THAY ĐỔI NHẬN THỨC VỀ NHỮNG GIÁ TRỊ CỦA PHỤ NỮ MỸ THỂ HIỆN QUA CÁC NHÂN VẬT NỮ CHÍNH TRONG PHIM HOẠT HÌNH DISNEY

Walt Disney studio has been recognized as the premier American animated studio with a series of popular animated movies about lifetime adventures of numerous lead female characters. These movies are not only entertaining, but also express the development of core women’s values in American society with the changes in the construction of female protagonists. Beside exploring the main features in the portrayal of lead female character in Disney animated movies, a closer look of how these portrayals reflect the differences in American women’s values between two periods of time, from 1900 to 1990 and from 1990 to 2013 is analysed in this paper. Observation of artifacts is the primary method for data collection. For data analysis, the two key methods of feminist analysis based on feminist film theory and content analysis are adopted. The changes in Disney’s depiction of lead female characters based on two main themes of identity and inequality vividly reflects the development in the perception of American women’s values from 20th century to early 21st century. Gender identity is significantly developed in terms of Disney character’s visual construction and the shift to the “new woman” model, breaking the conventional “woman sphere” of submissiveness and domesticity. The fight against inequality of Disney lead female characters also reflects the constant struggle of American women to diminish gender inequality in three main spheres of work, love and marriage, and education and training.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

AMERICAN WOMEN’S VALUES DEPICTED IN

LEAD FEMALE CHARACTERS OF DISNEY ANIMATED MOVIES

Supervisor: Ms Nguyễn Lê Hường (M.A.) Student: Trần Hà Ngân

Course: QH2010.F1.E21

HANOI – 2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

THAY ĐỔI NHẬN THỨC VỀ NHỮNG GIÁ TRỊ CỦA PHỤ NỮ MỸ THỂ HIỆN QUA CÁC NHÂN VẬT

NỮ CHÍNH TRONG PHIM HOẠT HÌNH DISNEY

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS Nguyễn Lê Hường Sinh viên: Trần Hà Ngân

Khóa: QH2010.F1.E21

HÀ NỘI – 2014

I hereby state that I: (Tran Ha Ngan, QH2010.F1.E21), being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper.

Acknowledgements i

1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study 1

2.2 Lead female characters of Disney animated movies 10

CHAPTER 4: CHANGES IN THE IDENTITY AND

INEQUALITY ISSUES AMONG DISNEY LEAD FEMALE

References 46

I wish to express my deep gratitude to my respectful supervisor,

Ms Nguyen Le Huong (M.A.) for her hearty guidance and her valuablecriticism in the course of my work My thanks are also due to teachers of thefaculty of English language teacher education for their encouragement andassistance in the completion of my paper I also would like to thank myfamily, my friends and those who have helped me a lot with theirexpectation and hopes for my success

Walt Disney studio has been recognized as the premier Americananimated studio with a series of popular animated movies about lifetimeadventures of numerous lead female characters These movies are not onlyentertaining, but also express the development of core women’s values inAmerican society with the changes in the construction of femaleprotagonists Beside exploring the main features in the portrayal of leadfemale character in Disney animated movies, a closer look of how theseportrayals reflect the differences in American women’s values between twoperiods of time, from 1900 to 1990 and from 1990 to 2013 is analysed in thispaper Observation of artifacts is the primary method for data collection Fordata analysis, the two key methods of feminist analysis based on feministfilm theory and content analysis are adopted The changes in Disney’sdepiction of lead female characters based on two main themes of identityand inequality vividly reflects the development in the perception ofAmerican women’s values from 20th century to early 21st century Genderidentity is significantly developed in terms of Disney character’s visualconstruction and the shift to the “new woman” model, breaking theconventional “woman sphere” of submissiveness and domesticity The fightagainst inequality of Disney lead female characters also reflects the constantstruggle of American women to diminish gender inequality in three mainspheres of work, love and marriage, and education and training

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND ABBREVIATIONS

Image 1: Lead female characters of Disney animated movies prior

Image 6: Snow White and Cinderella - Happy homemakers 28

Image 8: Snow White and Cinderella – happily ever after 35Image 9: Tiana: From a waitress to a businesswoman 37Image 10: Pocahontas’s journey to a new world 38

As the world changes, the portrayal of these lead female charactershas gradually adapted accordingly to illustrate the changes in theperception of what makes a high value woman in the American society.For example, the massive leap from the image of a traditional woman as a

