Disney is the largest media powerhouse on the planet meaning it has influence across nearly every corner of modern entertainment. For example, Disney owns major film studios such as Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. This means Disney has control of the world’s biggest franchises from Toy Story and Disney Princess to The Avengers and Avatar. These franchises dominate the box office, but Disney’s reach does not end there as the company also owns both Hulu and Disney +, the biggest streaming services. Through this dominance across film and streaming Disney has huge influence over woman representation in media and this article is going to explore how this influence shapes the audience’s perception of women.
The classic Disney princesses such as Snow White or Cinderella reflected 20th century gender norms as they were passive and domestic women who ended up being rewarded for their beauty. The portrayal of these women reinforced stereotypes that limited women’s presence in media to love interests or to being ‘damsels in distress’- women that must be saved by a man instead of acting independently. Now in a more modern time princess such as Moana or Elsa are more common as they reflect the modern shift in gender empowerment. These princesses end up saving their own kingdoms and love is put in the backbone of their stories to focus more on topics such as self-discovery and independence.
Unfortunately, even though these heroines are a huge step forward, their portrayals are still limited to Disney’s corporate image and marketability. This means important topics that affect women such as race, sexuality and body image are avoided to keep up the company’s family friendly image. Critics call this ‘Disney feminism’ where empowerment is celebrated only when it remains safe, polished, and profitable. There is no direct challenge to how society treats women meaning the empowerment stays as surface level inspiring and not revolutionary. As discussed earlier, Disney owns a lot of major film studios meaning this surface level brand of feminism is present in most of these franchises as well. These franchises dominate the box office and so smaller franchises that might have an alternative approach to women in media can not compete. This shows how this concentration of cultural power ruins diversity and limits who can tell women’s stories.
Ultimately, Disney may champion female empowerment but until more studios can explore womanhood in media then female representation in media is going to be limited to the standards that Disney’s want.