gender stereotypes in aladdin essay

Gender Stereotypes In The Film Aladdin

Summary of culture of the thin bites fiji teenagers by ellen goodman.

Ideas of what beauty should be are a simple influence by the media. These ideals can be a simple commercial that projects the image of beauty as thin, certain skin type, and hair length. A lasting impression is made on all who view these images. Fiji was once unbiased as to weight and outward appearance of others. The women would greet each other without remarks or negative tone toward one another.

Jean Kilbourne Still Killing USftly Analysis

These advertisements lower women’s status as the women portrayed in the photographs set merely unattainable standards that only assist in women’s inferiority. Advertisers should not seek to make women feel bad about their appearance as everyone comes in all different shapes and sizes and not all perfect thin and tall models. Women having a negative self-image of themselves is an ongoing issue, because the media unfavorably portrays them as they do not meet their standard of what the ideal body type of a woman should look like. Solving this issue would incredibly increase women’s confidence in themselves and their bodies, diminish eating disorders, and shrink the dieting industry that so drastically affects the health of

Stereotypes Of Reel Bad Arabs In The Movie Aladdin

Sorry for the lengthy and analytic-ness of that, but I want you to understand why and how our culture is being turned into something hateful. I know right now I’m all talk, but let me tell you what I’ve noticed in the media. One of my more shocking realizations was the movie Aladdin. Disney starts out the movie, watched by millions of children, with a song about how barbaric Arabs are and throughout the film they are depicted as irrational and violent. I watched a film called Reel Bad Arabs and it elaborates on how Hollywood has been presenting this hateful stereotype for years.

General Strain Theory Essay

Every day we are bombarded with ideas of how the human body should look- men need to be muscular and women should be fit and toned. In fact, these norms are taught at a very early age, and through various social institutions. It is especially evident in Disney movies, just take a look a Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, or Ariel in the Little Mermaid, children are constantly being subjected to these masculine and feminine ideals and it will continue throughout their life. Magazines will place photo-shopped models on their front covers, while radio stations promote testosterone boosters for men. Although these ideal body types are impossible to achieve, society still has the expectation that we should strive to be as physically attractive as possible

Female Stereotypes In 'Boys And Girls'

In the story “Boys and Girls”, the narrator discuss that she does not changed any traditional stereotype. It is clear to see when the salesman say that “Could have fooled me, I thought it was only a girl.” The narrator uses the word “fooled” and “only” show that people still has bias on female, she does not resist the female stereotype successful. Meanwhile, the info-text express that then women changed the traditional stereotype a lot, In the text that “women have been liberated, foe the first time in history, but it has only allowed u to scratch and claw our way to the middle.”

Analysis Of Where The Girls Are, By Susan Douglas

The media tends to promote thinness, flawless skin, hair and labels it as "ideal."

Sociological Imagination In Social Media

Body image has become such a big issue among society especially females mostly. According to Mariana Gozalo, states “Using Will’s sociological imagination, I thought about how there are girls who wish to look skinny because it is what is being idolized on TV and magazines and online ads. “Social media make us believe that there is a “ideal body” shape. In my opinion, there is no such a thing as the ideal body shape, because everyone is beautiful in their own individual way.

Disney Princess Stereotypes

While the other male characters such as Scuttle and Flounder were unintelligent and dependent. These ideas that men are superior to women are shown by female disney characters, and the portrayal of masculinity and femininity in movies and media to people from a young

Beauty In The Media's Unrealistic Standards For Beauty

The media portrays these unrealistic standards to men and women of how women should look, which suggests that their natural face is not good enough. Unrealistic standards for beauty created by the media is detrimental to girls’ self-esteem because it makes women feel constant external pressure to achieve the “ideal look”, which indicates that their natural appearance is inadequate. There has been an increasing number of women that are dissatisfied with themselves due to constant external pressure to look perfect. YWCA’s “Beauty at Any Cost” discusses this in their article saying that, “The pressure to achieve unrealistic physical beauty is an undercurrent in the lives of virtually all women in the United States, and its steady drumbeat is wreaking havoc on women in ways that far exceed the bounds of their physical selves” (YWCA).

How Does Body Image Affect Society

For decades women have been put under the pressure of looking a certain way. This pressure, primarily begins in the adolescence- teenage years of a girl’s life. Teenage girls are expected to have perfect bodies. Thin- but curvy, tan- but

Negative Portrayal Of Women In Disney Princess Movies

The Negative Portrayal of Women in Disney Princess Movies Disney princess movies are beloved by many little girls; however, the children do not understand that from a young age they’re learning that a woman is only good for her looks. Every princess has a slender frame and that’s what the children are referencing as beautiful. Not to mention that most of the princesses have fair skin. The princesses have very little, if any diversity and are treated as weak objects.

Racial Stereotypes In Disney Movies

One gender stereotype is evident in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow white is

Aladdin Character Analysis

The aim of this essay is to investigate the race, sexuality and gender stereotyping that is expressed through the Disney film ‘Aladdin’ and how these elements affect the characters. These elements will be represented within the characters personality and back story which is then visually represented in the characters design. In this Disney film there is a great importance to know the history in the world during the time that this film was established. The history during 1991 is shown through the characters.

Argumentative Essay On Body Image

Men and women nowadays are starting to lose self-confidence in themselves and their body shape, which is negatively impacting the definition of how beauty and body shape are portrayed. “...97% of all women who had participated in a recent poll by Glamour magazine were self-deprecating about their body image at least once during their lives”(Lin 102). Studies have shown that women who occupy most of their time worrying about body image tend to have an eating disorder and distress which impairs the quality of life. Body image issues have recently started to become a problem in today’s society because of social media, magazines, and television.

Pressure On Women In Society

Whether it’s magazine covers, instagram, twitter, on television or just on the world wide web in general, everywhere we look we see stunning models. Models that are incredibly thin and can look good in anything. Our society is obsessed with how perfect they look, yet at the end of the day women everywhere looks in the mirror and doesn’t see the body of the girl she sees on social media. Even though women come in all shapes and sizes in nature, the expectation to have a skinny, perfect body just seems to be the expectation for our society nowadays. Society puts too much pressure on females to have the perfect body.

More about Gender Stereotypes In The Film Aladdin

Gender Stereotypes In The Disney Film Aladdin

Gender stereotypes in pixar movies.