“homemaker, naive, and lacking in common sense” (Harrison, 2012) in

“Snow White and Seven Dwarfs” to the contemporary image ofAmerican woman with princess Merida of “more independence and freewill” (Zerlina, 2012) in “Brave” reflects significant changes in Americanwomen’s values Therefore, the images of gender in Disney animatedmovies can be considered the depiction of the developing process ofperception of American women’s value

The portrayal of gender in Disney movies has aroused the interest

of some researchers in terms of both adverse and positive changes

through time However, most of the previous studies primarily focus onmovies released prior to 1990s instead of the modern context All theseconditions, henceforth, offered the researchers a chance to conduct a

study on “Changes in the Perception of American Women’s Values Depicted in Lead Female Characters of Disney Animated Movies (from 20 th Century to Early 21 st Century)”

1.2 AIMS & OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

First, the paper is aimed to explore the main features of lead femalecharacter’s portrayals in Disney animated movies Next, a closer look will

be taken at how these portrayals reflect the differences in Americanwomen’s values between two periods of time, from 1900 to 1990 andfrom 1990 to 2013

To gain a comprehensive understanding on this topic, two researchquestions will be considered:

1 What are the major American women’s values depicted in lead female characters of Disney animated movies from 1900 to 1990?

2 What are the major American women’s values depicted in lead female characters of Disney animated movies from 1990 to 2013, compared to the previous period?

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Although the study was carried out on a small scale, the researcherhope that its results could 1) present some common features of portrayinglead female characters that Disney movies employed; 2) present majorAmerican women’s values depicted in lead female characters of Disneyanimated movies from 1900 to 1990; 3) present major Americanwomen’s values depicted in lead female characters of Disney animatedmovies from 1990 to 2013; 4) present the relationship between media andsociety; and 5) help provide certain background knowledge of Americanmedia and gender issues for students researching American studies

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The research primarily concentrates on analyzing lead femalecharacters of Walt Disney animated movies in the period from 20thcentury to early 21st century with the break line of 1990

Walt Disney studio has been recognized as the premier Americananimated studio with a series of popular animated movies that create astrong influence on audience worldwide including movies about lifetimeadventures of numerous lead female characters like Cinderella,Pocahontas and Merida Those particular movies are not only entertainingbut also express the core values of women in the American societyexplicitly and implicitly and have “upheld American values andtraditions” through time (Weber, 1998)

During more than a hundred years from 20th century to early 21stcentury, there have been radical changes to enhance American women’sstatus For example, in the early 1900s, women were mostly homebound,taking care of family work This archaic value, however, has beenchanged by the rising number of women in the labour force nowadays.

“By 2009 there were as many women as men in the work force, and todaythe average wife contributes some 42.2 percent of her family’s income”(Rosin, 2012)

The year 1990 is chosen as the transition line in the perception oftraditional and contemporary American women’s values depicted in leadfemale characters of Disney animated movies From the beginning of the1950s onward, the company concentrated on live-action films instead offeature-length animated movies (Booker, 2011) As a result, after onlyfour animated movies with lead female characters including Snow White,Cinderella, Alice and Aurora, released in the period from 1930s to 1950s,

no new feature-length animated movies were introduced until Disney’srenaissance in the 1990s The company only resurged when it returned tomake animated films for children, especially those with lead femalecharacters such as “Beauty and the Beast”, “Mulan”, and “Brave” In only

23 years from 1990 to 2013, the number has tripled with 13 animatedmovies with lead female characters released and warmly welcomed

1.5 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter presents the rationale for the study, scope of the study,research questions and structure of the study

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Chapter two provides readers with the definition of the key concepts andtheoretical framework adopted in the study

Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter includes the methods used for data collection and data

analysis

Chapter 4: Results and discussions

Chapter four focuses on presenting major findings after the collection andanalysis of data

Chapter 5: Conclusion

The chapter contains the summary of major findings, the limitations ofthe study and suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Changes in American women’s values

The period from early 20th century to early 21st century witnessed

an obvious change in the perception of American women’s values as aresult of a series of women’s right and feminist movements Both of themaimed at “securing equal rights for women and to remove genderdiscrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns” (Gale,2005) Though “the pace of progress often has been uneven” (Harrison,1997) women’s right and feminist movements in the USA havedeveloped radically and gained magnificent changes for the women toaccess more equality and higher-ranking status recognized by the society

The traditional ideal image of American women from the earlysettlement to the American Revolution in the 18th century has long beendepicted as “republican motherhood”, which “linked a woman’s value as

an American citizen to her familial responsibilities” (Bredbenner, 1998).The greatest distinction between traditional American women and thelater generations is the emphasis on the contribution that women couldmake to the society, especially in the period from 1900s to 1960s, the era

of the “new woman” This term referred to those who were

“better educated and trained than women of the past, willing and able to earn her living, frequently in a job formerly monopolized by men and hence under less pressure to marry, holding independent view on all sorts of subject, and above all, less dependent on man both economically and intellectually” (Riegel, 1971).

