Disney

All week, for our group project, my group and I have been looking through a lot of clips, songs, and pictures from popular Disney films. Seeing so many clips from these popular movies recently, I’ve realized that there is actually a lot of rhetoric in play within the movies, especially within the songs! One of the songs that I kept coming across was from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, one of the movies I watch a lot growing up.

When first watched, it seems as though it is just another innocent Disney love song. In reality, the video is filled with a lot of gender stereotyping! For one, Snow White’s song is about finding a Prince one day. (This seems to be the main topic of every Disney film I’ve ever seen growing up!) It’s not that I don’t like cute love songs, don’t get me wrong, but this song is all about how she will be happy as soon as her Prince finds her again. Why can’t she just be happy even without him there?

Although the lyrics in the song just hint at slight gendered ideas, what makes this clip more evidently sexist is that she is singing about her Prince returning to her to make her happy while she is cooking, a typical female stereotype. For years, cooking, cleaning, sewing, taking care of others, and many other domestic practices have been associated with women. In this video, Snow White is not only cooking, taking care of the Seven Dwarfs (also men), but she is singing about how a man coming I to her life will make her happy. Even though it is not directly evident that this clip is gender stereotyping women, there are still seixist tones within.

However, the context in which this video was produced must be considered when looking at the way Snow White is portrayed. At this time, many women were housewives and took care of their families and other people. So during this time, it was not really a big deal to show women in this way.

So, even though this video segment has sexist undertones according to today’s standards, but when the movie was first produced, it really was the norm.

Strage Presentations at Northwestern

When I went home for spring break last week, I was pretty out of the loop in regards to current events in Chicago. There were elections for a new mayor, a giant snow storm who many referred to as the “Snowpocalypse,” and gas process soaring well over $4.00. While looking at the newspaper to catch up on some current events, one very strange story about Northwestern University caught my eye.

After reading through the article, I was in shock. At this university, a psychology professor allowed his students in his Human Sexuality class were invited to watch a guest presentation after their class ended. This presentation, however, was not lecture. Instead, it was a live sex-toy demonstration in front of 100 Northwestern students. Although the students were told they were going to be spoken to, they were not informed that the lecture would really be a live demonstration.

Northwestern University, however, defended the professor and the presentation because they said it was educational. Many students did not object to the presentation as well, even though the general public seemed outraged by such a scandalous presentation on a college campus. Other professors also believed that this act was pushing beyond the limits of what was acceptable for a teacher to allow in their classroom.

So why is this issue so controversial? The students were in a Human Sexuality class to begin with, so wouldn’t it be assumed that topics like this would come up in class? Why didn’t the students object if they were uncomfortable or leave the demonstration? Maybe it is just older generations that don’t accept this type of knowledge and learning. There are many factors that contribute to the ongoing outrage of these guest speakers. I believe that generational difference really attribute to the outrage. Modern TV shows are plagued with sexuality and so is our music unlike many of the past. We seem to be an open generation and maybe that is why the students were so accepting of this presentation.

I was shocked by this article myself. I don’t think that I’d want to see this type of presentation on Penn State’s campus, but it seems that other students are accepting of this controversial type of learning.

Healthy Perceptions

With actresses, actors, and models getting thinner by the moment, it is no wonder that many young adults and teenagers today have some type of image problem. Many advertisements in magazines depict women who have bone thin, girlish body builds, indicating that that’s what it truly means to be beautiful. However, the following ad conveys a different, and frankly healthy, message for young women.

 

The advertisement above deals with a major problem in society today: anorexia. The ad itself appears to be directed towards female teenagers and young adults due to the age of the girl looking at herself in the mirror. The advertisement plays off of the pathos of the viewing audience. The young girl depicted in the mirror appears to be pretty, skinny, and attractive, but very unsure of herself. When the viewer then looks at the back of the girl who is looking in the mirror, they are plagued by the visual of a girl with her spine showing through her skin and legs that appear to be miles apart. There seems to be no fat on her body at all. By depicting this disturbing image, the ad evokes sadness and concern from the viewer for the young girls. Not only is the image uncomfortable to look at, but it is also sad that a girl who is that thin sees herself as much heavier than she is. This feeling of sadness and worry due to the extreme misconceptions that this young girl has of her body urges young girls, as well as anyone else looking at the ad, to help individuals who have anorexia and other eating problems.

Pathos is also employed in another way in this advertisement. Many young girls today, including me, tend to focus on what they see as imperfections in themselves. Weight is one of the main areas focused on. Any young girl who is looking at this image may think, “Sometimes I feel that I’m not skinny enough either, but I would never go to that extreme.”  The girl in the ad, however, doesn’t see herself as thin either. The ad itself plays into the negative feelings many girls have about their weight and body image and indicates that you may not feel thin and beautiful, but in reality, you are. This anorexia ad really reaches out to girls with self-image issues and shows that not seeing yourself as beautiful can really turn into a serious health problem.