Stefan Babich, a blogger for Periscope Magazine, a blog for women.Wrote a online article in 2011 that Brings up an issue many of us might not have even knew existed, that there is a lack of female protagonists in Pixar films. Babich brings up many points that are important to think about, because whether we realise it or not films,books,video games, and the media in general, at times do treat women to be less than their male counterparts.

Gender Stereotypes In The Film Tangled

Watch the movie Tangled and you’ll find yourself hooked, desiring the knowledge of what’s next. While watching this movie, two main literary themes became apparent. Disney's Tangled is the story of a stolen girl trapped in a castle with her captor as a mother. Throughout the story, Rapunzel wants nothing more but to leave her . Tangled’s plot employs many gender stereotypes and shows a large socio-economic divide.

Ethnic Stereotypes In Aladdin

The animated classical Disney movie Aladdin has became one of the most successful movies since it was released in 1992. This movie may seem to be fairy-tale based and entertaining for children since they are the main target audience of Disney, but with a deeper look into its details this is not the reality of it. The ideas that children are exposed to from watching this movie help create and structure their mindsets as well as reinforcing unrealistic images of the Arabian world. In addition, Aladdin is a great illustrative tool in reflecting the concept of Orientalism, a term coined by Edward Said, which emphasizes on representing the Orient with certain clichés and characteristics that are misleading about the true nature of reality (Said, 1978). With that been said, this review paper will be focusing on the main characters and the way they are

Gender Stereotypes In Disney

Disney strongly portrays gendered stereotypes using their eleven official princesses. Young children, specifically young girls in this case, are extremely susceptible to being influenced by the portrayal of these gendered stereotypes. Golden and Jacoby performed research regarding how preschool girls interpret the gendered stereotypes shown through Disney Princess media, through both the young girls’ pretend play behaviors and the discussion of the princesses. Golden and Jacoby performed this research project in order to examine the perception of young girls in relation to princesses and awareness of gender-role stereotypes, a different research study found that girls who lived and accepted gendered stereotypes, in believing that women

Princess Culture And Gender Stereotypes In Princess Movies

From a young age, princess culture has impacted the lives of numerous people. Some individuals may have spent their childhood in the attire of their favorite Disney princess while they put on their best rendition of the character they admired most. Other children went seemingly unfazed by the phenomenon, as their peers remained spellbound by the magical world of princesses. With Disney’s debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, princess movies provided the defining factor of the Disney entertainment empire for years to come. From this, fairy tales embarked into a territory that would touch the lives of many in a new way. However, since princess culture has considerably grown, opponents, such as Monika Bartyzel, question if princess

Disney's Princess Movies : Changing Gender Roles In Disney And Female Stereotypes

According to A Dictionary of Journalism, the media is defined as journalism as part of a much broader field of public communication organizations, including newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV channels, the film industry, the music industry, websites, advertising, and public relations. For young children, media plays a predominant role in developing schemas of one’s identity, including body image, and gender roles. Young children spend the majority of their time viewing media, therefore the process of generating one’s identity based on his or her observation of media is inevitable. Disney’s princess movies have brought significant effects to children’s development of their identities. There are three main stages of Disney movies. The first stage is the “princess” stage, where the movie depicts the most stereotypes (i.e. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). The second stage is the “rebellious” stage, where the princesses are illustrated as curious and adventurous, yet still show the aspect of female stereotypes (i.e. Jasmine in Aladdin). The third stage is the “hero” stage, where the princesses are shown to fight the female stereotypes (i.e. Mulan). Although Disney has portrayed more complex, yet evolving gender roles as time went on, Disney’s princess movies had significant effects on young audiences by planting changing gender stereotypes.

Negative Stereotypes In Aladdin

American kids and teenager have always struggled with accepting or respecting themselves. Other people are making those who are struggling to have a hard time with themselves. The entertainment industry has a responsibility to implement diverse characters in their programming for kids and teenagers that don’t perpetuate wrong stereotypes. This fits the purpose to help develop good character on children and teenagers. Some kids and teenagers don’t actually see the outcomes in society because they are mostly influenced by their friends or parents who think very stereo typical of the world. When they’re so influenced by their parents or friends with stereotypical minds they begin to believe it and they keep spreading negative thoughts

Stereotypes Of Middle Eastern Culture In The 1992 Disney Film Aladdin

The chosen item is in the 1992 Disney film, Aladdin. After watching the movie, there are many disturbing stereotypes of Middle Eastern people. I wanted to choose this film because I was disturbed how Disney was portraying middle eastern people and their culture to children. I do want to criticize Disney for depicting the Middle Eastern culture and people with some stereotypes, and this essay will inform readers why Disney’s depiction was false. There will be many mentions and detail analysis of what Disney has done to make the film stereotypical.

Essay on Racism in Disney's Aladdin

Racism: discrimination which exemplifies stereotypical differences between the ethnic groups to which people belong. While Disney animated films are the ideal family movies, it is undisclosed to many that such racism is being portrayed. Disney’s movie Aladdin (1992), “was a high-profile release, the winner of two Academy Awards, and one of the most successful Disney films ever produced” (Giroux, 104); however, what is often disregarded is the obvious depiction of careless racism towards Arabs seen in the illustrations of the characters, the statuses into which they are placed and the lyrics of the opening song near beginning of the film. Furthermore, with the movie disguising itself as innocent and wholesome, children are exposed to these

The Stereotypes Of Disney PrincessesBamboozling Young Girls

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Ariel are all names almost every young female can recall. These are just a few of Disney’s most memorable characters, the “Disney princesses” which are idolized by young girls everywhere. These princesses are portrayed to be strong willed, optimistic, and hardworking women who overcome various hardships throughout their life. Talk about being the perfect role models for little girls everywhere- but are they really? Although they may seem to have admirable qualities, by the end of these Disney movies, each princess receives their happy ending with their “prince charming” at their side. This concludes that happiness is obtained only by finding your “prince charming”. A princess’ “happily ever after”, that is repeated in these iconic Disney movies, distorts what true happiness is and could be for girls around the world. This perceived reality promoted by Disney then becomes engraved in our young girls’ minds through ways that are much like propaganda in the political arena. Propaganda is a form of language commonly used to manipulate intended audiences. In Disney’s case, their intended audience consists of young girls around the world. These Disney films display methods of propaganda, such as doublespeak (Lutz) and the two-extremes fallacy (Cross), which result in our young girls believing in a false reality. There needs to be attention brought about this flawed perception of a sole happiness that is continuously depicted by Disney and shared through ways of propaganda, as it is damaging the minds of our young girls- the future contributors of our society.