The roaring twenties was marked by numerous significant changes

in the United States including the beginning of transitions in theperception of women’s roles, status and values in the society The most

outstanding event of this period was women being granted the right tovote for the first time in the history after a long struggle for femalesuffrage for nearly six decades Since then, the traditional role of a typicalAmerican woman as daughter, wife and mother has gradually changed.Women’s lives no longer revolved only around family and houseworkbecause they could also take part in many aspects of social life

Three decades later, during World War II, American women’s role

in the society continued to develop, leading to the transition in theirvalues More and more women joined in the labour force In the past,women tended to dedicate their whole lives to their family and farm workbut during the war, the “Roise the Riveter”1 model became popular as

“soon they were successfully doing things only men had done before”(Bryant, 2002), especially in “defense industries of aircraft manufacture,ship building, munition and pioneer electrics” (Weatherford, 2009).Women of this time gained more independence and their single role as ahomemaker moved to double roles as a woman of the workplace like anytypical American man “For many women, World War II became asymbol of freedom It was a time where women were no longer forcedinto the roles society had created for them” (Harrison, 1997) Women’svalues, once determined by their dedication and loyalty to family’s lifeshifted to other qualities like intelligence or abilities at work

Dual public and private roles of American women still existed inthe post war decades though gender inequality remained After the war,women were encouraged to return to the “woman sphere” with four chief

1 A cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories during World War II Rosie the Riveter is commonly used as a symbol of feminism and women's economic power.

characteristics of “piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity” (Welter,1966) An example for this ironic vicious cycle was demonstrated byDouglas (2004) as

“the popular press, at the government’s instigation began to encourage women

to return to the home and family despite formerly exhorting the image of working women in factory during World War II In addition, women were still constrained by social’s fear that they could not fulfill their double shifts However, American women kept striking for their freedom and equality by a wide range of feminist movements focusing on “dismantling workplace inequality, such as denial of access to better jobs and salary inequity, via anti- discrimination laws” (Bryant, 2013)

which illustrated their desire to gain more recognition in the society

Since the 1990s, the perception of American women’s values havecomprehensively shaped contemporary American women’s value asAmerican women lived a “very different life in the 1990s than they did inthe 1950s and earlier” (Bryant, 2002) This has been the period thatAmerican women have gained more self-reliance, independence, freedomand equality than ever before Women becoming breadwinners is not anuncommon story in America’s society anymore The role of traditionalwoman as inferior to man in family or at work has become unsuitable inthe current context Women have become less dependent on men, which

is demonstrated by the increase in the age of marriage According to the

US census bureau, the median age for first marriage of female increasedfrom twenty in 1950 to twenty six in 2000 (US census bureau, 2010).Nearly 46% of women in labour force in 1996 (Chadwick, 1999) was asign of significant renaissance of women in public sphere They are theillustration for the current picture of American women who have longstruggled for their independence from their housewife roles Women can

even beat men in the aspects that used to be for men only like out-earning

in family, in nearly a quarter of households with spouses between 18 and

65 years old (Lambert, 2013) in 2010

After a century of critical women’s right and feminist movements,American women have successfully enhanced their values in family aswell as in society Women have gradually gained more independence,freedom and equality thanks to the participation in education and trainingand in the labour force Not only have they joined in numerous aspects ofthe society but American women have also obtained outstandingachievements in the fields that used to be dominated by men Hence, thearchaic perception of American women values strongly linked with theirinferior status to men has shifted to the 21st-century contemporaryAmerican women’s image of more self-reliance and freedom

