Construction of the Female Self: Feminist Readings of the Disney Heroine

Jill Bernie Henke, Diane Zimmerman Umble, & Nancy J. Smith

The Project

• “We began with the assumption that mass media articulates cultural values about gender by portraying women, men, and their relationships in particular ways.”
• “Disney stories, then, have become part of a cultural repertoire of ongoing performances and reproductions of gender roles by children and adults; moreover, these stories present powerful and sustained messages about gender and social relations.”
• Influenced by conversations with their daughters and students
• Synthesis of two streams of feminist thought:
• Psychological development of females
• Standpoint Feminist Theory

The Oxymoron of Power and the Perfect Girl

• Women value connections with others and, in part, define themselves through relationships with others
• Silence and compliance as virtues for girls in the classroom...
• “The Perfect Girl” invention of the self
• “The girl who has no bad thoughts or feelings, the kind of person everyone wants to be with, the girl who, in her perfection, is worthy of praise and attention, worthy of inclusion and love….[She is the] girl who speaks quietly, calmly, who is always nice and kind, never mean or bossy”
• On their way to womanhood, girls often learn to silence themselves and lose their sense of self
• As girls’ bodies change, there’s a disconnect between childhood and adulthood

The Perfect Girl Continued...

• Standards of beauty = standards of goodness
• See themselves through the gaze of others and judge themselves based on how others see them
• Believe relationships can be free of conflict
• Don’t speak up in regards to your relationship problems because that will just make things worse - “The cruel irony is that by withholding their voices, girls also risk losing relationships that are genuine and authentic.”
• “In effect, girls struggle daily with the ‘seduction of the unattainable, to be all things to all people, to be perfect girls and model women.’”

Standpoint Theory

• Standpoint Theory (roots in Hegel and Marx)
• Focuses on how membership in groups, such as those designated by gender, race, class, and sexual identity, shapes what individuals experience, know, feel, and do, as well as how individuals understand social life as a whole
• Women still treated as “others” and “outsiders” in patriarchal societies
• Societies are made up of different groups that have different amounts of power and privilege.
• Oppression is universal for women
• “Survival for those with subordinate status often depends quite literally on being able to read others, respond in ways that please others, and assume responsibility for others’ comfort”
• Which differences are conspicuously absent among Disney characters?
• Heterosexist assumption underlying all Disney films looked at - it is the only social construct and none of the female characters question that assumption
• “Standpoint theory, then, provides the means to understand how women’s voices are muted and how women can regain their voices and become empowered.”

Basis and questions for the analyses

• Conceptualization of power in conjunction with Standpoint Theory and psychological development of girls forms the basis for a series of questions:
• How do the worlds of Disney films construct the heroine’s sense of self?
• To what degree is her self-knowledge related to or in response to her relationships with others?
• Do Disney heroines model the “perfect girl”?
• On the way to womanhood, what does the Disney heroine give up?
• What are the ways in which the female characters experience their lives as “others” and themselves as strangers in their relationship to self and others?
• And what are the power dynamics of those relationships?

Zipes & Sells Combo

• “The values imparted in Disney fairy tales are not those of original folk tellers, nor of the original writers such as Perrault or Andersen; instead, they are the values of Disney’s male writers.”
• “Thus, even when the fairy tale is supposed to focus on the heroine, ‘these figures are pale and pathetic compared to the more active and demonic characters in the film.’”
• “The alleged heroines are ‘helpless ornaments in need of protection, and when it comes to the action of the film, they are omitted.”
• Laura Sells’ Marxist feminist analysis of The Little Mermaid…
• Dangerous message about appropriation, yet hopeful in the fact that her voice erupts amidst patriarchal language

“Our analysis elaborates upon the two themes that Zipes and Sells introduce: the relative power, or powerlessness, of the Disney heroine, and the discovery or loss of that heroine’s voice.”

Then vs. Now

• Cinderella and Aurora are passive victims who need protection
• Cinderella is the “perfect girl”
• Disney presents more complex narratives involving rebellion, exploration, and danger with heroines such as Ariel, Belle, and Pocahontas
• Stronger sense of self, of choice, and of voice
• Shifting depictions of intimate relationships
• Early heroines fall in love at first sight and easily marry, relationships with later heroines come at a cost
• Ariel gives up her voice and relinquishes her cultural identity
• “Belle discovers love only through trials, sacrifice, and learning to look beneath the surface.”
• Pocahontas [at that time] seemed to be the strongest and most empowered of them all (resists losing her identity for the sake of marriage, position and value in her community, relationships with females, relationship of interdependence with the earth)

Older Films

• Central female characters in an oppressive social milieu where mothers or other sources of female guidance and wisdom are largely absent (except Pocahontas).
• All of the female protagonists have dreams as well, but differ in their powers to make their dreams come true
• Cinderella is powerless against her circumstances and can only dream - best illustrates the Disney pattern of subjugation and stifling heroines’ voices and selfhood. She’s an example of external and internalized oppression.
• Aurora has no voice in shaping her own destiny. She’s obedient, beautiful, and acquiescent to authority. There’s no one she can actually trust. She sleeps while others battle to decide her future.

The Little Mermaid

• Ariel shows signs of selfhood. She sings of her dream to explore and her feelings of being misunderstood. Frustration and resistance. She’s willful and disobedient
• Triton charges Sebastian to watch over her - to “protect her from herself” = patriarchy’s efforts to prevent her from achieving an independent identity.
• Despite this, she explores, she asks questions, she makes choices, and she acts
• Prince Eric kills Ursula finally and Triton grants Ariel the power to return to the human world - the men still use their powers inevitably allowing Ariel to follow her dreams

The Little Mermaid (Musker & Clements, 1989)

The Little Mermaid Continued...

• “Articulating one’s own dreams and wishes - possessing an autonomous voice - is a strong indicator of the development of selfhood. Little wonder, then, that alarms sound for feminists concerned with the psychological development of girls and women’s sense of self when Ariel literally sacrifices her voice and mermaid body to win Eric’s love.”
• “Having a voice, a sense of selfhood, is risky because it is inconsistent with images of the ‘perfect girl’ or the true woman.”

The Little Mermaid (Musker & Clements, 1989)

Construction of Self in Relation to Others

• “Power-With” vs. “Power-Over”
• Instant love
• Ariel falls in love with Eric instantly and sets out to win his love at great personal risk and physical pain
• The evil characters have more “power over” and “power to”
• “...The ‘good’ Fairy Godmother has limited ‘power over’ the world of dreams, but no ‘power over’ Cinderella’s physical realities which go unchallenged.”
• The power over Cinderella’s everyday life lies in the hands of her stepmother
• Maleficent vs. the good fairies
• In The Little Mermaid, fairies and godmothers give way to male protectors
• Ursula is powerful, seductive, and repulsive
• “Disney’s evil females are magnificent in their strength, presence, and rage.”
• Alienated from their communities. Driven to acquire what they don’t have
• Women often pitted against each other than supportive of each other

Conclusions

• Over time, “Disney heroines have acquired the ability to articulate their dreams and to enact changes in their lives as they pursue those dreams. Yet, we suggest that this evolution may well function hegemonically to maintain the patriarchal status quo while tacitly acknowledging the changing roles of women in contemporary society.”
• “This leads us to conclude that Disney films provide at best ambiguous and at worst troubling postfeminist message for young viewers.”
• Most abandon their dreams for their man
• “...Women as sovereign selves are both victims of imposed social conditions and actors in the unfolding of their constructions of self.”