Gender Stereotypes In Disney Movies

People grow up conditioned to believe heavily in gender roles. One of the major contributors to our way of thinking is the media. Many young children watch Disney movies, through which, they learn how certain actions affect how they are seen; even material goods like clothes becoming symbolic of not only gender roles but status. At that age, people are easily influenced by the information that is presented in front of them. What little girl didn’t dream of being a Disney Princess? What little boy didn’t want to be a brave saviour? Girls are taught to want to be damsels in distress, waiting for their princes to come and rescue them. They are taught to be feminine and use their body in an exclusively seductive (and arguably, provocative) way.

Gender Stereotypes In Disney's Mulan

From the minute one is born the division between genders is placed. The phrases “act like a lady” or “be a man” become everyday practices and lifelong slogans. Fairy tales are always focused on women who play the beautiful damsel in distress persona and on men who play the handsome knight coming in to save them. Whether you are female or male, it is important to remember that these fixed characteristics placed on genders are never to be reinforced. In a world full of gender stereotypes, the Disney movie Mulan challenges the societal construct of masculinity and femininity by proving that gender roles are not fixed traits, but socially constructed views that can be changed.

Gender Role Portrayal And The Disney Princesses

At the beginning of this class, I had very little confidence in my ability to convey my ideas through writing. Now that I have reached the end of this course, I have learned many techniques and skills that have helped me with my various writing projects throughout the semester as well as my final research project. The first course outcome that I really worked toward throughout the semester is being able to engage with texts critically and to incorporate the ideas from those texts into my own work. From essentially day one of this course there were assigned readings of Giroux’s The Mouse that Roared. After each reading, there would be an analysis of the dense text during the following day of class. In addition to Giroux, there were also several

Gender Stereotypes In Disney Girls : Gender And Gender Aspects Of Young Girls

What young girl does not dream of becoming a princess and living in a castle happily ever after? Virtually every young girl identifies with princesses and has watched at least one Disney Princess movie. From the first movies of Snow White and Cinderella, to the later movies of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, to the most current movie Moana, Disney Princess movies permeate not only the movie theaters, but also our culture. In fact, “becoming a princess is as easy as purchasing a tiara and hosting a princess-themed birthday party or buying a Halloween costume and playing pretend” (Garabedian, 2014, p. 23). Nonetheless, as declared by Princess Merida in the movie Brave, “there comes a day when I don’t have to be a princess. No rules, no expectations. A day where anything can happen. A day where I can change my fate” (Andrews & Chapman, 2012). In other words, does the life of a princess measure up to the expectations of little girls everywhere? The Disney Princess brand has grown incredibly popular, especially with young girls. In spite of this, the franchise has also become extremely controversial due to potential gender stereotypes in the films. “Gender is one of the most discussed topics in today’s society…[it] represents and also reproduces certain attributes, expectations and roles which are associated with male and female…influencing the views and opinions of future generations” (Maity, 2014, p. 31). Yet, is the Disney Princess brand harmful to young children due to gender stereotypes? Two essays that contemplate the Disney Princess brand and gender stereotypes with opposite viewpoints on this controversial issue are “Girls on Film: The Real Problem with the Disney Princess Brand” by writer Monika Bartyzel and “In Defense of Princess Culture” by writer and mother Crystal Liechty. However, Liechty’s essay “In Defense of Princess Culture,” is the most effective article in convincing the audience of her point of view due to the claim, support, warrant, language, and vocabulary employed.

Disney is one of the most successful and largest companies in the world. They have their hand in nearly every form of entertainment as well as media, and broadcasting. Disney is best known for their animated films, unique cartoon characters, catchy musicals, and fairy tales that most of us were first introduced to as children. They are one of the few entertainment companies in the World whose primary demographic is children and teens. Nearly everybody is familiar with the Disney name and its brand, and its realistic to suggest that nearly everybody has experienced a Disney film and animated character at some point in their lives; which may have helped to influence them or their behaviors or even their

Aladdin Stereotypes

Show More In the movie Aladdin, a street rat with his faithful companion Abu are followed throughout their journey in the kingdom of Agrabah. The street rat, Aladdin, is forced to steal to survive and dreams of someday making it into the Grand Royal Palace. Aladdin thinks his dreams are only that, just dreams, until he stumbles upon a girl in the marketplace falling madly in love. This girl happens to be princess Jasmine of Agrabah and with the help of his friends Genie, magic carpet, and Abu, Aladdin avoids the tricks of Jafar and his parrot Iago to turn his wildest dreams into a reality. The movie effectively tells the story of Aladdin while applying traditional gender stereotypes found in various Disney movies. The portrayal of both males and females …show more content… While in the palace before meeting Aladdin, Jasmine attempts to promote more masculine traits in an attempt to appear independent and dominant. She expresses these traits throughout her fathers many failed attempts at finding a suitor to take over the throne. Jasmine exclaims at one point that she is “not a prize to be won” representing that women are see as objects and not people. Once Jasmine leaves the palace for the first time, her traits shift to become more feminine making her appear both passive and submissive. This is first displayed when Jasmine is wandering throughout the village and stumbles upon a hungry child. She must rely on Aladdin to rescue her after she is caught giving away a merchant’s food without paying for it. While in the castle Jasmine was not exposed to the world and was only around men, which is where she picked up her masculine traits. Once she stepped outside the castle walls, she picked up more feminine traits that society depicts as normal for …show more content… This is contrast to what Disney depicted throughout the entire that movie that she must sit in the Grand Royal Palace and wait for a man to come and pursue her. To defeat Jafar, she must use her “attractiveness” to distract him while Aladdin attempts to steal back the Genie’s lamp. When Jafar thinks he hears someone, princess Jasmine leans into him and kisses him. This shows how Disney depicts women to only be in stories to be the object of a man’s affliction. Throughout Aladdin, princess Jasmine is constantly defined by her