2.2 Lead female characters of Disney animated movies

As movies can act as a mirror in many aspects of life, theAmerican women’s values can be interpreted via more than 80 years ofDisney animated movies with their lead female characters In the earlytime, the lead female characters are mainly the princesses adapted fromfamous fairy tales like “Cinderella”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and “The LittleMermaid”, but gradually the producers only kept the main plot of thetales and added new elements to make the stories more appealing.Sometimes, the plot of the story can even be reversed and becomecompletely surprising like in the movie “The Princess and the Frog”, inwhich a normal African-American girl after kissing a prince in the form

of a talking-frog also turns into a frog Besides lead characters in roles ofprincesses, Disney animated movies have also presented other leadfemale characters that do not have any royal tittles like Mulan Anotherfeature of the lead female characters in Disney movies is the presence ofnot only white women but also other races including Asian like Mulanand Virginia Indian like Poncahontas This offers the researcher a chance

to have a better understanding on the reflection of American women’svalues of different ethnic groups in the United States

For the earlier time, the perception of women’s values via leadfemale characters in Disney animated movies has the tendency to bepassive as shown in previous studies For example, in “Images of gender,race, age and sexual orientation in Disney feature length animated films”,one of the characteristics of female characters pointed out is “women aredomestic and likely to marry” (Towbin, Lund & Tanner, 2008) Theprevious studies share the common conclusion that “the messageportrayed to young girls across the globe remains the same: women are

inferior to men” (Gold, 2012) These interpretations partly reflect thesituation of American’s women’s perceived values in the period from the1900s to the 1990s However, these studies have not illustrated the rapidchanges that Disney movies have made recently, which reflect thechanges in the perception of women’s values Still being loyal to themotif of fairy tales, but Disney animated movies have reflected closerportrayals of the modern women’s values of freedom and mobility.Pocahontas, who makes a magnificent and adventurous trip, is anexample of a female protagonist that has never been introduced in earlierDisney movies of the same genre The changes in the portrayal of gender

in Disney movies, therefore, could be a valuable source of reference forthe changes in the perception of American women’s values in the pastcentury

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

Because the essence of this thesis is primary research, observation

of artifact as the method of data collection and data analysis based onfeminist film theory and contents are adopted as the tools to propose newfindings

3.1 Method of data collection

3.1.1 Research subjects

Lead female characters in Disney animated movies from 1930 to

2013 will be taken as the subjects for the study As the study only focuses

on movie characters, research participants will not be included

3.1.2 Basic features of the research subjects

Research subjects are taken from animated feature-length moviesreleased by Disney studio from 1930 to 2013 These movies evolvearound the lives of thirteen different lead female characters As the thesisconcerns women’s values, only lead female characters portrayed as adultfemales are analyzed Some movies of the same lead female charactersare split into multiple parts (from two to three parts) like “Pocahontas”,

“Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World” Movies from animated Disneymovies list (Retrieved from http://www.disneymovieslist.com/animated-disney-movies.asp) that offer the above features will be analyzed in theresearch

3.1.3 Sampling

Since the number of movies with lead female characters of Disney

is limited, 100% of the research subjects containing twelve lead femalecharacters in seventeen Disney animated movies will be analyzed

The samples are listed in the following table

The Little Mermaid III: Ariel’s Beginning

2008

Beauty and the Beast II: The Enchanted Christmas

Snow White Cinderella Aurora Ariel

Lead female characters of Disney animated movies from 1990 to 2013

Belle Pocahontas Mulan Tiana

Rapunzel Merida Elsa Anna

3.1.4 Data collection methods

Observation of artifacts will be the primary method for data

collection process According to Le (2012), artifacts can be of “popularculture like books, films and videos.” Observation of artifacts enables theresearcher to access a large amount of rich data and have more time toexamine the artifacts with repeated observations to gain a deeper andmultilayered understanding on the subjects

Artifacts used in this paper are the movies as mentioned above andthe lead female characters in these movies will be observed in terms ofappearance, personality, identity, inequality, interaction, and institution

3.2 Method of data analysis

As the research aims to analyze American women’s valuesdepicted in Disney lead female characters from 20th century to 21stcentury, the key method of data analysis is feminist analysis based on

feminist film theory Another approach that supports the interpretation of movie’s character is the application of content analysis

3.2.1 Feminist Film Theory

Feminist movements have brought about enormous impacts onfilm theory, noticeably after the second wave feminism (1960s – 1980s)

In the United States, feminist film theory initially emerged in the 1970sand has developed rapidly since then This theory is based on asociological approach which “locates images, roles and representation ofwomen in cinema as phenomena reflecting, or determined by, the position

of women in the ‘real’ world or the wider society” (Haytham, 2012).Issues of presentation of the women have always been the crucialconcerns of feminist film theory (Smelik cited in Cook, 1999)

