as a background character to fill in some small holes in the story. However, this is a much better role than the mothers of every other character listed above, for every other mother simply does not exist whatsoever.  Mothers are prominent role models for children, but the lack of them in Disney movies is “reinforcing gender stereotyped behavior” because a lack of a mother results in “a completely autocratic father figure,” supporting the idea that men have more power than women in the family (Sherman).

On the contrary, Disney’s animated movies create males who “typically display forceful behaviors” (Sherman). Male characters use these forceful behaviors “to get what they want, whether it be the girl or a material object” (Sherman). Simba, for instance, wants to grow into the position of the King (an obviously powerful role) when it is his father’s time to step down. Thus, he must cut his childhood short to start learning how to be responsible, courageous, and wise, just as his father is. Simba has a lot of pressure on him to rule just as excellently as Mufasa has. Also, Mr. Incredible just so happens to be the only parent with a job and the overall voice of reason, while King Triton oversees his daughter’s every action.  Based on these examples and many other Disney movies, “it seems as if women are seen as a commodity in a patriarchal society” (Sherman). By viewing these movies, young boys are going to pick up the subliminal message that they must be stronger, smarter, and more powerful than women. They are taught that they must want to live up to their fathers’ expectations. Once they do grow up and have a family of their own, they must be financially responsible for the entire family, and they must be the dictator of the household. If we teach boys these ridiculous prejudices at a young age, they will always grow up believing they are better than every female and that they must take control in both the home and the workforce.

Without a doubt, animated Disney movies teach white children that females must be passive while males must be demanding and active. If all of this is true, then the represented family is perfect and complete. How does this make colored children or children without a parent feel about their families? Probably pretty shitty, because any time a family of a different race is shown in a Disney movie, the family is either poor, sad, or broken. In the 21^st century, there are thousands of black families living in nice homes with steady jobs, but for some reason Disney has not created a movie that represents this reality. As children of race watch movies about all of these perfectly happy white families and damaged black families, they are going to begin to believe that their lives and their families are inadequate, even if it is not true.

There are hundreds of thousands of different types of families and different family dynamics, and yet Disney has failed to produce all except for one: the happy white family with a mom, dad, son, and daughter. Anything else is unsatisfactory and “wrong” in the eyes of Disney. As a result, our children are going to grow up with the same views as Disney, because these are the types of messages that are in the movies we expose our children to.

We must teach our children early on that any family is just as good as anybody else’s family. We live in a nation enriched with many different cultures and ideals, and our society can only be successful if we embrace each other’s differences. There is no one perfect type of family. No matter your skin color, no matter who’s the breadwinner, and no matter the family members that you live with, your family is perfect in its own way. We must show our daughters to stand up for their rights, and teach our sons to love the women in their lives, not own them. There is so much that Disney does to distort children’s views of family, but together our society can show children what it truly means to be a family.

Works Cited

“Animated Disney Movies.” Animated Disney Movies : Animated Movies : List of Disney Animation Films. Walt Disney Studios, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2014. <http://www.disneymovieslist.com/animated-disney-movies.asp&gt;.

Christensen, Linda. “Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us: Critiquing Fairy Tales and Films.” ProQuest GenderWatch. N.p., 30 June 1996. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. <http://search.proquest.com/genderwatch/docview/225289844/fulltext/537CAA1E6

Dyer, Richard. “Introduction and Stereotypes.” The Matter of Images: Essays on Representations. London: Routledge, 1993. 121-27. Print.

Hooks, Belle. “Chapter 14: The Oppositional Gaze.” The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. Ed. Amelia Jones. 2nd ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 107-18. Print.2F47D1PQ/4?accountid=10216>.

The Incredibles Dinner Scene. Digital image. YouTube. YouTube, 18 July 2014. Web. 04 Nov. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAFKRlVbb6U&gt;.

Lilo and Stitch. Walt Disney Studios, 2002. YouTube. YouTube, 15 Dec. 2010. Web. 04 Nov. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U0xGBNl2fE&gt;.

The Lion King. Walt Disney Sudios, 1994. YouTube. YouTube, 21 Dec. 2006. Web. 04 Nov. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6EpQP7tRjo&gt;.

The Little Mermaid. Walt Disney Studios, 1989. YouTube. YouTube, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 04 Nov. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__dlFEWclNI&gt;.

Long, Edgar, and Jessica N. Fish. “Memorable Experiences Between Fathers and Sons: Stories That Shape a Son’s Identity and Perspective of His Father.” Journal of Men’s Sudies 22.2 (2014): 122-39. ProQuest GenderWatch. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. <http://search.proquest.com/genderwatch/docview/1509802705/abstract/A4DA0D646F8F4EEDPQ/4?accountid=10216&gt;.

Lorde, Audre. “Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference.” Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. 1984. The Crossing Press: freedom, CA.

McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” (1988): 31-36.

The Princess And The Frog. Walt Disney Studios, 2009. YouTube. YouTube, 7 Oct. 2009. Web. 04 Nov. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDP2yPtDDLk&gt;.

“She Seeks: A Feminist Critique of the Quest Story as Presented in Disney Animated Features.” Women and Language 21.1 (1998): 60-67. ProQuest GenderWatch. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/1372163869/49FB6697C34F4A67PQ/3?accountid=10216&gt;.

Sherman, R. “Gender Through Disney’s Eyes.” Miami University, 11 Mar. 2014. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. <http://www.units.miamioh.edu/psybersite/disney/disneygender.shtml&gt;.

Springer, Kimberly. “Queering Black Female Heterosexuality.” Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. By Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti. Berkeley, CA: Seal, 2008. 207-12. Print.

Yerby, Amanda, Samantha Baron, and Youjin Lee. “Gender Roles in Disney Animation.” American Education, 2006. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. <http://www.american.edu/soc/film/upload/gender-roles-in-disney.pdf&gt;.