Where Do The Mermaids Stand Gender Roles

499 Words2 Pages
Disney has become a household name that at one point or another has influenced the way we see the world. Laura sells author of “where do the mermaids stand?” and Susan Jeffords author of “ the curse of masculinity” explain the way in which Disney influences our youth with underlying messages of what character we are supposed to play in our modern day society. Due to dominant ideologies and gender stereotypes, society has never really viewed typical gender roles as a problem, but merely as entertainment in the form of an obedient princess or strong hero. In this paper I am going to explain the ways in which underlying messages of gender performance, repression and stereotyping pose an issue in these classic Disney films directed at our youth.…show more content…
Both these authors exemplified societys need to establish which gender they are preforming. In “Where do the mermaids stand” Sells refers to the sea witch Ursula from the 1989 movie The little Mermaid, as a drag queen. Ursula teaches ariel that gender is not natural, rather is it a manifestation of dominant ideologies set to categorize society. Instead, gender is that in which one preforms and mimics, creating a persona in which they would like to express themselves. Similarly to reality, this movie depicts the way in which our western society functions and how we views those outside our predominantly male, female stereotypes as outcasts. In the movie Ursula’s actions and physical attributes were depicted similarly to that of a drag queen Sell states “During the song about body language, Ursula stages a camp drag show about being a woman in a white male system, beginning” backstage” with mousse and lipstick. She shimmies and wiggles in an exaggerated style while her eels swirl around her forming a feather

More about Where Do The Mermaids Stand Gender Roles

Open Document