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The Media's Target and Portrayal for Profit using Sexuality in Disney Movies

Megan Ronning

Cassidy Post

Diana Trang

Justice Davis

History

In 1937, Disney came out with their first movie " Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." For years, Disney female characters have been hyper-sexualized. They do this by having their big busts, tiny waists, and lots of makeup. These expectations for young girls gets into their minds because they aren't seeing how it looks in the real world, rather them seeing how they are "supposed" to look. This does not go for just girls either, there are men characters who have big muscles and they typically always save the princess in one way or another.

Background

The numbers

Disney makes in incredible amount of money each year whether its by their movies, consumer products, or their parks and resorts. Disney drives in consumers by making what kids want to see. A huge thing with this is that a lot of the time kids are viewing how the characters look in movies and think that is how they need to look in real life. This makes their profits increase even more because the kids are watching more and more of the movies.

Profit

TIMELINE

The following image shows the Global revenue of the Walt Disney company in the years 2006-2018. Disney comes out with so many movies a year keeping the children hooked and wanting to see more. As you can see in the graph their revenue has increasingly gone up since 2006.

TIMELINE

Disney's Target

Disney's target is mostly on children, since they are the ones who are the most easy to convince and mesmerized by the different shows, movies, games and ads they have.

  • Disney also targets older kids such as babies, tweens, teenagers and even adults.
  • anyone who is seen to be "young at heart"

Walt Disney even said "Your dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway," meaning that Disney is a family company that targets the entire family.

  • This means that Disney will always have a loyal following from families from the start of a very young age. This is how Disney has such a strong presence in society lives.

Target Audience

Disney's Impact

Impact

Disney plays a key role on impacting children in our society today.

  • Many of us growing up, started watching Disney Movies at a very young age. This impacted children's childhoods and how they played. Most played dress up and dressed up as their favorite Disney Characters.
  • Owning everything that involves Disney

Disney also sets unrealistic standards and sends messages that impact those who are watching their movies.

  • unrealistic standards about love
  • always having a happy ending to things in life
  • gender roles

Examples

Hidden Messages within Disney Movies

Subliminal messages

  • Seems as if the stars in the sky are spelling out the word 'sex' in the lion king when Simba is looking at the stars

  • On the front cover of The Little Mermaid VHS tape there is a penis on the palace

  • In the movie Toy Story there is a fishing pole with barbie legs attached, this is a subtle message that it is a 'hooker'

  • In Toy Story 3, Barbie compliments Ken, She said "nice ascot". This is a butt joke written by Disney.

  • In the movie Robots, the baby robot gets deleievred to the house door and the mom says, "you missed the delivery but it’s OK, making the baby is the fun part"

Hidden Message Pictures

Old Fairy tales

  • Cinderella
  • When the prince comes to find the owner of the slipper, the stepsisters start cutting their feet so they can fit into the slipper. One cuts off her toe and the other cuts off her heel.
  • The Little Mermaid
  • The trade between the mermaid and sea with happens, but instead of turning back into a mermaid, she faces death if she can't succeed.
  • The prince marries another women who he thought saved him from the shipwreck instead of the mermaid.
  • If the mermaid kills the prince her feet can turn back into fins, but she cant do it, so she dies.
  • Sleeping Beauty
  • Not similar at all
  • A king finds the women's body, tries to wake her up but proceeds to rape her when he cant.
  • The girl has twins while she is unconscious and sucks the poison out of the women's finger to wake her.
  • The princess then marries the king, but he king burns his wife to be with the princess.

Dark stories behind the Movies

Unrealistic body image

Body Image

  • 94% of Disney movies mention physical appearance
  • Most princesses are depicted by:
  • Unnaturally small waist
  • Large breasts
  • Fair skin
  • Enlarged eyes and batting eyelashes
  • Symmetrical faces
  • Extreme hourglass figures
  • Small feet
  • Skinny limbs
  • 6 out of 11 princesses eyes are larger than their waist
  • The relation of how small their waist is and big their breasts are is impossible for real life

Unrealistic Realistic

Examples

Unrealistic Realistic

Wanting to look like a Disney princess

Extreme Cases

Sarah Ingle:

  • She spent $14,000 to look like a Disney princess
  • Though her money is spent on costume and accessories
  • She was born with naturally big eyes
  • She has 17 costume dresses and 16 different wigs
  • It takes her 3 hours to transform into a princess
  • She plays Little Mermaid, Elsa, Aurora, Snow White, and others.