Racism In Disney Movies: The Princess And The Frog

Racism in Disney movies is a problem especially in the movie “The Princess and the Frog”. Many children don’t understand what is happening in the movie but there are hidden messages that need to be addressed. Disney movies have influenced many children over the years, from making kids happy, sad and learn valuable life lessons. One lesson that needs to be addressed is racism in Disney movies, such as The Princess and the Frog, young children aren’t old enough to comprehend racism in Disney movies, but it is a problem that needs to be solved.…

Beauty And The Beast By Beaumont's Beauty And The Beast

Growing up typically the only version of fairy tales recognized by most children is the “Disney Version”. Although popular, the Disney stories are not the only ones to exist; surprisingly many other authors retold their own versions of well known fairy tales. No matter who wrote the tale or which tale is being told, there usually exists a pattern of similar themes throughout each story. The tale of Beauty and the Beast by Beaumont, exhibits many of the common themes found in literature, such as having a male dominant character, an innocent maiden and magical elements present throughout the story. These common elements can be found in almost every story from the Grimm Brother’s version to Walt Disney’s version.…

Cinderella And Princess Culture 'And The Princess Paradox'

She believes that taking non-girly characters that kids may look up to and molding them into princesses is not only a marketing ploy, but an insult to feminism. Even Dora, she says, has turned from a tomboy adventurer into a princess wannabe. Orenstein includes this to show that society is almost uncomfortable with young girls looking up to women who are not traditionally feminine, like…

Rhetorical Analysis Of Cinderella's Mother

Almost all girls have either seen or have heard the “Cinderella” story before. Being a princess has been most girl 's dreams as a child, but little do they think about the theme and the message the “Cinderella” story creates. Elisabeth Panttaja, professor from Tufts University and author of the article “Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior,” explains a theme that people may find unsettling because she claims that Cinderella and the prince may not have been in love. She hints at the fact that Cinderella’s mother may have been the culprit in scheming and seducing the prince into marrying her.…

Cinderella And Princess Culture Summary

In both “The Princess Paradox” by James Poniewozik and “Cinderella and Princess Culture” by Peggy Orenstein, the princess culture is agreed upon; however, the authors vary their opinions of how the fairytail dream of pink dresses and sparkly crowns came to be. Poniewozik opens up his article by addressing the “kick-ass culture,” while Orenstein focuses on how princesses have diminished the feeling of confidence and independence that young girls should experience. While some may believe that princesses show the younger generation that females possess the ability to accomplish anything a male can, others believe that this trend aggressively encourages the idea of “perfection” in our modern society. Both “The Princess Paradox” and “Cinderella and Princess Culture” discuss the rules and…

The Princess And The Frog Analysis

Walt Disney Network has been a part of almost every American’s childhood life. For 35 years, Disney has created animated fairy tale movies that were intended to be child-friendly and create positive images. After, close analyzation it is evident that instead Disney has produced distorted images of racism and segregation in their movies. I have selected the animated film, The Princess and the Frog (2005). In the film, Tiana represents The Other of African American’s in the 19th century.…

What's Wrong With Cinderella Summary

To be a child in America essentially means that you are learning from your surroundings, therefore the general and popular modern day advertising, culture, and lessons are what a child is going to be seeing and hearing growing up. A child’s experience can be extremely different from another child’s experience, depending on gender, race, religion, and class. In the article from “A fabulous Child’s Story," it explains how there was a baby being raised with the gender unknown by the parents. Some might think that it was an impossible task, for example, in the story it states how family members and friends wanted to, or already had bought gifts for baby X, yet the parents would not tell them “what is was," in consequence, baby X barley got attention…

Classical Conditioning In Cinderella

A classic princess story, Cinderella remains to be one of Disney’s most popular movies. However, what is disturbing is the manner in which this movie imposes gender roles by depicting women in a negative manner. This film seems to be reinforcing the notion that women are weaklings and that the only way in which any society can survive is by upholding male dominance and embracing female submissiveness. The movie begins by showing Cinderella living happily with her parents in a faraway kingdom.…

Gender Roles In The Film Cinderella

Gender is a socially constructed component that shapes the society that’s around us. From an early age, children are taught what a little boy is and what a little girl is and how each should act. Gender Identity is the knowledge that one knows if they are male or female. From an early age, children know many differences between themselves and their peers, although it might not be as defined in a way of actual biological differences. Mainly children see gender differences based on what roles they are exposed to.…

Tiger and the Lady Essay

The Tiger or the Lady? In the story, “The Tiger or the Lady” by Frank Stockton”, a young handsome man, whom the princess was in loved with, was accused of committing the horrible crime of loving the beautiful, barbaric princess. Therefore, he was sent to the King’s Arena, where he shall be put to death. The “semi- barbaric king” (1) found that this joy of human torture was most genial, bringing great pleasure to his hateful heart and empty soul.…

Gender Roles And Stereotypes In Cinderella

He says, “If the shoe fits, bring her in” (Cinderella). This shows that the King does not care who the lady is, as long as the Prince will marry her, and she gives grandchildren to the King. Another scene that shows the gender class is when the mice and the birds are making Cinderella’s dress. When the male mouse, Gus, says, “I’ll cut it with the scissors,” nobody says anything (Cinderella). However, when Jaq, the other male mouse, says, “And I can do the sewing,” the female mouse stops him and says, “Leave the sewing to the women” (Cinderella).…

Gender Stereotypes In Cinderella

It also teaches young girls that they are weaker, physically, mentally, and intellectually, however once a prince is found and you fall in love, all your problems will disappear. The film is irresponsible since it perpetuates female stereotypes and establishes the patriarchy as the means for women to be fulfilled. Cinderella is not given the same amount of respect as her step sisters Drizella and Anastasia by her stepmother. Cinderella is treated like a maid, and is far from having equal rights and being treated like a person. “Dont forget the garden, Then scrub the terrance, sweep the halls and the stairs, clean the chimneys.…

Snow White: The Development Of Gender Stereotypes

Although some stories have female characters with more capability potency and capability like “Mulan”, but everyone is more likely to recognize tales like “Cinderella” or “Sleeping Beauty” than “Mulan” (Green). These fairy tales can portray a sexist view of female characters by presenting women as weak individuals and that a woman cannot save herself from tribulations, a man has to save her. For example, in “Cinderella”, Cinderella…

Belle And Cinderella Film Analysis

When I was a child, Disney Princesses like Belle and Cinderella were my idols. There was some kind of independence and strength found within the characters. However, in retrospect I cannot help but notice a male gaze that is ominous over both of these films. The female characters are presented in a way that fits the mold of stereotypes and in turn objectifies them as prizes to be won. Cinderella and Belle became no more than beautiful damsels in distress.…

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Stereotypes in Disney’s “Aladdin” Movie Essay

Introduction, the theory of stereotyping, aladdin – general info, aladdin – stereotyping, conclusions.

