Mother Figures & Disney Movies

For this blog post, I chose to analyze Disney movies in relation to motherhood. Many of the Disney movies do not have what is considered a traditional mother, but they do contain mother roles in other forms of characters.

In the Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast, there is no traditional mother, but Mrs. Teapot acts as a mother towards the Beast. She gives him advice on how to interact with Belle and how to change to become a more compassionate caring person. Keeping the members of the household in order is another one of the ways that she acts like the mother of the household.

The Little Mermaid, another Disney movie, also has a nontraditional mother figure. Sebastian, the crab, is put in charge of taking care of Ariel by her father, Triton. He is responsible for making sure that she attends the events she is supposed to and that she doesn’t get into any trouble, which is generally what mothers are thought to be accountable for. Triton also makes Sebastian liable for Ariel’s safety, much like a mother would.

This concept is also shown in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, in the Kim Wilde section. The girl is walking down the street and the Women’s Branch of the Guardians of the Revolution stop her and wants to arrest her for being improperly veiled and because she wasn’t dressed the way the thought Muslim women were supposed to dress. They can be seen as a kind of mother figure in a very nontraditional way. They are trying to protect the girl and makes sure that she behaves properly, which is what mothers do.

These different forms of popular culture show us that mother figures don’t have to be the traditional view of a mother. Mother figures can come in many forms. It doesn’t matter whether a person is male or female, they can still take care of people the way a mother is usually thought of doing.


Marjane Satrapi, “Kim Wilde,” Persepolis (2003).

Creating Beauty To Get A Man

This collage displays how in the Disney movie Cinderella it is portrayed that in order to get a man to fall in love with you, you have to look and dress pretty. According to Helen Brown, the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, “To get into the position to sink a man it was not necessary that a woman be beautiful, but she had to know how to create an illusion of beauty” (Humez, 120). In Cinderella, it is not until she gets dressed up that a man falls in love with her. Before that, when she is dressed just as a peasant girl, she does not get the attention from any guys. The collage shows this by placing Cinderella without makeup and a dress and other girls who are made up on the left and then in the middle I placed the different items that are used to “create the illusion of beauty” and then on the left shown what would be the result according to Brown.

"Beauty and the Beast" and Masculinity Norms

My topic is gender representation in classical Disney movies. I chose Disney movies as a way to analyze gender and popular culture because they are very popular and almost everyone has seen at least one Disney movie and most Disney movies have two main characters, a male and female. These characters portray roles of the different genders in society through popular culture.

In the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast, there are two main characters, Belle, and Prince Adam, who was turned into the beast. The Beast disseminates both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic messages. In the beginning he is a very coldhearted man. When the old lady knocks on his door in the middle of the night and seeks shelter from the rain in his castle, Prince Adam refuses her request and sends her back out in the rain, which is why he gets turned into the Beast. This shows the male normative as being without emotions or compassion. Phil Petrie says, “One of the roles men play is that of the rational being devoid of strong emotions.”[1] The Beast has no emotions which is why he did not feel badly about turning the old lady away.

Throughout the movie the Beast must change to in order to lift the spell off of the castle. He must make someone love him. In the movie, he tries to make Belle fall in love with him. He changes over the course of the movie into a more compassionate man with strong feelings for Belle. In the end, he makes her fall in love with him and the spell is lifted off the castle. This shows the opposite of the normative view of men in society. Men are not supposed to display their emotions; they are supposed to be strong and emotionless. The Beast must show emotions to have the spell lifted.

The Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast, is a part of popular culture because it is a very popular movie. It displays hegemonic and counter-hegemonic messages about men. It shows men with and without emotions. It is helpful in understanding popular culture.


[1] Phil W. Petrie, “Real Men Don’t Cry…And Other “Uncool” Myths,” Essence, (November 1982) 222.

24 is just a TV show - redux

I’ve done a couple of posts about the TV show “24,” and how the right has mistakenly interpreted it as an endorsement of the Bush administration’s least defensible policies. As it turns out, I might have been a little hasty.

Jane Mayer has a fascinating piece in the latest issue of The New Yorker about the politics of “24″ and its creator, Joel Surnow, who, I was surprised to learn, describes himself as a “right-wing nut job.” For reasons I’ve already described, some of the arguments conservatives find support for are misplaced, but in at least one key area, “24″ is, rather intentionally, making an argument sympathetic to Bush and his backers. The issue, of course, is torture.

