The visual and aural signs encoded into the production of Disney Princess movies have illustrated stereotypical gender roles and sexism, by portraying the females as delicate and muted. The Disney Princess franchise has evolved over time by creating new princesses that are more independent and less focused on men. However, the way that the dialogue is encoded into the films tells a different story. In the original three Disney Princess movies, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, the sexism that portrays the princesses as maids and damsels in distress is abundantly clear by the actions and behaviors in almost every scene. These visual signs are decoded by the viewers to create an image of the perfect and “feminine” woman. In more recent films, the sexist visual cues are less apparent. However, the aural signs in the form of speech and dialogue demonstrate that the female characters in the movies have less of a voice than the male characters.
The progression of more modern movies toward egalitarianism seems promising for the future princesses to be created, as they are shown to be more independent and focused on their prosperity. The visual signs and content of the movies have become less centered on the princesses falling in love, when compared to the original three movies. However, linguistic analysis of the gender roles as it pertains to the frequency of speech or lines in the script has proved that the progression of modern movies is not as encouraging as we may think.
Beginning with Ariel in The Little Mermaid, the voices of female characters have been silenced. Since the production of this movie, where Ariel loses her voice, there has been an upward trend of silencing the female characters.
The chart above is a visual depiction of the percentages of words spoken, comparing male and female characters for all twelve Disney Princess movies. On average, the first three movies have a higher percentage of words spoken for female characters. However, the gender gap relating to speech has widened over time. In the five movies released during the late 1900s, the screenwriters encoded for male dominance by writing three times more lines for the male characters than the female characters (Guo). By producing movies where the male characters speak more frequently, Disney’s target audience of young girls may process the difference in auditory cues as a code for male dominance. Since young girls often repeatedly watch these movies, there is a terrifying possibility they will believe that growing up into a woman means losing your voice.
Guo, Jeff. “Analysis | Researchers Have Found a Major Problem with ‘The Little Mermaid’ and Other Disney Movies.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 7 Aug. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/25/researchers-have-discovered-a-major-problem-with-the-little-mermaid-and-other-disney-movies/