Stereotyping plays a great role in the peoples’ perceptions of other groups, religions, countries, and cultures. They range from innocent to the outright insulting, depending on who they are about or what the subject is. Politicians, Mass Media, the marketing, and advertising industries all use stereotypes to promote certain economic and political agendas. We all know that Germany produces quality products, and that everything made in China is prone to breaking, that democracy is good and communism is bad, that Europeans are cowards and the Middle East is full of terrorists and religious fundamentalists. Or do we? When one asks oneself where this “knowledge” comes from, many struggle to give a coherent answer. That is because stereotypes are formed from bits and pieces of knowledge accumulated for a long period of time, starting from early childhood, and transform into “knowledge” when the formation of a person is formed. Children animation and movies have a great impact on the perceptions of new generations towards other people, religions, and cultures. The purpose of this paper is to examine the stereotypes enforced by a popular Disney Motion Picture, titled Aladdin.

Contrary to popular belief, stereotyping is not inherently bad. In fact, it is a necessary construct needed for the understanding and perception of information. When a storyteller cannot afford to spend a lot of time to describe every person and every object in detail, they resort to stereotypes – an assembly of images and qualities assigned to a specific person or a specific object in a specific background. It helps save time and keep the story on point, instead of allowing it to become lost in a sea of non-essential details.

The downside of stereotyping is that it forces us to generalize and ignore the differences between different people. They lead to social categorization, which in turn leads to prejudice and injustices committed on the grounds of negative generalization. For that reason, the very word “stereotype” is considered to be a pejorative, with an inherently negative meaning. In doing so, the word self-demonstrates its own meaning.

Aladdin is a romantic fantasy adventure movie filmed by Disney in 1992 (“Aladdin,” n.d.). Its story is based on an Arab folktale from One Thousand and One Nights. It revolves around Aladdin, a “street rat” and a thief with a heart of gold who steals only what he cannot afford and tries to get by with his pet monkey Abu while avoiding greedy merchants and bloodthirsty guards. He discovers a magical lamp with a Genie inside and uses it to embark on a quest of marrying the Sultan’s beautiful daughter, Jasmine, while thwarting the attempts of the evil vizier, Jafar, to do the same and establish a dictatorship over the peaceful Arabic nation of Agrabah. The movie was a commercial hit, earning over 700 million dollars in the first week of release, worldwide (“Aladdin,” n.d.). In addition, the picture was nominated multiple times for numerous awards, most of which were related to the music. The title won 2 Oscars and was nominated for 29 (“Aladdin,” n.d.). Aladdin is considered one of the Walt Disney’s Classics and one of the most popular cartoons of all times. It can be watched on numerous streaming sites, such as Netflix, Gorillavidz, Vidzi.tv, and numerous others.

What are the first stereotypes about the Arabic nations that naturally come to one’s mind? Here are a few that seem to be universal for practically everyone who had never been to the Middle East (Stangor & Crandall, 2013):

There is plenty of sand around.
The major buildings have spherical domes with religious symbols and spires.
Everybody wears turbans.
Men are typically violent and armed.
The governors are either inept or corrupt; the military is abusing its position of power.
The women either wear black clothes from tip to toe or resemble oriental belly dancers.
The streets are full of merchants selling goods and wears of dubious origins.

These stereotypes portray a rather inhospitable land full of dangerous and suspicious people, where women are either repressed or exploited, and the state of living is akin to that of a typical backwater country ruled by a local dictator. While some of these stereotypes are situational and rarely objective, the majority of them could not be applied to the developed countries of the Persian Gulf, such as the UAE or the Saudi Arabia. Yet, almost every stereotype mentioned above can, in one form or another, be found in Aladdin (Galer, 2017).

Stereotyping in Aladdin starts from the intro song, which is used to set up the mood for the entire story. The current version is much more benign than it used to be since the original tune caused a scandal that forced Disney to change a line in the song. The original line describing the “magical land of Agrabah” stated that “they will cut off your ear if they don’t like your face,” which does not portray the fictional Arabs as good or even friendly people. However, the rest of the story was not as easy to fix (“Aladdin: The complete script,” n.d.).

The land of Agrabah is presented to the viewers as a without a single positive character in it, besides the main hero, his love interest, and the Genie. The guards in the show are all incompetent and bloodthirsty, eager to use their curved scimitars on Aladdin for stealing a loaf of bread; the merchants are all greedy, ugly, and untrustworthy (Galer, 2017). The women in the show are portrayed as courtesans, although their status is not explicitly stated. There is not a single good and upstanding character in the story that supports the region’s morals and traditions (Galer, 2017).

If we take a closer look at the protagonists of the story, it becomes obvious – Aladdin is a proxy for the traditional American values of freedom, which are seldom met with approval in the Middle East, while Jasmine represents ideas of emancipation for women, which are also rather foreign to the Middle East. The Sultan, who is not a villain and is shown to support the traditional views of Agrabah in regards to marriage and ruling, is also shown to be painfully incompetent as a ruler. Jafar, the main villain of the story, is, potentially, the most “Arabic” character ever, from the way he talks about the way he dresses, looks, and acts (“Aladdin: The complete script,” n.d.). He harbors all of the negative stereotypes about the Arab people, being conniving, deceitful, violent, a dictator, and a “snake,” which is reminiscent to how they were referred to during the Persian Gulf War – sand snakes. It should be noted that all major characters have lighter skin complexions when compared to the antagonists, their “whiteness” associating them more with the western ideals projected onto them (Galer, 2017).

Thus, Aladdin, whether intentionally or not, forms a specific picture within the mind of young viewers. It portrays all countries in the Middle East as ineffectual dictatorships, its people as liars and thieves, and its government officials as violent and corrupt. The only people worthy of being considered “good,” according to Aladdin, are those who share western ideals, while the rest is irrevocably corrupt, as the show does not give any redeeming features to the merchants, the guards, the Sultan, or the villain. The only people to possess any virtues are the westernized members of the main cast.

