Gender Socialization Around Animated Children's Movies

By: Sadie Schafer

A scene from the movie The Incredibles depicts Mr. Incredible and Syndrome
each large and muscular males arguing over their motives. Syndrome, as he towers over
Mr.Incredible yells; See, now you respect me, because Im a threat. What does this tell
us about how males need to behave to get their point across? They need to be strong,
dominant, and aggressive. Our favorite animated children's movies have hugely
socialized us on how to think about the roles of males and females in our society.
Animated children's movies are like a parent to children, the characters are huge role
models and the film's hugely socialize children on how to act.
Figure 1
Animation is not designed to make
every image completely real, but some of
the exaggerations in children's animation
are too extreme. For example, the
differences in hand size between men and
women. According to
Time
;
mens wrists
are on average only about 15% larger in
circumference than womens.1
Figure 1
shows the over exaggerated differences
between the males huge hands, and the
females small hands. The female body type
as portrayed through these films is dainty,
fragile, and small. The male body type on
the other hand is shown as strong, powerful
and large. Though we may not realize, we have been socialized to see body types as a
factor for determining male and female gender. These body type stereotypes are clearly
found not only in the differences between hand sizes, but also through the differences in
facial features such as the eyes, nose, and lips. A study done by
Hellogiggles
on the
facial features of male and female characters from animated children's movies shows
that
female face shapes are all pretty much the same, while male face shapes differ
widely.2
Female characters have narrow/pointy chins, sharp cheek bones, and tiny
triangle noses. Male characters have a variety of chins from square to circle, they have
huge noses and tiny button noses, and a huge variety of face sizes. These Films have
1

Cohen, Philip N. "The Trouble with Disney's Teeny Princesses: Disney's Depiction of Male and Female Bodies Is Terrible for Us."
Time
. Time, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
2

Heing, Bridey. "Wait, Do Disney Pixar."

HelloGiggles Wait Do Disney Pixars Female Characters All Look Alike Comments
. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.

socialized us to believe that for females to be beautiful they need to have the
classic/perfect disney princess face.
Pink is a girl color, red is a boy color. Why do colors have specific orientation
with gender? Colors are used to portray subtle messages about how we need to behave
based on our gender? Women wear pastels like blue, pink, purple, and yellow. Men
wear bold colors such as red, orange, green, and black. A quote from
Color Matters
says; Red is the color of extremes. Its the color of violence, danger, anger, and
adventure.3
Color-Wheel Pro
says Blue symbolizes trust, loyalty, confidence,
intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.4 These stereotypical colors tell us that women are
meant to be soft, calming, soothing, and patient based on the gentle and easy colors they
wear. When men wear bold, aggressive, strong, brave colors, we are made to believe
these traits about their personalities. In the classic animated children's movie the
women clean, cook, and take care of the men, they are designed to be supportive,
patient, and helpful. The men in these films hunt, fight, and support the family, they are
stereotyped to be strong, aggressive, and controlling. We dont necessarily realize it, but
color is one of many ways that people are made to believe gender stereotypes.
Based on the classic characteristics that males and females in these films live by,
we are made to assume certain things about how we must also behave. Males are made
to be aggressive, controlling, powerful, and popular. Females are portrayed as calm,
patient, caring, quiet, dumb, and pretty. An example of this comes straight out of the
movie Peter Pan when Captain Hook says; a jealous woman can be tricked into
anything. This tells us that all women are dumb and can be manipulated by men.
Chateau Heartiste
says; The highest degree of manipulation will come from relatively
young mothers with low conscientiousness and will be applied predominantly to their
daughters. 5 If women have been proven to be more manipulative than men, then why
are we seeing this stereotype occurring in animated children's movies? This widely held
but fixed and oversimplified stereotype is simply there because our past generations
have been taught to believe these things. Characters that arent the perfect image of a
male or female are portrayed as the villains and accomplices. Take Le Fou for example,
Le Fou is a fat, short, ugly man that follows Gaston around constantly getting in the
way. His name is French for
The Madman
, and also a phonetic pun on
The Fool
."6
He is clumsy, gross, and shows children that If you aren't perfect you are completely
imperfect.

4
5
6

Morton, J. L. "Color Matters."

Color Matters.KML Graphics, n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.

"Color Wheel Pro - See Color Theory in Action."

Color Wheel Pro: Color Meaning
. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.

"Are Men Or Women More Manipulative?"

Are Men Or Women More Manipulative?
Chateau Heartiste., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
"LeFou."
Disney Wiki
. Wiki, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.

Our favorite animated children's movies have greatly socialized us on how to

think about the roles of males and females in our society. Male and female colors,
figures, and personalities have all been stereotyped hugely through these films. The
definition of a stereotype is as to attach an idea or image to a person who belongs to a
particular group.7 Animated children's movies are full of stereotypes when it comes to
gender. These movies are the building blocks of socialization around children.

"Stereotype Dictionary Definition | Stereotype Defined."

Stereotype Dictionary Definition | Stereotype Defined
. N.p., n.d. Web. 03
Nov. 2015.

Bibliography:
Cohen, Philip N. "'Help, My Eyeball Is Bigger Than My Wrist!': Gender
Dimorphism in Frozen."
'Help, My Eyeball Is Bigger Than My Wrist!': Gender
Dimorphism in Frozen
. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Cohen, Philip N. "The Trouble with Disney's Teeny Princesses: Disney's
Depiction of Male and Female Bodies Is Terrible for Us."
Time
. Time, n.d. Web.
02 Nov. 2015.
"Are Men Or Women More Manipulative?"
Are Men Or Women More
Manipulative?
Chateau Heartiste., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
"List of Disney's Beauty and the Beast Characters."
Wikipedia
. Wikimedia
Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
Heing, Bridey. "Wait, Do Disney Pixar."
HelloGiggles Wait Do Disney Pixars
Female Characters All Look Alike Comments
. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
Skarlarenee. "The Problem With Disney - Gender Socialization and Racialization
in Disney Movies."
Pornstarfeminists
. N.p., 30 Jan. 2013. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
"LeFou."
Disney Wiki
. Wiki, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.
"Chapter 3: Socialization Disney Films and Gender."
YouTube
. YouTube, n.d.
Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
Morton, J. L. "Color Matters."
Color Matters
. KML Graphics, n.d. Web. 3 Nov.
2015.
"Color Wheel Pro - See Color Theory in Action."
Color Wheel Pro: Color
Meaning
. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.
"Stereotype Dictionary Definition | Stereotype Defined."
Stereotype Dictionary
Definition | Stereotype Defined
. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.