Gender constitutes one of the most important learning experiences for the young child. By the time, a child reaches pre-school, he or she is able to make gender distinctions and sex-role preferences. They also learn the appropriate behaviour for both boys and girls and men and women. In addition to learning gender identification and sex-role expectations, boys and girls are exposed to accept society’s definition of the relative worth of each of the sexes and to assume the personality characteristics that are “typical” of members of each sex. In a patriarchal society like ours, children learn very quickly that boys are more highly valued than girls, and with regard to personality differences, they learn that boys are more active and achieving while girls are passive and emotional.
In the media, girls are again generally portrayed in a different way to boys. There are lots of examples of this from the images found on birthday cards to those in children’s books. In picture books such as comics, boys are mostly shown as rough and aggressive while girls are presented as ‘scaredy cats’ and ‘goody-goodies’. There are also far more male characters than females in comics, from ‘Superman’, ‘Batman’ to all the othe
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Their future is presented as primarily of glamour and service. He went on to add that these young women are helpless ornaments in need of protection, and when it comes to the action of the film they are omitted. This would provide an important implementation of the growing demand for both girls and boys to have a real opportunity to fulfill their human potential. Although girls may be delighted by this teenage rebelliousness, they are strongly positioned to believe that in the end desire, choice and empowerment are closely linked to having a handsome man. Ariel, portrayed as a Barbie doll struggles against parental control as she is motivated by the desire to explore the human world. They are ultimately subordinate to males and define their power and desire almost exclusively in terms of dominant male narratives.
Contrarily, Disney’s evil women such as Ursula, Maleficent, Cinderella’s stepmother and the queen from Snow White are portrayed in the masculine form where they almost look like drag queens with husky voices and their appearances. However, the stereotype of male and female continues to exist and rule such values. Even typical feminine attributes are bestowed on such characters for example, when Snow White was seven years old “she was as beautiful as the day” and even death had not taken away the “lovely colour” of Sleeping Beauty’s complexion. Stories have always been a means for perpetuating the fundamental cultural values and myths. They have also been a stimulus for fantasy imagination and achievement. Even if they were, they wouldn’t be as good as boys. In fact, they are portrayed as damsels in distress waiting to be rescued by their prince charming, who is the real hero. Realistically, in our male-dominated society, only boys can become heroes because girls can never be as good.
Approximate Word count =
2015
Approximate Pages =
8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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