The target audience of Aladdin consists of young children, between 8 and 12 years of age. This cartoon serves as the first cornerstone of their perceptions of the Middle East, its people, and its culture. It seems innocent, but over time, the initial perceptions are overlaid with reports of crimes and terror attacks in the Middle East, as well as horror stories propagated and accentuated on by the media, which helps portray the entire region in a young mind as “deplorable,” making it easier to justify any acts of aggression against it (Stangor & Crandall, 2013). Aladdin was aired in 1992, during the operation in the Persian Gulf. The American wars fought in the Middle East through the 2000s show how much the grown-up audience of Aladdin supports the repetitive interventions, despite the ongoing bloodshed. According to the recent polls, over 30% of voters would be in favor of bombing Agrabah – the fictional city, where Aladdin lives (Kasperkevic, 2015). This attitude is the end effect of negative stereotyping – at this point, it had already transformed into prejudice and hate in the minds of many. It is hard to estimate what kind of effect Aladdin had in perpetrating such attitudes, but it is pointless to deny its influence. Whether the creators intended it or not, Aladdin was one of the many steps towards negative stereotyping of the Arab people.

Aladdin. (n.d.). Web.

Aladdin: The complete script. (n.d.). Web.

Galer, S. S. (2017). The Aladdin controversy Disney can’t escape . Web.

Kasperkevic, J. (2015). Poll: 30% of GOP voters support bombing Agrabah, the city from Aladdin. The Guardian. Web.

Stangor, C., & Crandall, C. S. (2013). Stereotyping and prejudice. New York, NY: Psychology Press.

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Theme Of Sexism In Aladdin

Sexism in Aladdin The point of many films is to convey a message to its viewers, such as morals and ethics. Consequently, films intended for adults convey messages suitable for adults; while children’s films do likewise for their target age groups, as one might expect. These children’s films, directed towards particularly younger audiences, prove useful when they contain beneficial maxims. Although at times, these films elicit less than healthy social views. Disney’s Aladdin is a prime example of a children’s film that immerses the audience in unhealthy views towards women. This film is an irresponsible in its portrayal of women - it sexually objectifies the female protagonist and enforces sexist ideologies, which directly affects the female characters within the story’s patriarchal system. The idea of sexism towards women is rampant throughout the movie Aladdin by making the following three claims: a woman ’s worth is defined by men, women are incapable of making their own choices, and that women are inadequate and thus require saving by a man. Aladdin insinuates that a man …show more content…

In Aladdin, the law requires women to be married by the young age of 16, and for princess Jasmine , she must marry a prince. Often times, the male political parties in power take away a woman’s choice to not only marry who she wants, but also when she wants to marry them. When the potential suitor for Jasmine storms off in fury after putting up with her insubordination, Jasmine explains to her father that the suitor was too self-absorbed and her father gets mad at her for having her own opinions on the man, when clearly the only opinions that matter are those of the father. This implies she is not allowed to express her feelings, and furthermore she is forbidden to act on them as well. As long as the father finds him suitable, Jasmines opinions on her future husband are

In this essay, the author

Analyzes how disney's aladdin is an irresponsible film that immerses the audience in unhealthy views towards women. it sexually objectifies the female protagonist and enforces sexist ideologies.
Analyzes how aladdin insinuates that a man defines women's worth based on their beauty, thus sexually objectifying women. jasmine is being pressured into marrying someone of wealth and power for the mere reason that she will age past her prime.
Analyzes how patriarchal dominance is best depicted in the scene in which a potential suitor storms out of his meeting with jasmine and proclaims, "i've never been so insulting! you'll never marry her off!"
Explains that in aladdin, the law requires women to be married by the young age of 16 and for princess jasmine, she must marry a prince.
Analyzes how jasmine's independence is interpreted as insubordination when she tells her father, "i hate being forced into this, if i marry, i want it to be for love."
Analyzes how the socially constructed norms of the film suggest that female protagonists need saving by a man.
Analyzes how aladdin saves jasmine from marrying the evil manipulative jafar. this reinforces sexist views of women by showing that they are incapable of taking care of themselves.

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Gender And Stereotypes: Gender Roles In Disney Movies

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Gender Roles in Disney

Media is a powerful agent in entertaining children. It also influences and teaches the youth of society the suitable and appropriate gender roles that they inevitably try to make sense of. The power of media is very influential especially in the minds of the youth. Disney movies target the youth and plant certain ideas and concepts about social culture into the vulnerable minds of children. Media uses gender to its advantage, just like Disney productions. Humorous caricatures reveal some harsh realities about the portrayal of Disney Princesses in many movies made by the Walt Disney Company. Disney mixes innocence with the ultimate form of fantasy to capture an audience. Predominantly, Disney helps highlight the gender roles by showing the audience simply what they want to see. In the attempt to stick to the norm and portray stereotypical female characters, Disney created Princesses. Presented as damsels in distress and inferior beings to men, Disney Princesses give children an inaccurate portrayal of gender roles at a young age. Through Disney’s social success and intriguing films, such as The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast, Disney Princess movies portray stereotypical representation of gender roles through the denigration of the female image, targeting and ruining the perception of youth today.

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The debate over the good and bad aspects of Disney movies has been going on for years. It has become a part of pop culture in a way never expected through things such as YouTube videos and meme’s. While looking at multiple Disney movies may give a wider range of example of both the good and the bad in Disney movies, to help depict the effects the movies actually have on kids it is most beneficial to study just one movie. Zia’s essay argues that Disney movies have a good influence on children by teaching them good life morals. However, one of her examples, Mulan, is not an example of achievement through hard work like Zia explains, but rather a change made through magic, and example of the horrible historical inaccuracies made in Disney movies and the lack of parental respect that they teach children.

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Disney Argumentative Essay

Disney promotes sexisim by forcing young girls to live in a patriarchal world. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The little mermaid, Aladdin, and Snow White are all examples of popular Disney movies that encourage young viewers that they need a man to save the day. Yes, it’s true that there are recent movies such as Moana and Frozen that prove otherwise, but how long will it take to completely get over the fact that women are mainly viewed as secondary citizens compared to the men? There are countless examples of how Disney movies influence this theme, and how much the female characters’ actions, ideas and thoughts are not included in a Disney movie.

