rc259573 - Context of Practice: May 2017

Context of Practice, OUAN501

How Princesses within animation are perceived by the audience

For this topic I would like to focus on how princesses should be appealing in some way to gain the audience's attention. Appearance and personality of a princess are factors in presenting an inspiring character. I will include the positive and negative issues such as how characters can inspire a range of audiences or give a distorted view of gender. However, these negatives can be appropriate given the right storyline. How the appearance of these characters effect the audience depends on these issues. People’s reactions are subjective depending on their opinions and perceptions of the characters. To make my case I will reference the opinions of several writers and how they perceive characters within many mediums as well as my own experiences. I will then use all this information to create my conclusion.

First of all there is an obvious difference between real world and animated characters. An animated character’s appearance may vary and can look like anything depending on the art style. Normally they will never look like anyone from reality. As is explained by Nancy Beimen’s book ‘Prepare to Board’, reality is only something to use as “inspiration when creating animated characters and stories”. Designers adapt characters in order to not fully copy reality, improve on it and make them “believable, not realistic” since “laws of gravity and physics may change in animation” as well. This is important as an audience must feel like they are looking at actual people interacting with each other.

Facial features can vary, especially between the genders. In fact, most characters in animation are determined by gender not just through facial features but through certain body structures. Princesses in animations by studios like Disney and Pixar all possess features such as slim, delicate and/or curvy figures. As well as certain aspects to determine beauty such as eyelashes, eyes, lips and any sort of soft facial features such as jaw line.

The book ‘Prepare to Board’ contains images which illustrate similar examples (Figure 1). Page ten shows an image of the relationships between the animal characters in the book (Fox and a Sheep, Dog and a Sheep). It uses stereotypes to show the genders of the characters, especially which sheep is male and which sheep is female. The first obvious distinction is colour and typically a male would be represented with blue and a female represented by pink. Both female characters also have flower bouquets as it is typically the role of the male to give the female gifts in return for affection (i.e. the kiss). The male sheep even has horns which show off his strength as opposed to the female sheep who doesn’t have horns and whose wool appears fluffier, showing her to be more delicate. Finally, the fox and the female sheep have the defined eyelashes typical of female characters.

Disney’s ‘Mulan’ (1998) uses this to show slight changes depending upon whether the title character is or isn’t pretending to be a man. In one poster of Mulan (Figure 2) a sword obstructs her face and shows the audience how she looks as a warrior in the reflection of the sword. The differences are distinct, as her face in the reflection as a warrior has a more angular shape to her jaw, normal skin tones, thicker eyebrows and undefined eyelashes. Her original face however has a softer round shape to her jaw and (due to makeup) has a lighter skin tone, thinner eyebrows, defined eyelashes and lipstick to make her lips look fuller. This tells the audience the difference between when she is and isn’t pretending to be a man throughout the film. She obviously doesn’t possess extremely “feminine” features as her fellow male warriors are easily tricked into believing she is a man just by the way she dresses and styles her hair, as well as the fact she doesn’t wear makeup. This is evident when she meets the other warriors because if they knew she was a woman they would have treated her nicely. Also, as if to make a point, her fellow male warriors (Yao, Ling and Chien) towards the end of the film wear makeup and dresses to show that men can also look feminine, even if this was for comedic purposes (Figure 3).

In “Good Girls & Wicked Witches” Amy M Davis describes how Mulan is pressured into bringing honour to her family by impressing the matchmaker through her gender’s role in this society. Characteristics such as quiet, graceful, delicate and refined are what is expected of her, however these characteristics that come naturally to her and are rather placed on her like make-up and dresses. Therefore, it shows a type of rebellion against what is expected of her as a woman by taking on a role expected of a man (i.e. becoming a warrior).

