Readings (7)

Girls and Wicked Witches: Women in Disney’s Feature Animation, Eastleigh: John Libbey Publishing.

• “There are within Disney’s films certain ideas, perceptions, themes and stereotypes which are relevant to the daily lives of those who made these films successful” p.18 (Means I should use modern stereotypes- an updated heroine etc?)
• “As feminist critics have notes, Hollywood has traditionally reinforced the patriarchal, largely Victorian value system which has dominated Western culture through-out the history of cinema” p.20
• “Rarely were they [female characters] featured in cartoons of their own, and this happened later on in their ‘careers’, after their association with their male counterpart had been well established” p.83
• “the more realistic the animated characters became, the more plausible it was that audiences would accept these characters as not just cartoon figures, to be laughed at and then forgotten once the main feature started, but instead as characters to be loved or hated, but above all accepted as ‘realistic’” P.84
• [On Disney villainesses] “They change themselves into other things when functioning in their usual forms is not working for them. They actively seek to control not only their lives but also their circumstances. They are strong, fearless, and often very creative. They are mature, powerful and independent.” P.107 -None of these traits seem particularly bad?
• “The real difference between the male and female characters is their level of activity (as opposed to passivity) within their stories” p.109
• IDEA/ CONCPEPT: Hollinger’s description of the ‘good woman’ exhibits “passivity, sweetness, emotionality, asexuality” p.125
• “Three major assumptions of women as an audience: (1) that physical comedy and ‘low’ humour have no appeal for women; (2) that women’s maternal instincts will result in them automatically enjoying (and perhaps preferring) soft, rounded, child-like characters; (3) that all women will fit into these two generalisations” p.130
• “they [later Disney Heroines, I.e. Belle, Mulan and Jane] all have in common certain traits: none fits in with the society surrounding her; non is initially interested in finding romantic love, none is interested in pursuing any particular goal; all, in some way, take care of their fathers and support their fathers’ gosld rather than having goals of their own” p.191