Chico 1

Jazmin I. Chico
Professor Ditch C.
English 113A
09 May, 2017
Progression 2
Gender Construction and Walt Disney Pictures
A Walt Disney Picture, American film production company and studio founded by two

brothers named Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney in 1928, Burbank California, brought out a

character named Mulan, an Asian American teenage girl, from the movie Mulan produced in

1998 based on a girl living under a patriarchal regime, and is technically unqualified to serve

because she is a female. The main character, Mulan, is portrayed as a young Asian American

teenage girl with the thoughts to take the place of her father in the military instead of him risking

his life as sick as he may be. This picture is shown as a mixture of different scenes of the

expectations set on her by her family and society, as well as pictures that show how she feels

most comfortable and how she wants people to see and accept her as. She is shown as a warrior,

a female without the colorful dresses and loud face make-up. The facial expressions show is

saying that she is unhappy with the dresses and makeup she is expected to wear, but that she felt

determined when in her warrior armor and weapons. Throughout many Disney films have strong

females that also introduce a double standard to society. From being true to yourself, to dresses

and makeup making one a beautiful female. Female roles must also demonstrate kindness,

thoughtfulness, gentleness, humility and femaleness, to be acceptable "strong female" characters.

The feminine gender is looked down upon the most by social medias. To be considered a female

or within the subordination of a women you must show that one is girly and stay at home

seeming fragile, cooking and cleaning the kitchen, and babysitting her own children. This

visual text makes this argument because Mulan is being forced to do something she does not feel

fully comfortable with such as following the plans set ahead for her by her culture and
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community surrounding her. Society as we know it has turned out to be one of the most

unjustified, sexist, contradictory, and controlling matters. The social balance is tipped over to the

construction of both social and identity are brought down to an inequality within the categories

of sex and gender. For example, Judith Lorber writes in Night to His Day: The Social

Construction of Gender, that although gender has become a part of our daily life we are also

forced to choose in which category we may fall into because of how we look or dress. Also,

Aaron Devor writes in Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, that

the role play in gender construction is a social order based on the assumptions of many cultural

proscriptions and prescriptions tending to gender behaviors, attitudes, and identities throughout

the conformity of social standards. These two authors both agree on how gender has become a

prescription throughout society with media allowing to manipulate the thoughts put out for an

individual either male or female, relating to Mulan with the way she is portrayed throughout her

society.
Throughout time we notice an expectation that is upheld for a specific title, none the less

societies influence. For human beings there is no essential femaleness or maleness, femininity

or masculinity, womanhood or manhood, but once gender is ascribed, the social order constructs

and holds individuals strongly gender norms and expectations (25 Lorber). Judith Lorber wrote

in Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender, that although gender has become a

part of our daily life we are also forced to choose in which category we may fall into because of

how we look or dress. This connects to Mulan because her as a female who just wants to be seen

as equal as mean, her community tells her otherwise that it is unexpectable. Many people feel the

need to either judge or hide who they are, or what they may like to be identified as because of

what their family might perceive to see them or feel towards them.
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Society is also to be known seen as family, the part where we are told to act, look,

dress, and talk. A more even-handed description of the social qualities subsumed by femininity

and masculinity might be to label masculinity as generally concerned with egoistic dominance

and femininity as striving for cooperation or communication (39 Devor). Aaron Devor wrote in

Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, that the role play in gender

construction is a social order based on the assumptions of many cultural proscriptions and

prescriptions tending to gender behaviors, attitudes, and identities throughout the conformity of

social standards. Parents within a community have come to show a differential treatment for boys

and girls, making a great impact on their childrens views and ways of being, (how they dress,

walk and appear). Declaring what a child will act like or be before they are even born is identity

roles and developmental growth- choosing how their life will play out along as the parent has

control over the identification specifications.