Mulvey’s essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ (1975) talks about how women in film are portrayed as objects for sexual appeal or desire while men are portrayed as the main protagonist for “advancing the story” and “making things happen”. This is true but I can reference many animated and live action films from the 1950s, before Mulvey’s essay, that portray a leading female role who advances the story and makes things happen while the male role is the desired object. While it’s argued that Disney princesses possess slim, delicate and/or curvy figures with facial features considered beautiful princes are also stereotyped with thick strong figures with facial features considered handsome. For example, in Disney’s film ‘Cinderella’ (1950) the prince is hardly introduced and didn’t develop as a character since all he ever does is fall for and marry Cinderella after one night. Through his appearance and his position as a prince he is presented as a desired object for female audiences who will relate to Cinderella since she doesn’t have a high-class status. They both have a shallow personality since they only looked at each other because of their appearance and couldn’t possibly have built a meaningful relationship in just one night. The ugly step sisters aren’t considered because the logic of the film dictates that since their personalities are ugly they are designed to look ugly or vice versa. This can only indicate to audiences that they should be good-looking and expect to find a good-looking partner to create a relationship just by first glance.

To show more of the misconception of Mulvey, even in the film industry a film called ‘Picnic’ (1955). This film existed before Mulvey’s essay and demonstrates female “visual pleasure” through the male actor William Holden's body which is eroticised in the film as described by Steven Cohan in R Dyers’ document ‘Stars’ (1998). Cohan also says that Holden's character "continually removes his shirt to reveal an athletic physique" and how the female actors "each register their erotic recognition of the objectified male body" (Figure 4). However, Cohan somehow tries to justify that Holden's objectification is apparently counteracted by authenticating ‘his masculinity’. Even R Dyers himself describes that 'male pin-ups' do not suggest them as erotic objects. I hardly believe this as “counteracting” since this just perceives him as a manly hunk for the ‘female gaze’.

In an online article called ‘Gender roles in Disney Animation’ it tells us that “Disney movies have unquestionably displayed men and women in stereotypical roles and in stereotypical body forms”. This shows a problem for both representations of gender and isn’t always a problem for female representation.

It can be said princesses have become a tool used to brainwash young girls. In the article “Disney Princesses Negative for Girls, Positive for Boys”, Valentina Zarya says that “these characters may not be the best role models for young girls” causing low body esteem the more they are exposed to the “princess culture”. Zarya quotes a study by Sarah M Coyne which concludes that Disney Princesses expose young girls to the ideal of being thin. However, the more that young boys are exposed to the “princess culture” the more they have “higher self-esteem about their bodies” and become “more helpful to others”. Coyne also mentions that “stereotypical behaviours aren't bad in and of themselves” but can be “potentially damaging” and can limit young women in the future.

In an article by Peggy Orenstein she also argues how damaging and brainwashing the “princess culture” can be towards women and young girls, especially her daughter. But she also mentions that princesses could be “an indication that girls can embrace their predilection for pink without compromising strength or ambition”. That “a princess is sometimes just a princess” and “what’s wrong with that?”.

Coyne and Orenstein seem to demonstrate the positives and negatives the “princess culture” provides to the younger generation. They can be damaging but can also show a sign of positive development in young audiences.

The appearance of certain princesses like Boa Hancock from ‘One Piece’ (anime 1999, Figure 5) aren’t any better compared to Disney princesses. Like most female characters in One Piece, Boa has a very slim curvy figure, usually wears a rather revealing and/or form fitting dress and is even called one of the most beautiful women in the world of One Piece. This obviously gains male audience’s attention. At first glance her appearance can make some audiences perceive her as a sex symbol, only there for “visual pleasure”. In reality she is also a deadly amazon warrior princess who will not allow anyone to tell her what she should do. She is also wrathful, bad tempered, has a horrible personality and will use her beauty to manipulate anyone, including women, to get what she wants. She is a powerful and beautiful woman but abuses the power over people that her beauty gives her. She can also has the powerful ability to turn those who are attracted to her into stone. Her power shows how feeble people are, clouded by what they view as beauty and easily swayed and/or defeated by her beauty. This turns what is normally only used for “visual pleasure” into overwhelming power, showing the audience how our desires could be our downfall.

Most of the other princesses in One Piece are never just there to be the damsels in distress and try their best to save people and/or their loved ones, even putting their own lives on the line. These Princesses include Vivi, Shirahoshi and Rebecca.