Feminist film theory involves a theoretical combination ofsociological analysis, semiotics, Althusserian Marxism, and Lacanianpsychoanalysis However, Althusserian Marxism, and Lacanianpsychoanalysis mainly aim to identify the effects of movie’s ideology onspectators that shape the desires of the audience’s social values ratherthan the reality reflected in movies Therefore, only semiotics andsociological analysis are employed as the tools to analyze Disneyanimated movies in the perspective of feminist theory reflecting changes

in American women’s values from 1900 to 2013

3.2.1.1 Semiotics

The first theory adopted in feminist film theory is semiotics, thestudy of meaning-making One of the most common definitions forsemiotics sees it as “a science that studies the life of signs within society”(Saussure, cited in Hawkes 1977) Semiotics involves with both linguisticand non-linguistic signs Linguistic signs can be interpreted by lexicallanguage or words In Disney animated movies, they can be themonologues or dialogues of characters that are embedded with messages.They can also be the lyrics of movie soundtracks that reflect character’sideology Non-linguistic signs are presented by visual pictures Thecreation of Disney lead female characters, beyond doubt, containsnumerous non-linguistic signs that can be interpreted by the signifiedconcept, “the combination of object’s physical form or signifier, togetherwith the concept it represents” (Griffin, 2009) For example, the image oflead female character Mulan as the only skillful female warrior in themilitary, which is exclusively for men, represents the signified concept ofchanging in traditional gender roles

3.2.1.2 Sociological analysis

Sociological analysis is also employed as a tool to analyze films inthe perspective of feminist theory Social roles and cultural aspects arethe two main fields of movie analysis from sociological perspective.Therefore, applying sociological theory to the movie helps the researcher

to understand “how the movie relates to true or perceived socialbehavior” (Department of sociology, n.d.) This approach movie analysishas little concern with technical aspects of movie production In stead, its

main concern is “the stories told through film and how these stories aretold” (Sutherland, 2010)

To obtain a comprehensive understanding of the women’s values inAmerican society reflected in Disney lead female characters, thesecharacters are analyzed in terms of identity, inequality, interaction, andinstitution They are four interrelated themes that are considered “the core

of any sociological curriculum” (Sutherland, 2010) In movieanalysis, interaction and institution act as the contexts for thedevelopment of character’s identity and social inequality

In sociology, identity refers to “the integration of the self, in whichdifferent aspects come together in a unified whole” (Deaux, n.d.) Asmovie’s analysis revolves around the life of lead female characters, thedevelopment of character’s psychology to find their identities, their trueegos is always depicted The interpretation of character’s identitydevelopment can be drawn by recognising "how they come to knowthemselves, how they try out their new identities until they find one thatfit, how they adapt their identities for strategic purposes” (Sutherland,2010)

Inequality is another theme emerged in a substantial number ofDisney animated movies with lead female characters, which also takesplace in the American society Most lead female characters in thesemovies suffer from the inequality in terms of social class, race, andgender Hence, character’s attitudes and reactions in confronting theseinequalities are valuable sources to analyze the changes in theirperception of women’s values

Another aspect in character analysis is the interaction of the leadfemale characters with others in movies Though most of Disneyanimated movies contain countless fictional elements, the interactionamong characters still exists and reflects the essence the of Americansociety All five types of social interaction including exchange,competition, cooperation, conflict, and coercion can be found in thesemovies Character’s interaction acts as an important context in whichcharacter’s personality and feelings are vividly portrayed

The last aspect in character analysis based on sociology is theinstitution which Disney lead female characters experience For example,

in “Mulan” (1998), the main portrayal of character takes place in themilitary as an organized force In contrast, earlier in this movie, Mulan isdepicted in the context revolving around family and village Themanifestation of institution in movies provides spectators with “theunderstandings of the social structure of these spaces” (Sutherland, 2010),which helps the researcher locate the role of lead female characters indifferent institution characterized by different features

3.2.2 Content Analysis

Content analysis will also be applied in this paper so as to examine

the artifacts presented in the films Data analysis will be organized and

presented by research questions as it can draw all the relevant data of

concerning issues and also helps to explore the comparisons across datatype conveniently and easily The main interpretation of the data is based

on the changes of stereotypes of American women’s values manifested intwelve Disney lead female characters