7/21/2023 0 Comments Disney female face shapes![]() ![]() ![]() The other is it makes for less exciting animation.Ĭonsider the works of Hayao Miyazaki, where characters transform from things of beauty to disturbing beasts. But this tiresome trend isn’t the only problem with Disney’s implied “keep it cute” directive. Sure, not all of these heroines care about their looks, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t pretty. This promotes to girls the idea that it’s not enough to be strong, or brave or superpowered, you also have to be pretty. The motive may well be purely capitalist, but the effect is sexist. So pretty heroines make for more successful movie merchandizing. My educated guess as to why: Little girls prefer pretty dolls. So, having a film with two hero female characters was really tough, and having them both in the scene and look very different if they’re echoing the same expression that Elsa looking angry looks different from Anna being angry.”īasically it boils down to this: Disney seems to demand its heroines look pretty, even when they’re experiencing ugly feels. “Historically speaking, animating female characters are really, really difficult, because they have to go through these range of emotions, but you have to keep them pretty and they’re very sensitive to - you can get them off a model very quickly. Lino DiSalvo, the head animator on Frozen infamously said: But an unfortunate comment from a Disney animator suggested a none-too-sublte agenda in these designs. When Frozen hit, some took issue that Anna and Elsa essentially looked just like Tangled’s Rapunzel with a variant paint job and new ‘do. Something Classy makes this clearer with some simple tracing: The womenfolk on the other hand have a uniform button nose and very similar face shapes. Take a look below:Įven a cursory glance reveals that the men of Disney/Pixar movies are allowed a variety of face shapes and expressions. Tumblr user Something Classy noticed a disheartening trend in Disney/Pixar’s designs of female characters when compared to male characters. But the House of Mouse is coming under fire for its apparent edict on how animated heroines MUST be portrayed. ![]() I don't have evidence to support these views beyond my own experiences (indeed, there are conflicting studies out there), but I know I'm not alone in thinking this.Disney has been doing well by betting big on female-fronted films like Frozen and Cinderella. It would be one thing if Disney princesses existed in isolation, but they don't - they exist in a broader cultural context that tells women and girls that they need to be skinny in order to be beautiful, and that beauty is important to their life chances. Even though Disney princesses are obviously fictional and illustrations (not real actors), and even though animation is by definition somewhat unrealistic, the constant reinforcement of these depictions of women (in other mediums too - Barbie, Photoshopped magazine covers, etc.) can still have negative effects. There's an underlying message that to be desirable, to win over the prince, women have to look a certain, unattainable way. It doesn't help that most Disney women that don't fit the princess model are villains. I think it teaches girls that there's only one type of "princess," and some children easily internalize that message, like I did. Do I think it's damaging to depict women as stock bodies with exchangeable heads? Well, yeah, kind of. ![]()
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