This is a very common theme with most anime princesses. Strength isn’t always shown to the audience like a character’s physical capabilities or how strong their personality and/or appearance is (which goes for any character of either gender). A character who is timid and defenceless yet finds the determination and willpower to move forward, despite the obstacles or dangers, shows strength. Princesses can even utilise their intelligence, skills or any special powers they may have to counter the fact they are physically weak. Elizabeth from ‘Nanatsu no Taizai’ (2012) is a good example. Despite being the physically weak pretty princess she tries her best and proves to be a valuable ally, especially when fighting the main villain (in season 1).

These representations of gender effect the way that different audiences react depending on their tolerance and gender. Sexualised female characters tend to be more appealing to most males but most females will likely reject these sexualised representations. Sexualised male characters tend to be more appealing to most females but most males will likely not be interested or don’t care depending on the context of the film or series the male characters are a part of (e.g. action, fantasy, etc.). In an article by Samantha Benac, this could be due to the fact “sexual shame hinders women”. There are various mixed opinions and many films and series which cater towards the needs of certain audiences whether they desire genre, maturity, visuals, sexuality etc. With animation, these can be acquired easily as you can animate anything.

What’s noticeable is that a princess or any woman character often take the appearance of beauty whereas men take monstrous appearances. In animations like ‘Beauty and the Beast’ the main female characters are beautiful while the male characters who fall for them have monstrous appearances. Even in live action films like ‘The Phantom of The Opera’ the male takes the role of a monstrous looking character while the female takes the role of a beautiful looking character.

Generally, characters like the Beast who have these monstrous appearances are cast out from society. This creates their monstrous personality when in reality they can be gentle and seek love and affection which their appearance suggests otherwise to the audience. The message here is ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. The same can’t be said with animations like ‘Cinderella’ where the ugly stepsisters possess ugly personalities hence the film dictates that they appear ugly. This presents an unfair way of judging a person by their appearance as it demonises “ugly” people or can encourage the audience to present themselves with an attractive appearance and not just have an attractive personality.

The first film of ‘Shrek’ (2001) shows the similar trait of hideous male character and beautiful female character. That is until the female character, Princess Fiona, turns into a “hideous” ogre at the end of the film showing the audience that appearances doesn’t matter when you fall in love. “The movie does not teach us that all sizes are beautiful; it teaches us that Shrek is considered ugly by everyone, and Fiona is considered ugly by everyone, yet in spite of their ugliness they love each other because love (and happiness) isn’t about appearance” (described by Feminist Disney). Using the stereotypes of a princess to contradict what love is truly about. It is noted that Shrek didn’t fall in love with Fiona because she was a beautiful princess and Fiona isn’t a damsel in distress as she can defend herself.

Furthermore, on the subject of not being a “damsel in distress”, other princesses besides Fiona have been shown in a similar way such as Mulan (1998) and Boa Hancock (debut 2008). Therefore, it seems baffling that Merida from the film ‘Brave’ (2012) was claimed to be “the princess that countless girls and their parents were waiting for – a strong, confident, self-rescuing princess” (as said in an article by Ben Child). In the final fight scene against Mor'du (in his bear form) Merida is not the “self-rescuing princess” and has to be rescued by her mother (Figure 6). It also makes no real changes to the representation of gender as the female characters are still designed with a sense of beauty whereas the guys are either odd/ugly looking, fat and/or highly muscular. This even applies when two characters of different genders turn into bears. The male (Mor’du, Figure 7) looks rough, scruffy and ferocious in contrast to the female (Merida’s mother, Figure 8) who appears more elegant with shiny smooth fur and more delicate features. This still presents the female character with the appearance of elegance whereas the man takes a monstrous appearance.

It’s been explained by the producer of Brave, Katherine Sarafian, in an article by Hannah Goodwyn that the film is more about a “mother-daughter relationship” and the importance of “family love”. Therefore, there may have been a misinterpretation that Brave is a film trying to show a good representation of a princess to inspire young girls positively. In an article by Mary Pols she describes that a princess is still “the most traditional role for female characters” and Merida’s concerns are “still limited to those of a princess”. Pols even quotes Peggy Orenstein describing Brave as “a failure of imagination”.