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Once upon a time, there was a 16 year old mermaid princess named Ariel who gave up her voice, an important part of her identity, in order to be with a man who she became infatuated with at just one glance. Ariel has a very traditional gender-stereotypical role in the film, as the helpless, clueless, naive, physically weak, submissive, and attractive female protagonist that Disney films, especially the classics, portray so often (England). There is a lot of controversy surrounding this film in regards to its patriarchal ideals. The Little Mermaid, like most media, is build for the ‘male gaze’, a term coined by Laura Mulvey that suggests that visual entertainment, such as movies, are structured to be viewed by a masculine consumer. I will argue that the male gaze perpetuates harmful gender-stereotypes in The Little Mermaid.

Disney and Traditional Stereotypes

...aves Princess Jasmine multiple times and falling in love at first sight. They also live happily ever-after together, just as every other Disney prince and princess in every other Disney movie. Parents should be aware of the subliminal messages that their children view in the Disney movies they are watching, and grow up to believe that is how life goes. The children that are growing up watching Disney movies with such strong gender stereotypes are learning things they may factor into their own futures, and think that acting the way of the Disney roles is the only way for them to live their life in a happy manner. The way Disney animated films assign gender roles to their characters effect young children’s views of right and wrong in society. It is wrong, and they should not be exposed to such material growing up because it is harmful to their future expectations.

The Influence of Disney Films on Society

of influence in both the characters and gender roles of people in our society. The films have brought about the shaping of morals, behaviors and characters of not only children, but also adults in todays society, through engaging them in a constant series of unthinking consumption. In addition, most of the films in Disney bring out many different gender roles and people who grew up watching them have been influenced greatly by the content in the films (Blum 13). This paper will involve the various roles played by the characters in the films and how their roles have influenced the society at large.

Disney Princesses' Influence on Young Children

Princess films are centered around a female character who meets the love of her life and, like in other fairy tales, ends with their wedding (Ross 4). Initially, the Disney princesses’ have portrayed a typical female role in the film, showing the expected gender roles in American society (England Descartes Collier-Meek 563). These gender-based stereotypes are influenced by the time period they were made in, but also originating from old fairytales made centuries ago. “Society’s increasing reliance on the use of television and videos to occupy children warrants continued investigation of how exposure to media may affect children. Given that media portrayals like those in the animated movies of Walt Disney often reinforce societal stereotypes related to gender, ethnicity, and culture, parents may consider a more thoughtful approach to the use of television and videos” (Disney Movies 1).

The Little Mermaid Deconstructed

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Author: Zoe Walwyn

Gender roles and their perpetuation in popular culture over the years has been a hot topic amongst young people. Young people, specifically children, can be easily influenced and therefore the mass availability of children’s movies with typical gender stereotypes can create a cycle of gender roles in society. Disney is no stranger to accusations of racism, sexism and unrealistic expectations for both girls and boys in their films. Specifically, this blog post will be discussing gender representation in one of Disney’s classic movies, Aladdin. In short, Aladdin is set in the Middle East and follows a young street rat who falls in love with a princess and in order to be with her, uses the magic of a genie in order to turn him into a prince. The plot sounds innocent enough but with quite a few issues in regards to gender, race, ethnicity and more, the movie at times can imply anything but innocence. Disney is known to depict negative gender stereotypes and the movie Aladdin is no exception. These gender stereotypes specifically target Arab women and in turn give Western viewers an inaccurate image of who these women are. In this essay, I will discuss orientalism, the sexualization of young, Arab women, the “ideal body” and gender stereotypes such as the “damsel in distress”.

Firstly, this movie’s main target audience was the Western world and this allowed the foreign audience to experience “the far away land” that is the Middle East. The term orientalism was coined by Edward Said and explains the point of view that many Westerners had on the “orient” which was the imagined and exaggerated differences of Arab people and their culture in comparison to what they were familiar with. Orientalism helped construct Europe’s identity because it was used as a means of contrasting image, ideas and personalities the between the Western world and the “orient” (Storey, 2009: 171). There is a clear orientalist gaze when examining certain aspects of Aladdin . One of the most interesting aspects of the film is how it portrays Arab women. Jasmine throughout the movie is almost never seen fully clothed and instead wears her iconic blue crop top and pants. This is how a vast majority of Arab women are dressed in the film, which would give Westerners the completely false impression that this is how all women dress in this part of the world. It has been noted that Princess Jasmine is supposed to be no older than fifteen years old which is almost appalling considering some of the content of the film.

An unfortunately memorable scene from the movie was when Jasmine, a young teenager, uses her sexuality to manipulate Jafar, the villain of the movie. Jasmine here is pictured in minimal clothing and boasts typical attractive traits such as large breasts, long hair and a small waist. Jasmine uses her body in order to get what she wants from Jafar, which is the wrong message to send to the demographic that this movie is aimed towards: young children. This shows young girls that they can get what they want from a man if they objectify their bodies and it shows young boys that women can be used just for their bodies.

Aladdin is one of the many Disney movies that promote an unrealistic body image for it’s young viewers. Across the board, Disney tends to glorify one body type over the rest for their male and female characters respectively. That being said, Aladdin, the main character, promotes a certain body type to young male viewers: tall, good looking and large muscles. Princess Jasmine on the other hand is regarded as the epitome of beauty with long hair, an unrealistic tiny waist and large breasts. These “ideal” body types affect both boys and girls who feel like they have to live up to these expectations as well as look for these physical traits in future romantic partners. Girls from a young age are given the impression that this body type is what will find them a boyfriend or spouse and therefore many will fight to achieve this body often in unhealthy ways (Milestone and Meyer 2012: 94).

One of Disney’s most famous gender roles is the damsel in distress stereotype. In the beginning of the film, Jasmine leaves the castle and finds herself in hot water when she steals an apple from a street vendor. From here, Aladdin swoops in to save her for the first of multiple times throughout the film. Movies like Aladdin teach that women are helpless and are always in need of a man to save or complete them. This can be a dangerous message to young girls who may begin to believe that their worth is in the hands of a male figure. When analyzing various Disney films, this is a common theme. These movies instead should be teaching girls how to be independent and progress in their lives without the help of a man.

