Chantal's Posts


Aladdin


Aladdin and Jasmine go on a magic carpet ride.

Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Aladdin, a 1992 film displays a story of a young princess, Jasmine who is being forced by her father and the rule of the kingdom to find a prince to marry before her next birthday. After rejecting several prince's Jasmine ends up finding her 'prince charming' although he does not hold the title of a 'prince,'  but instead as a 'hero.,' Aladdin. With the help of Genie  and true love, Aladdin goes from being a 'street rat' impersonating a prince who then ends up marrying princess Jasmine at the end.

While displaying the main concept of the story we encounter several gender schemas that go along with the main characters, Aladdin and Jasmine. Other gender schema roles are also shown within the film with the help of several supporting characters, by the dancers, guards and random characters.

After Jafar finds Aladdin in his kingdom, he traps Jasmine in a giant Sand Timer.

Sociologically speaking, Jasmine is given the 'damsel in distress' face as many Disney films have set females roles to be. Throughout the film we see Jasmine be vulnerable girl; where she is heroically saved by Aladdin from the following examples:
  • having her arm get cut off at the market after she gives a boy an apple in which she cannot pay for
  • from preventing her to fall off of the roof
  •  to prevent her from falling off of the magic carpet ride that they go on their first date

Jasmine Pets her tiger Rajah who is also known as her best friend.
Jasmine is also given the nurture characteristic that tend to go hand-in-hand with gender roles. She is shown not only petting her tiger, Rajah throughout several scenes within the film but she is also shown petting the birds which she later sets free. With this in mind, she portrays the 'female' role in which society has set.

Jasmine
Jasmine is also given the typical body image that many princesses in Disney movies obtain. The artist gives Jasmine an  an hour-glass figure, make-up applied to certain body features to stand out and  clothes that reveils her narrow body part, belly to give the audience the idea that she is aesthetically pleasing. Which to a degree it's sort of contradicting once you think about it, I mean after all most of the women in the Eastern hemisphere wore and still wear the sacred threads to cover up because it is cultural aspect and those who tend to not be covered up tend to be belly dancers or shunned because they are disrespecting culture.

Aesthetically pleasing women
Other females are also shown in a similar appearance. In search for the film I came across an archetype youtube video that displays about the sexual identity archetypes. In this youtube video we can see that most of these aesthetically pleasing women are wearing revealing clothes on their hour glass figure, have their hair down, have a scarf covering their mouth (tends to add mystery to the womens' identity), have their forehead bigger than their chin, and have big eyes. While on the other hand the 'not so attracted' women tend to be on the heavier-side, all covered up, have their hair up, have a bigger chin than forehead, and have bigger noses therefore they are valued in two different forms and are given off two different perspectives of the same gender.

Men who are typically looked at in astonishment
The film also shows the male's appearance have two different archetypes. They show how height can make a difference in how you are perceived, thus indicating if you are short, you are tend to be viewed as a 'push over' who would not stand up to those who are pushing him, and if you are tall then you are the intimidating one. Another physical aspect that plays a role in how you are viewed is if you have muscle tone, if you have muscles then you are viewed as someone to fear, if not then they're not a threat.

Aladdin physically has the body form of a average man, not too buffed nor too skinny. He is given pecks thus symbolizing that he is physically fit, but lacks abs thus  symbolizing that he is not to be taken as a threat.
Aladdin shows off is masculine body.
That's not to say that Aladdin should be taken lightly by everyone, especially since he does take on the the 'heroic' role, such as in the following situations:
  • He gives the starving children the bread he stole to eat

  • He saves the children (the same ones from above) from being whipped by one of the prince's after they got in his way

  • He saves jasmine from having her arm get cut off in the market after stealing a apple

  • He saves jasmine from drowning in the sand timer when Jafar makes her his queen

Overall since this is a movie intended for children, the film gives girls the perceptions that princesses show off their midsection, run off to meet the guy of their dreams, and in order for you to marry a guy he should have the visual of having money. As for the boys, they are given the perception that they should be strong and lie in order to marry the girl of their dreams. If you ask me, this is not the sort of message we should be sending out to children.



Lion King

Rafiki presents Simba to the land.
Directed by Roger Allers and Minkoff, 1994 film, The Lion King displays a story in how Simba, a prince lion runs away from Pride Lands after being convinced by his uncle Scar that he was the cause of the king's, his father's death. Years later, when Simba is all grown up, Nala finds him and informs him that he must come back to restore the horrible kingdom that Scar has destroyed to it's old ways. After a long battle, Simba restores and becomes King of Pride Lands. Throughout this heroic story we encounter the noticeable faces of both, females and males.



Just for laughs.
Simba takes a bath with the help of Sarabi, his mother.
Admitting this film was harder to find define the gender roles, only because this Disney movie story line was based on NOT humans, how a lot of films are, but was based on animals.( The image to your left even shows you how surprised the characters in the movie were when they found out that they were not human beings...ha ha?)



One thing that was noticeable in regards to gender roles, is that the female lions were doing most of the caring for the cubs. An example would be when we first encounter Simba's mom, Sarabi cradling baby Simba, thus protecting him and giving him comfort.Another example of female lions caring for the cubs is when we see Nala getting a bath, thus having her all of her fur be licked by her mother. Therefore this shows that the mother lions were nurturing their young children.

Mufasa scares the hyenas with his loud roar and teeth.
Of course having children is not only the responsibility of females, but males as well. While the female lions were nurturing, the male lions were protecting,  Mufasa is a great example of this. Take the instance of him protecting his kid and his future wife from the hyenas. In hopes to have some fun, young Simba and Nala disobeys his father's orders and goes into Elephant graveyard, a dark side of the land that only leads to trouble. When Simba and Nala find themselves being cornered by the dangerous hyenas, Mufasa comes to the rescue and scares the hyenas away.

Before this incident Mufasa had also protected his son by telling him Zazu to watch over him and take him back to a safe area.  Mufasa indeed displayed a heroic Lion.

Unfortunately there was no youtube link that tied both Lion King and gender together.

Lion King over all, did not put such a bad perception of what children should take away from these roles, but most of that has to do because of the fact that it is based on animals. The message that it did get across is that mother's should be nurturing and men should protect through violence. This message is not absolutely bad, but not too well either.


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