The grossly graphic torture scenes in Fox’s highly rated series “24″ are encouraging abuses in Iraq, a brigadier general and three top military and FBI interrogators claim.

My response:

“24” is just a television show. People should keep this in mind when watching it. While this show may portray some Americans views on politics and other issues, its torture scenes should not be taken seriously because it is just fiction. Military personnel cannot take this as a guide on how to interrogate people. What happens in television shows is not applicable to real life. While the military does deal with interrogation, it cannot apply what they have seen on “24” to their interrogations, even though it appears that some people do. People do not take other televisions shows, like “Desperate Housewives” as a guide to life and they should not take “24” as guide to anything either. The torture scenes, just like the rest of the show, are there to provide entertainment.

Femininity & Masculinity in "The Girls Next Door"

In the reality television show, “The Girls Next Door,” some of society’s ideals about masculinity and femininity are portrayed through the different characters, especially in Season 2’s first episode, which was about Hugh Hefner’s birthday. Hugh Hefner is the main male character on the show and is therefore depicted as the normative for men. He has three girlfriends, Bridget, Holly, and Kendra. Although these girls are different, they have many similarities which are shown as what the ideal woman should be.
Bridget and Holly are two of the main characters in “The Girls Next Door.” They both have long blond hair and are in shape. Although they are both physically fit, they are concerned with their weight and one of them goes on a diet to make sure she stays skinny for her striptease for Hugh Hefner’s birthday present. These girls are never seen doing anything intellectual and their hardest task of this episode was to figure out what to get Hugh Hefner for his birthday.
Kendra is Hugh Hefner’s other girlfriend. She is the sportiest of Hugh Hefner’s three girlfriends. She is the more active one and she also likes to party a lot. Kendra differs from the other girls in this regard, but she also shares many of their attributes. Thin with long blond hair, Hugh Hefner’s three girlfriends portray the image of the ideal girl. Not all girls are naturally born with this look, but many of them still strive to be like this. In the article “Inventing the Cosmo Girl: Class Identity and Girl-Style American Dreams,” the author, Laurie Ouellette, says “”new looks” created with wigs, false eyelashes, tinted contact lenses, fake beauty spots, false toenails, false fingernails, nose surgery, padded bras, false derrieres, and fake jewelry were recommended.”[1] This magazine gives girls ways to become like the “ideal” girl, like the girls in “The Girls Next Door.”
In “The Girls Next Door,” Hugh Hefner is depicted as the ultimate man. He has three girls, is the head of a major company, and is very wealthy. In this episode he threw a huge party with many celebrities and girls. This show portrays Hugh Hefner as the “ideal” man and as a result of this; many men and boys want to be just like him. My friend’s younger brother watched this show once and he wanted to be just like Hugh Hefner because of his wealth and the mansion.
“The Girls Next Door” television program influences people’s views on femininity and masculinity. Hugh Hefner and his three girlfriends, Bridget, Holly, and Kendra, come together in a form of a kind of “family.” The characters in “The Girl Next Door” show to society what the ideal man and women are; how they look and act. The different girls portray slightly different, but very similar ideas on femininity and the main male character, Hugh Hefner, displays normative definitions of masculinity.

[1] Laurie Ouellette, “Inventing the Cosmo Girl: Class Identity and Girl-Style American Dreams,” Gender, Race, and Class in Media, ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez (United States, 2003) 121.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/01/29/wsj-writer-applauds-24s-moral-tone/

It talks about how a writer at the Wall Street Journal credits "24" with having realistic scenarios

http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/01/31/go-on-a-jack-bauer-shopping-spree/

This is about a website that has a list of items needed to become like Jack Bauer

http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/02/05/should-there-be-a-jack-bauer-merit-badge/

This talks about training young boys to be like Jack Bauer

http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/02/08/the-politics-of-24/

It questions whether the show is about "good guy vs. bad guy" or the entertainment industry's way of getting over 9/11

http://dir.salon.com/topics/arts_entertainment/

This article blames "24" for encouraging U.S. soldiers that torture is acceptable, which claims that a t.v. show can influence soldiers