Pixee Fox:

  • She has spent over 112,409 American dollars to achieve her Disney look
  • Had nose and ears done to look like princess Giselle
  • Her inspirations are Jessica Rabbit and Sleeping Beauty (Aurora)
  • She has had 4 breast jobs, 4 nose jobs, 2 liposuctions, butt lift, and cheek injections
  • She says that Disney Princesses are the ideal body image

Sarah

Pixee

Gender Roles

gender Roles

Throughout the years Disney has given many impressions on how one gender is supposed to act. This then gives young children false impressions or whoever is watching the movies on how to act and is supposed to be treated.

Females in the movies are portrayed as the ones that are supposed to be the seductive ones and thus are then sexualized.

  • Characters are seen to have the batting eyelashes and use them to be seductive to get what they want
  • Even the animal characters in the Disney movies are seen to have the same characteristics.

They are also seen as sassy and do what stereotypical "girls" are supposed to do and act and are eventually always helped by a prince.

  • Some are seen to be cleaning and sweeping and doing things within the household and waiting for the prince (men) to come and save them.

Males are portrayed as the stronger character and the heroes in the Disney movies.

Examples

Females

Examples

Males

Theoretical Views On Disney

Theoretical Perspective Views

Conflict Theorist (looks at society as a competition with limited resources

  • With the different Gender Roles that are in Disney Movies a conflict theorist might see how the males are portrayed as the dominate group and the females are the sub-ornate groups and how they show inequality between the genders within the different Disney movies. This influences children on how they perceive themselves and how they are supposed to act.

Functionalism (sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals who make up society)

  • Within the Disney movies one can see how their society can only function if there is one person (usually the male character) that has to come in and save the princess or the damsel in distress. It is the norm for situation to happen within the Disney movies and shows. This influences children develop their own views and values of what they think should happen

Symbolic Interactionism Theory (provides a theoretical perspective that helps scholars examine the relationship of individuals within their society)

  • They different symbols within the movies could have many different meanings to those who watch them. They might see how males are masculinity and females are feminine. This then can be interrupted that males are the muscles and manly and females are more in the womanhood area. This influences children develop their own thinking of what society relationships are.

Bibliography

Citations:

Barns, Sarah. “Model Pixee Fox Has Bizarre Nose and Ear Surgery to Become 'Living Cartoon'.” The Sun, The Sun, 18 Sept. 2017, www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/2890373/disney-obsessed-model-pixee-fox-has-bizarre-nose-and-ear-surgery-as-she-continues-quest-to-become-living-cartoon/.

Bartyzel, Monika. “Disney Spent $15 Billion To Limit Their Audience.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 14 May 2015, www.forbes.com/sites/monikabartyzel/2015/05/13/disney-spent-15-billion-to-limit-their-audience/#115ef2df45f3.

“Body Image.” The Rhetoric of Disney, therhetoricofdisney.weebly.com/body-image.html.

Chan, April. “Five Gruesome Fairytales behind Disney Classics.” ABC News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 5 Aug. 2015, www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-05/dark-fairytale-origins-of-classic-disney-movies/6671602.

D., Hairianto. “Representations of Females and Femininity in Disney Princess Films.” Medium.com, Medium, 12 Feb. 2014, medium.com/@hairyanto/representations-of-females-and-femininity-in-disney-princess-films-bfdc58c7d217.

“Let's Be Honest: Disney Has Been Sexualizing Characters for a Long Time.” The Stream, 14 Mar. 2017, stream.org/lets-honest-disney-sexualizing-characters-long-time/.

Noonan, Keith. “How The Walt Disney Company Makes Most of Its Money.” The Motley Fool, The Motley Fool, 1 June 2018, www.fool.com/investing/2018/06/01/how-the-walt-disney-company-makes-most-of-its-mone.aspx.

“Mickey Mouse Monopoly.” Media Education Foundation Online Store, shop.mediaed.org/mickey-mouse-monopoly-p112.aspx.

OpenStax. Introduction to Sociology. Rice University. Sociology Cap. 2012.

“Sexual Innuendos in Disney Movies.” Wow Amazing, 28 Jan. 2016, www.wowamazing.com/trending/sexual-innuendos-in-disney-movie/.

Shunatona, Brooke. “This 25-Year-Old Woman Paid $14,000 to Look Like Disney Princesses.” Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan, 5 Nov. 2018, www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/fashion/news/a53356/sarah-ingle-disney-princess-impersonator/.

“The Deconstruction of Disney Princesses.” Sites DOT Middlebury, sites.middlebury.edu/disneyprincesses/body-image/.

“The Walt Disney Company - Global Revenue 2018 Statistic.” Statista, Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/273555/global-revenue-of-the-walt-disney-company/.

The Walt Disney Studios - History, studioservices.go.com/disneystudios/history.html.

Walt Disney Company. “The Walt Disney Company.” Chapter 4: The Marketing Environment, 1 Jan. 1970, thewaltdisneyco.blogspot.com/2011/09/chapter-4-marketing-environment.html.

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