Abigail Stone

English 1201 Online

Emily Kretzer

3 November, 2019

Can Disney Films be considered Feminst?

Children live day to day dreaming. From stories in books about princes saving princesses,

to movies on the big screen, kids are inspired to dream, think creatively, and imagine. This has

been true since the dawn of the movie age. Many know the Disney Company for their childhood

dreaming. From endless feats of animation, mass production of toys and games, and the Disney

Parks system all over the world, it is impossible to ignore the company in day to day life. Parents

and children of all ages watch these movies with glee, hearing stories about family, princes, and

princesses. “(Post) Feminist Paradoxes: The Sensibilities of Gender Representation in Disney’s

Frozen” by Maja Rudloff from Rosklide’s University’s Publication Outskirts details feminism

within Disney’s Frozen identifies the downfalls and heights from the movie, including specifics

on character make-up, and how the characters play up to many tests such as the Bechdel Test.

Rudloff agrees,“Disney products have become an influential, if not unavoidable part of most

western children's lives.” (Rudloff) This focus on Disney is evident all throughout media, and

cannot be ignored, but some dreams have changed. Through feminist movements, many

women’s dreams have shifted from finding a husband to the rights to equal pay and equal

treatment. Due to this, many children being raised in this feministic environment are not being

shown movies of Disney’s past, as to not promote submissiveness and patriarchal values upheld

by older generations. Disney’s Movies have changed over the one-hundred years the company

has been in existence. In past movies, like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1938) , female
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characters are depicted as serving the men, in this case many men, in their lives. Compare to

Frozen (2013), which gives the message that you don’t need a man to have love in your life. It

clear that Disney wants to maintain audience, but the question still remains; can Disney films be

considered feminist today, and are they worthy to show to children of a modern age? Although

many believe Disney films only depict women in roles of submission, the Walt Disney company

adapts to feminist movements relative to the time of production of their movie, and produces

feminst characters to please their audience, and continue to succeed in the business world.

In order to analyze this topic in depth, we must discuss the history of the Walt Disney

Company. The book Dream it! Do it!: My Half-Century Creating Disney’s Magic Kingdoms,

details the perspective of Marty Skylar, a famed Disney Parks Imagineer, who assisted in

creating what many know Disney as today. This book, written by Skylar, goes into Skylar's work

in creating the parks alongside Walt Disney. Looking into Walt’s work, ideals, and even

detailing works of the company after Disney’s Death, this book provides reasoning for some of

the companies biggest achievements, and largest failures. Skylar quotes Walt Disney’s film

process over time, as it is the main entity to the initial success of the company:

Well, we like a little mystery in our films-but there’s really no secret to our approach. We

keep moving forward- opening up new doors and doing new things-because we’re

curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We’re always exploring and

experimenting… we call it ‘imagineering’-the blending of creative imagination with

technical know-how. (Skylar 13)

The Walt Disney began by innovation of animated film. Walt Disney Studios began after the

famed character of the 1920’s Oscar Rabbit, who Disney had created, was taken by another

company. Disney began his own animation company, where he would create the famed Mickey
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Mouse. One Little Spark: Mickey’s Ten Commandments and the Road to Imagineering, written

in 2015 by Marty Skylar, provides rules that the Walt Disney Company lived by while creating

the Disney Parks. Most prevalent is the first half of the book, which gives specific rules and

reasonings of the parks designs and layouts, and gives examples of how following the rules

benefits the parks, including the fact:

[The] audience became the family that does things together. It has remained that

way,whether the family is American, Japansese, French, or Chinese… and of course for

families and friends from all of the nations near and far who come to the Disney parks

and resorts to play and learn and have fun together, young and old alike. (Skylar 15-16)

This has remained a constant, as the company was the first of its kind to market to children, and

definitely the most iconic. This is why some reference Anastasia (1998) as their favorite Disney

Movie, even when there is no association with the production companies: they are the epitome of

family movies. Disney has created, or imagineered many new technologies, plotlines, and stories

for America and beyond. Skylar detailed how Disney’s main focus was audience (Skylar 49).

Following Walt’s death in 1966, the company went into decline for a few years, producing

movies that did not receive much success in the box office. After a while, the company came

back into fame with films many know and love today.

