Women's emancipation in Disney classics

Abstract

The issue of women's emancipation brings into play that of socialization with gender identity which certainly sees primary educational agencies, the family and school, the most important reference points in the life of a child and a teenager. However, a fundamental educational agency, less institutionalized, but no less important and pervasive, should not be overlooked: that of traditional and new media. Gender stereotypes are central in the media narratives of advertising, cinema, television and even more so in the disembodied world of Internet, where their anchoring function plays a fundamental role. Here we will try to analyze the role of the gender stereotype in Disney cinema as a reflection of historically defined social and cultural values but also the ability of Disney feature films to give life to metanarratives of the social world in which the relationship between the female and male gender is progressively changing. From the first Disney classic, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, released in theaters in 1937, to the 2016 feature film “Vaiana”, various weltanschauungen have alternated, representing particular values ​​and multiple semiotic markers of gender differences. Feminist analysis has not lost the opportunity to analyze Disney heroines by identifying an evolution of gender roles that reflects that of social customs and popular culture.