According to Michelle Juergen, a Southern California editor of Travel Age West

magazine, beneath the smiles, flowers and singing woodland creatures lies a host of offensive

misconceptions that shaped our generation. Stereotypes within Walt Disney present what

society and the media tell viewers what to look at that is more important than just the mediocre

average life lessons and bravery taught throughout the variety of Walt Disney Production Picture

Movies. Between society and the media young children are being presented with all the wrong

information on how to represent themselves such as; changing who they truly are for the interest

of love and relationships. For example, in the Walt Disney Production Picture The Little

Mermaid, based on the tale of a rebellious 16-year-old mermaid Ariel, fascinated with life on

land after her visits to the surface, which are forbidden by her controlling father, King Triton, she

falls for a human prince. Ariel gives up the love she has for the ocean and her tail to have human

legs and to be wed to a human, a prince who she has fallen in love with after having saved his
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life on land, leading her to becoming a queen on land. The media tells a young audience that men

are hopeless without the having a woman to care and give off affection toward them. For

example, in the movie Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, another Walt Disney Production

Picture, is based on a tale of a locked away princess that is forced to run away from her evil

stepmother the queen, forcing her to live and care after seven little men also known as the

dwarfs while she awaits to be rescued someday. Snow White cooks and cleans after the seven

dwarfs, washing their clothes, dishes and looking after them by telling them that they need to

clean up before eating because after a long day of work their hands are dirty and carry many

germs. It is things like this that makes the rising adolescents become so easily influenced over

society, that shows how most are not given the opportunity to think or fully choose for

themselves what they wish to follow. Samara Green writes in Fairy Tales and Gender

Stereotypes that as minorities and society looks toward these tales they realize how one must

strive to change and how she sees that Mulan and other Disney Princesses try to overcome the

Gender Construction Norms. If women want to change the stereotype, then the tales of castles

and princesses may need a little tweaking (Green). This connects to Mulan because throughout

her story and background she deliberately tries repeatedly to overcome and change the stereotype

that she is giving from her community and placed above her throughout the social construction

of gender norms.
It has been argued that Walt Disney Pictures is an educational way of teaching

adolescents to understand life lessons and show them that the set structures for women and men.

Its just a cartoon, and very educational. Parents think that the stereotypes presented by Walt

Disney are nothing but lessons to learn from and teaching on how to act and be as a female or

male role. Thus, making is easier to prescribe gender roles to children and giving parents the

back support to interest their children in societies mainstream thoughts, forgetting that it could
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also blind the adolescent to question whether they are on the path they wish to be when coming

to find themselves. Therefore, damaging the ways and single mindedly thoughts of individuals

especially while still growing and surrounded with the gender construction influences of both

society and the media.

Overall, knowing that society and the media give the many influences brought to the

minds of young children recalled with a variety of teachings such as movies, fairy tales, and

readings. Mulan rebelled against the set plans within her culture and community to do what she

believed was right, even when she was told that she was supposed to act like a lady and follow

the set gender prescriptions. Walt Disney shows the social construct of gender and social norms,

trying to show that the female figure can do as much and more than what is expected, aside for

the male figures. Gender is part of our daily life and many individuals expect both genders to

follow the plans laid out by society and the media telling to look, walk, talk, act, and dress as the

specified. To conclude therefore the stereotypes and norms is what has negatively influenced

adolescents leaving them without the opportunities to seek what they would wish to become or

act upon on their own.

Works Cited
Clements, Ron, director. The Little Mermaid. Performance by Walt Disney Pictures, 1989.
Devor, Aaron Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender (p. 35- 45)
Green, Samara. "Fairy Tales and Gender Stereotypes." The Huffington

Post.TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Feb. 2012. Web. 09 May 2017.

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samara-green/fairy-tales-and-gender-

st_b_1273872.html>.
Hand, David, director. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. Performance by Ted Sears, Brothers

Grimm, 1938.
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Juergen, Michelle. Nine Harmful Stereotypes. Mic, 25 April 2014,

https://mic.com/articles/88167/9-harmful-stereotypes-we-never-realized-our-favorite-

disney-movies-taught-us#.DTaRUGUoe
Lorber, Judith Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender (p.19- 34)