The company’s rise and fall harshly depends on ideologies relative to the time of

production. The Disney Movies website is operated and owned by the Walt Disney Production

Company, and includes up to date data about production dates, movie titles, and general plots of

all movies ever made under the company. From this database, one of the first movies the studio

had in production was Pinnochio (1940). On the Pinnochio page, the plot of the movie is

described:
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The timeless story of Pinocchio inspires a new generation with its masterful animation,

award-winning music and unforgettable characters! With his faithful friend Jiminy

Cricket by his side, Pinocchio embarks on fantastic adventures that test his bravery,

loyalty and honesty until he triumphs in his quest for his heart’s desire: to become a real

boy. (Disney Movies)

Although there is a clear bias with the usage of words like “masterful,” “unforgettable,” and

“award-winning” the basic premise of the plot is detailed: following morals will cause success in

dreams or achievements. Pinnochio premiered in a time of war, poverty, and overall misery

across the world. Many at the time believed that war was not the answer to the world's problems,

and how loyalty to one’s country is superior to anything else. Compare this to Moana (2016),

which describes the tale of Moana, who longs to understand her place among the tribe. Through

a long journey and many obstacles, she is able to discover what makes her special is her want to

explore the ocean, even when her father told her otherwise. (Disney Movies) This description,

also biased in word choice and development, defines the meaning of the story as the ability to

discover one’s self, especially a young girl’s self, even when being pushed in another direction.

This is very much reflective with modern feministic qualities, to be detailed in the following

paragraph, that a female can do anything they put their mind to. These plots, differing completely

in structure and morals, show what the company looks for relative to the time period the movie is

depicted.

During the companies long time in existence, the United States has experienced a

multitude of feminist movements. In an article written by Martha Rampton (professor of History

and the director of Gender equality at Pacific University) the timeline of feminism is analyzed.

Feminism has had many peaks, first official beginning in the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848,
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where many protested equality of men and women, officially (Rampton). The next “wave” began

in the 1960’s, where feminist protests the objectification of women in pagents. “Feminists

parodied what they held to be a degrading ‘cattle parade’ that reduced women to objects of

beauty dominated by a patriarchy that sought to keep them in the home or in dull, low-paying

jobs” (Rampton). This wave was in effect until the mid-nineties, when the next wave began. This

wave focused on the ability for women to do an act as they please, wearing lipstick, low-cut

shirts, or heels if they desire (Rampton). This last feminist wave is what is mainly associated

with the film and media world. “Feminism in Hollywood: Why the Backlash” by Andrea Press

and Tamar Liebes is about what kinds of characters are written as feminist, and what classifies a

feminist character. Describing films popular in the 90’s about romance, comedy, and murder,

the authors from University of Virginia analyze what feminism looks like in films. The majority

of the time, they describe feminism as strong female characters, that do not represent the work

typically associated with women. In their conclusion after an analysis of almost all of the top

films of the 1990’s, they found a common trend, that there are more “male genres” than movie

genres written for females. The sociologist note that, “what's noteworthy is the absence of

corresponding "female" genres, at least ones that are present to anywhere near a similar degree.”

(Press and Liebes) To see if this applies, we must look at the films the Disney Company

produced in the nineties. These films identify characters of change, many more advanced than

the feminist movement at the time of their creation.

There are many characters that were produced in the nineties through a multitude of live

action and animated movies. These films most notably include Beauty and the Beast (1991),

Mulan (1998), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Pocahontas (1995), The Lion King

(1994), Tarzan (1999), and Aladdin (1992). Pixar films are not included at this time, as the two
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companies hadn’t combined in the 1990’s It cannot be ignored the mass number of films at this

time that starred male characters, but each movie represents its own kind of powerful female

characters. Disney Girlhood: Princess Generations and Once Upon a Time is an article by

Alexandra Heatwole of University of Sydney specifying the characterization of many Disney

Princesses, and specifically how it affects the growing generation of young girls. Written in

2016, this article analyzes trends in patriarcal teachings, as well as how Princess character arcs

have changed overtime. Heatwole addressed these beginning thirdwave feminist characters in a

few of these movies:

Beauty and the Beast (1991), and Aladdin (1992) offered a narrative that revolved around

rebellion, self-knowledge, and choice, seemingly reflecting or responding to a different

political climate … the girl was now a point of convergence for conflicting debates

about risk and empowerment. The princesses of the past, with their single-facet

characterizations and uncomplicated romantic trajectories, would no longer be enough to

draw in Disney’s target audience. (Heatwole 3)

This shift of powerful, rebellious girls, contrary to what was depicted in movies such as Snow

White and the Seven Dwarves (1938), showed a clear change in how Disney wrote their

characters. Directly before the start of the feminist wave, these characters were created, to depict

a new population of girls and boys that viewed their movies. This shift was also evident within

the companies writers. The Times article “The Writer Who Helped Disney Heroines Find Their

Inner Feminist” tells the story of Linda Woolverton, a screen writer who worked on Beauty and

the Beast (1991) and Alice and Wonderland (2010) and how she assisted in reinventing Disney

Feminists. Woolverton’s goal, as described by Times Writer Eliza Berman, was to create more in

depth female characters for the general audience. Woolverton was a pinpoint of change in the
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movie, changing simple traditional feminine values. Although scenes like, “A scene that showed

Belle sticking pins into an aspirational travel map was rewritten with Belle decorating a cake,”

(Berman) Woolverton continued to fight, as was a driving factor to the character being

associated with books instead of her own looks. These changes are evident to the progress that

happens within the company each day to please their audience. This film, which endured these

changes, would not have achieved the same success without woolverton, as the general audience

wouldn’t have connected to the characters. These changes are meant to please the audience, and

Disney continues to follow them to maintain success.

Moving to movies of today, there is a clear shift in meaning and development of the plot.

That is not to say that each movie portrays feminism perfectly, as that is impossible. Maja

Rudloff, as referenced in the introductory paragraph of this piece, writes about how the movie

Frozen (2013) (widely remarked as feminist and progressive for the film community) has faults.

Rudloff addresses how the characters clothing, jewelry, and accessories on the male and female

do not challenge any standard of clothing for men and women. (Rudloff) What is not emphasized

is the detail many Disney animators and creators put into their work. Michal Barrier in his book

The Animated Man: the Life of Walt Disney details the trials and tribulations that went in to the

creations of many of Disney Movies. When discussing the creation of Bambi (1942), Barrier

noted how during production of the film, deer were kept at a building near the animation studio

in order to get the perfect rendition of the deer. (Barrier 149) This idea continued when the

company required all animators to take classes in Marine Biology before the creation of Finding

Nemo (2004), to increase the accuracy of the film. This demonstrates how true the company is to

accurate portrayals of characters and settings. So, any costuming of Anna or Elsa, as pictured

above, likely reflects clothing that would have been worn by royalty at the time. This idea also
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goes with hair and makeup of the time. Rudloff also notes how the characters body (especially its

actions) affect how people perceive the characters, specifically giving information about Anna:

Her body is a signifier of the status and the progress of her emotional life and a measure

of her ability to control it. On Elsa's coronation day, Anna sleeps, even snores as a

servant calls from outside her room to wake her. She sits up, with drool and strands of

clearly messy hair sticking to her cheek. She says awkward thing...She stuffs chocolate in

her mouth while singing about how she cannot decide whether she feels elated or gassy

that the gates will be opened for her sister's upcoming coronation. While these initial

displays of 'unruliness' render her significantly more 'human' and less the embodiment of

the demure, picture-perfect, hyper-feminine Disney princessthis feminist promise (or

threat) to disrupt the long-established mould of 'proper' princess behaviour is soon

contradicted as Anna "internalize[s] a notion central to postfeminist discourse: the

illusion of the power of being looked at" (Stover 2013, 7). (Rudloff)

Rudloff argues that the usage of Anna’s body to give off non-effeminate characteristics is

counterintuitive to the fight against feminism, as it values the usage of body over the character’s

words. But, Rudloff did not note that the way that the character uses her body to display her

emotions is exactly what makes her feministic. Many women, whether outright or subliminally,

from a young age are taught to be seen and not heard, or that their words matter less than a man.

