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Shontrea Hogans

Peter Fields

English 105

11th November 2018

Sexism is Killing Romance

Are romantic films doomed to forever repeat their sexist history? The sexist relationships

in romance are woven deep within films, and Disney is no stranger to this overplayed narrative.

This dynamic typically displays female roles as the damsels in distress in need of their male

counterparts to come and save them. Even when Disney has a strong women lead, she always

need the assistance of a man to complete her task. Disney influences how young children

understand the relations between a girl and a boy as well as other social norms. They effect

children with the message that girls are incomplete or inadequate without the presence of a boy.

Disney does a fantastic job at the delivery of this message, drilling it into the audience movie

after movie after movie. The film, Princess and the Frog, is no exception to Disney’s rule and

this has lead this film to be a controversial movie. The films lead was an African American

princess, but also showed her as a strong African American female inspired to obtain her dreams.

To viewer’s dismay, even this controversial character was degraded by the same sexist message

that Disney over plays. Princess and the Frog is not the first and will not be the last of sexist

romantic films.

The genre of romance paints a vivid picture of how love and relationships are supposed

to be. The women are always wandering around in life feeling the need to be completed and

loved. The female characters must go through complications and the trials of life to obtain their
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perfect ending. This happily ever narrative usually consists of their prince charming coming to

the rescue. The film, Princess and the Frog, starts with the main character as a child being told

the story of princess and the frog. Even within the story, the aspects of romance are evident. The

princess must go through the complications of kissing a frog, in hopes of gaining her prince. This

film has romance within romance because the storybook acts as a perfect example to begin the

main characters journey. The film exhibits a scene of what love is supposed to look like once you

have it long term. The scene shows the main character’s parents in a happy loving relationship

with not only one another but also with their daughter. This demonstrates how the love is

expected to evolve, from an individual to a partnership, and then hopefully to a family dynamic.

It is this very same family relationship where we can find an example of the how the male role

dominates over the female role. The main character is portrayed to be a ‘daddy’s girl’ who

worships and praises the ground that her father walks on. The content of this relationship is what

gives the character meaning. The death of her father and his dreams, are what drive her to

accomplish the very same dreams that he had. To some, this may not seem like evidence for

sexism, but the idea that this character only has purpose and goals because of her father is where

the line then becomes blurry. Even in a non-intimate relationship, the character is still tied to and

given purpose by a male character.

This is not the first incident of sexism within this film, as the story plays on, the main

character is perceived to be a work oriented woman who has no time for love due to her pursing

her dreams. Which toys with the audience to think that this princess will be different from the

rest. Disney goes to prove the audience wrong, by changing the characters meaning and goal to

that of love. The main character visits a witch doctor to be changed back into a human During

this scene the witch doctor tells the main character that she has to figure out what she needs.
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When the main character exclaims that she just needs to work hard and longer to achieve her

goals the witch doctor looks evidently disappointed. In the end of the movie she realizes that

what she needed all along was love, driving home the notion that women only need love within

their lives to have aspired to something. The authors of a study looked into this transition of

outcomes within Disney movies. They stated that “… depicts the heroine happily embracing

tradition and reverting to ordinary gender roles” (Dundes & Steriff 2016). Romance films help

construct a notion that all happy and beneficial relationships come with the addition of a man and

not from the female herself.

Romance films create unrealistic ideas of love and the aspects of a ‘perfect’ relationship.

In the Princess and the Frog uses many tools to sell this message, one of those being the

persuasion of pathos. This is shown in many scenes of the movie, giving the audience a way to

relate to the story of the main character on an emotional level. In the movie the main character

makes just enough money to buy her dream building for her restaurant, when the real-estate

dealer come to sign the paper work they inform her that she was outbid. When asked why they

said “a little women of your background, would have had her hands full trying to run a big

business like that.” Not only are they discriminating her for her race and ethnicity, they are also

insinuating that her being a women disadvantages her from running a business. This scene

connects to the viewer by evoking an emotional response to the injustice that is being shown to

the main character. This film, and many other Disney princess movie, target a younger audience,

especially little girls. Children absorb social norms at a very young age, mostly through outlets

such as media. From a study that looked into how televised media plays a role in children

regarding gender. The study found that, “Television has been identified as a dominant source of
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social influence on children’s gender concepts” (Leaper 2002). If children are exposed to sexist

narratives, they become normalized to this idea that women are to aspire to the love of a man.

The audience is a key to the success of the films marketability. As stated before, Disney’s

films biggest targeted audience are young girls. Though they also tend to pick up the young adult

females audience too. Most of the time, this targeted audience watches these films as a way to

relive they childhood of growing up and watching these movies. In a personal interview, S.

Samuel, explained that, “Princess Movies was all that I watched as a child, I played them on

repeat. They showed me how special love was.” (Samuel, S. 2018) Disney movies and Romance

films alike are writing the definition of love from a stereotypical lens. Playing on the need to find

companionship within society. These stereotypical narratives become normalized to the

audience, making it hard to point out the sexist scenes or character behaviors. In another personal

interview they stated, “I do not really notice sexism in tv shows or movies, to be honest I think I

just assume that the prince will always save the girl” (Kinsey, K 2018). This sexist narrative has

now become the audiences and consumers normal identity roles.

The visual aspects of the film are also a factor in grabbing the audience’s attention. In

Princess and the Frog, and many other Disney movies, the scenes are full of vibrant colors and

people. The characters are either dressed in bright colorful clothing, or have an intricately

designed wardrobe. The settings of these type of movies match the tones of the characters

personalities and outfits. They tend to be glorious towns, or thriving forests, that hold people or

animals that are full of life. The main characters tend to also have optimistic outlooks on life, a

charming personality and are loved by others. Using these visual and character dialogue, Disney

paints how a girls is supposed to act. Disney films suggest that girls should have bright

personalities, be overly happy, and have an unrealistic optimism. A study proved this to be true
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stating “The majority of the Disney Princesses continue to reflect many antiquated notions of

femininity” (Golden & Jacoby 2017). Disney is defining what femininity is, or should be, to their

young female audience. These bright colorful visual aspects help to drive home that message.
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Leaper, C. (2000). The social construction and socialization of gender during development. In P. H. Miller

& E. Kofsky Scholnick (Eds.), Toward a feminist developmental psychology (pp. 127– 152). Florence:

Taylor & Frances/Routledge.

Golden, J., & Jacoby, C. (2018). Playing Princess: Preschool Girls’ Interpretations of Gender Stereotypes

in Disney Princess Media. Sex Roles, 79(5), 299-313.

Lauren Dundes, & Madeline Streiff. (2016). Reel Royal Diversity? The Glass Ceiling in Disney’s Mulan and

Princess and the Frog. Societies, 6(4), N/a.

Samuel, S. (2018, November 31). Personal interview.

Kinsey, K. (2018, November 5). Personal interview