Aladdin along and many other Disney films don’t come without unintended controversy. This movie is just one of the many examples of the Western world’s power in controlling and depicting certain images of far away places and it’s people. Aladdin is laden with stereotypical gender roles, unrealistic body images for girls and boys, sexualization of young women and inaccurate depictions of the Middle East as a whole. Although the movie is entertaining, there are also subliminal messages in this film that stick with us and alter our perspectives of certain people and places especially when we have not had a first hand account of these places in order to gather an unbiased opinion. If Disney creates more movies filled with more accurate images and positive messages, it will likely be more beneficial for society as a whole.

Word Count: 963

Works Cited

Storey, John. “”Race”, Racism and Representation.” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture : An Introduction. Essex: Person Education Ltd., 2009. 167-180. Print.

Milestone, Kate and Anneke Meyer “Representation Women” Gender and Popular Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012. 94. Print.

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Stereotypes of women in aladdin.

Chelsea Overstrom

TA: Maria Kyres

January 28 th , 2016

The Depiction of Women in Aladdin

Although the well-renowned Disney movie Aladdin is entertaining and deemed a classic children’s movie, it depicts women in a stereotypically degrading light. As the only female main character is Princess Jasmine, therefore females are under-represented and falsely depicted in this film. The over sexualisation, the emphasis on a women’s need for romantic relationships, and the lack of female representation in Aladdin contributes to a stereotypically naïve perception of women. On the other hand, there are some positive portrayals of women in this film due to the way in which Jasmine’s character is portrayed. Overall, the depiction of women in Aladdin helps perpetuate the ongoing cycle of patriarchy in our society.

The over-sexualisation of Princess Jasmine perpetuates the inferiority of females to males. Firstly, the one article of clothing that Jasmine wears is a belly baring top. This outfit misrepresents the appropriate garments that an Arab Princess would typically wear; it is completely unrealistic. As well, her body meets the “beauty ideal… that girls should be small, thin, have silky hair and be conventionally pretty” (Meyer and Milestone 93). Therefore, the only purpose of this outfit is to exemplify her figure and make her become idolized for her outer appearance. For example, the only reason Aladdin notices Jasmine in the market is when her hood was blown off, which exposed her perfectly quaffed hair and makeup. Also, in one of the last scenes of the movie, Jafar treats Jasmine as a sexual slave by referring to her as “pussycat”. In this scene, she is wearing a red, sultry version of her original blue outfit; the red colour of this outfit connotes the idea of sex, and romance. The constant sexualisation of Jasmine causes the male characters, specifically Jafar to treat her with less respect. In the final fight scene between Aladdin and Jafar, Jasmine is physically abused by Jafar. Overall, the acceptance of the sexualizing causes the males to view women as objects and therefore undervalue their worth.

Secondly, Jasmine’s desire for a husband is extremely heightened in this film. Her life revolves around the need for her to find a worthy husband, and it causes her to seem empty. A lot of popular culture, “has a history of representing women as centrally concerned within need of love, romance and relationship” (Meyer and Milestone 87). Even Jasmine’s society will be controlled by the man she marries, as he will ultimately become the Sultan. In addition, the only bond that Jasmine and her father seem to share is planning her arranged marriage. The constant conversations about her desire for romance and acceptance, causes her to be viewed as weak and too reliant on the other male characters. During the movie her physical and mental capabilities are constantly doubted. Although Disney’s portrayal of Jasmin is sometimes assertive and confident, it is mostly in the context of her relationships or towards her love interests. Therefore, the storyline of Aladdin, “reinforces the centrality of finding a man in a women’s lives” (Meyer and Milestone 91). Therefore, this movie perpetuates and confirms the idea that a women’s main prerogative is to be in a relationship.

Finally, the lack of female characters in Aladdin causes the entire film to lack substance and diversity. Although there are some scenes where other women are showcased, if they are not the Harem girls, they are depicted as obese, and repulsive. This representation of women causes society to idolize a specific one-sided type of beauty, which is relatively impossible for any real woman to achieve. Secondly, the way in which the Harem girls are portrayed causes individuals to sexualize aspects of Arabian culture. Throughout the songs in Aladdin the Harem girls are seen as provocative and sexually pleasing to the eye. This causes society to perceive women of certain cultures, Arabian in this case, differently and inappropriately. In addition, the only interaction the Harem girls make between each other has to do with their ideas of men or their affections for one. The Huffington post states that “the biggest patriarchy problem of all is in “Aladdin,” which has men taking over 90 percent of the dialogue” (Pittman). Due to the under-representation of females in this movie, it would fail the Bechdel Test with flying colours. Overall, the lack of diversity and interaction between women in Aladdin perpetuates a very narrow and stereotypical view of women.

On the other hand, the way in which Princess Jasmine is portrayed confronts the stereotypical category she is placed in. She is regarded as confident, as she states her opinion on who she wants to marry very intently to any male figure in the film. As well, Jasmine is not afraid to confront the men in the movie surrounding their actions or decisions. For instance, she confronts Aladdin about why he pretended to be Prince Ali Ababwa instead following the typical female behaviour, which would be to dismiss his lying behaviour. In addition, she is very adventurous, as she decides to leave home by herself without any help from any male character. These examples all highlight how Jasmine defies some stereotypes that women have to deal with. Unfortunately, the importance of her romance and relationships overpowers her assertive characteristics.

Many children watch Disney movies without understanding the implications the messages could bring. As we age, we begin to understand the underlying messages that this medium displays to us. The stereotypical perception of women in Aladdin stems from the over- sexualisation of the female characters, the emphasis on Jasmine’s relationship status and also due to the lack of contribution women make to the movie altogether. Even the smallest lines from the movie can have a large impact on how our society views women. This line from Jafar was the most revolting, “You’re speechless, I see. A fine quality in a wife” (IMDb). Overall, the level of respect given to women is relatively low in this movie and the stereotypical portrayal perpetuates specific requirements in order to be classified as a “real” women.

Meyer, Anneke and Katie Milestone. Gender & Popular Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press, Print.

Pittman, Taylor. “In Movies About Disney Princesses, Men Do Most of the Talking.” Huffington Post. HuffPost Entertainment, 27 January 2016. Web. 28 January 2016.

“Quotes for Jafar.” IMDb Quotes. 1992. Web. 30 Jan. 2016.

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