They are told to be well kept, clean, and orderly, at all costs. Anna being messy, speaking
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through food, and isn’t perfect. The ability to act and think on free will, without needing to

please a man or anyone else, is third-wave feminism. By portraying the character like this,

Disney is representing feminism in the best possible way. Without using her body to do this, the

character would lose any idea of realism, and become harder to connect with. These points are

largely missed in Rudloff’s analysis, and are key ideas to the modern femist Disney princess that

Anna and Elsa represent.

Disney has changed in a feminist direction to suit the needs of its general audience.

Through character development, and hiring feminist writers and thinkers, the company can

continue to produce movies that teach children positive things. Years from now, movies taking

steps in the feminist direction, like Moana, Frozen, and even live action reproductions, may be

viewed as not upholding a feminine ideal. But, the company will always notion to suit the needs

of its families that pay to watch and learn from them. Plus, with third wave feminism being a

major factor in many of today’s modern households, newer Disney writers and imagineers will

be able to push the feminist ideas into the movies and products the produce. It is important to

note that each movie must be taken into account of the time it was made, and more importantly.

Sleeping Beauty (1959) cannot be treated as the standards Disney currently agrees with, when it

is evident the movie was created for 1950’s ideologies where women stayed at home to cook and

clean, and the men did the hard work. These movies shouldn’t be overlooked, as many of the

overall messages and meanings of the stories are true to life; none of them are specifically anti-

feminist. Dumbo (1941) may not have female characters anywhere at the focus of the plot, but

the moral of the story is the idea of determination even when it is believed that failure is

imminent. These values are important, and cannot be removed from a household solely on the

lack of female representation. Disney should remain a part of each child’s early memories, as it
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truly inspires him or her to be creative, kind, and to imagine. In a world of so much stress,

hatred, and darkness, it is necessary for kids to imagine like this, is Disney is the stem for all of

it. One corporation can cause the world to change just by spreading common ideals linked with

creativity, so why should a child be deprived of this magic resource?

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Works Cited

Barrier, Michael. The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney. University of California Press,

2007, https://www.questiaschool.com/library/120088302/the-animated-man-a-life-of-

walt-disney Questia School. 3 Nov 2019

Berman, Eliza. “The Writer Who Helped Disney Heroines Find Their Inner Feminist”

Time, June 6 2016,

http://sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr

ue&db=a9h&AN=115691912&site=eds-live. Ohio Link. Sinclair Library, Dayton, OH,

20 Oct 2019.

Disney’s Frozen, Walt Disney Studios, Oct 2019, https://frozen.disney.com/anna 16 Nov

2019.

Disney Movies, Walt Disney Studios, Oct 2019, https://movies.disney.com/all-movies. 27

Oct 2019.

Heatwole, Alexandra. “Disney Girlhood: Princess Generations and Once Upon a Time.”

Studies in the Humanities, vol. 43, no. 1-2, Dec. 2016,

Press, Andrea and Tamar Liebes, “Feminism and Hollywood: Why the backlash?”

University of Virginia, Vol. 19 Issue 4, p267-279.Oct-Dec2016,

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http://sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr

ue&db=ufh&AN=119805088&site=eds-live. Ohio Link. Sinclair Library, Dayton, OH,

20 Oct 2019.

Rampton, Martha, “Four Waves of Feminism” Pacific Magazine, Pacific University

Oregon. Oct 25, 2015, https://www.pacificu.edu/about/media/four-waves-feminism. 3

Nov 2019.

Rudloff, Maja. “(Post) Feminist Paradoxes: The Sensibilities of Gender Representation in

Disney’s Frozen.” Outskirts: Feminisms along the edge, vol. 35, Nov. 2016,

http://sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr

ue&db=qth&AN=119818008&site=eds-live. Ohio Link. Sinclair Library, Dayton, OH,

20 Oct 2019.

Skylar, Marty. Dream it! Do it!: My Half-Century Creating Disney’s Magic Kingdoms.

Disney Editions, 2013

Skylar, Marty. One Little Spark: Mickey’s Ten Commandments and the Road to

Imagineering. Disney Editions, 2015