The Disney princess line includes nine films, in our study we have extended this line to include the latest three films from Walt Disney Pictures that follow the same pattern. These films are Tangled (2010), Brave (2012) and Frozen (2013). We have conducted our study using the same method used by England, Descartes and Collier-Meeks (2011) in their study of the first nine films, starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs produced in 1937 to Princess and the Frog from 2009. A quantitative study was executed where we focused on gender role portrayal, the main characters behavioral characteristics and performed rescues. We applied the following theories to our result; the Social Constructivism, Laura Mulvey’s theory of the Male Gaze, Michel Foucault’s theory of power and discourse, intersectionality and Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver’s model of communication. Our result of the content coding shows a more nuanced depiction of both male and female main characters where the roles have shifted. The female main characters have been asigned a more traditionally masculine role in the films. The story in all of our three films revolves around the female main characters efforts to achieve their goals. The male main characters have abandoned their shiny armour and white horse and persued a role as the one who leads the female to her goal. A one-way analysis of variance was implemented to see differences over time in gender role portrayal of men and women. The result suggest that the male and female roles have changed over time, altough the men are those who have changed the most.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-36176 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Melberg, Alexandra, Gustafson, Tilde |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ), Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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