I realise that characters like Boa Hancock show the over sexualised aspect of princesses, but at least she is a “self-rescuing princess” as well as “strong” and “confident”. She obviously isn’t a great role model for young audiences, which she isn’t aimed towards, but shows that not every character is perfect.

One perfect example of a strong princess character is San, the main female protagonist and title character from ‘Princess Mononoke’ (1997, Figure 9). San, who has the title of princess, isn’t just pretty and kind. She is fierce, almost feral due to her upbringing and fights for what she cares about with her life on the line without being “sexualised or minimalised through romance”, as described in an article by Alvina Lai. She is also able to overcome and learn through her experiences. Her romance with Prince Ashitaka isn’t the “love at first sight nonsense”, at least from her perspective. Ashitaka becomes captivated by her during their first conversation, even when his primary intention is to save himself. San shows hostility and mistrusts Ashitaka despite showing him kindness. Their relationship slowly develops as San struggles to trust and see Ashitaka’s good intentions, placing the wellbeing of the forest and its inhabitants first over others. They aren’t perfect and that’s realistic.

Whether any representation of female characters is appropriate or not, we are still talking about fictional characters. In an article by Alexis Nascimento-Lajoie about “the United Nations discussing the possible banning of games and manga that depict sexual violence against women”, female graphic designer Kumiko Yamada (“representative of the Japanese wing of the Women’s Institute of Contemporary Media Culture”) argued against this. One quote that Yamada gives is that “while you’re trying to fix the rights of fictional characters, you’re leaving the human rights of real women in the real world left to rot”. While it’s agreed that children are vulnerable to being influenced negatively people are complaining about the representations of fictional female characters intended for older audiences. This takes much needed focus away from real women and how they are represented since fiction and reality are separate issues.

‘Nekopara’ (2014, Figure 10) is a Japanese adult visual novel series in which the reader, through the main male character Kashou, develops very intimate romantic relationships with the various cute and sexualised cat girls. These cat girls are designed by Sayori, a female Chinese artist. Among other female creators this shows an example of a female artist freely involved in this form of artistic expression. This shows this isn’t a form of artistic expression exclusive to male artists.

In conclusion, character designers have a responsibility in how they depict princesses to younger audiences as they are more easily influenced then mature audiences, who should have the capacity to distinguish fiction from reality. Otherwise we need to educate all audiences to distinguish and make their own decision whether they like a fictional depiction or not. This is a choice of free will that we must never hinder and is not an issue where we should force others to think alike. We must also understand that depictions of “visual pleasure” aren’t always directed at a specific gender and if we look towards an understanding on this topic it must favour both sides. Either “visual pleasure” is eradicated or we balance this issue of gender representations to satisfy the needs of both sides within more mature audiences. As is explored, not all stereotypes are “bad in and of themselves” and sexualisation doesn’t always cause problems. Real issues effect real people and fiction can be used to satisfy these issues without having to effect real people. Sexualisation of characters will always have opposing opinions and not everyone is against the sexualisation of their gender. Fighting for the rights of how female characters are sexualised is ironic when women themselves object to this idea. Women also enjoy and are even involved in creating depictions of women viewed as stereotypical and/or sexualised. In the end, we are all entitled to what we enjoy, no one would be happy when someone tries to stop whatever fiction they like to view or watch and princesses should come in various depictions depending on the audience.

3290 words

Bibliography, Websites and Books:

- Samantha Benac (2014), The Sex Goddess Blues: Overcoming Sexual Shame, Scarleteen [Online]. Available at: www.scarleteen.com [Accessed: 3 April 2017]

- Ben Child (2013), Brave director criticises Disney's 'sexualised' Princess Merida redesign, theguardian [Online]. Available at: www.theguardian.com/uk [Accessed: 3 April 2017]

- Hannah Goodwyn (website 2017), Brave Producer Katherine Sarafian on Faith, Family and Magic, CBN [Online]. Available at: www.cbn.com [Accessed: 3 April 2017]

- Mary Pols (2012), Why Pixar’s Brave Is a Failure of Female Empowerment, TIME [Online]. Available at: www.time.com [Accessed: 3 April 2017]

- Feminist Disney (2013), size and representation in Shrek, Feminist Disney [Online]. Available at: www.feministdisney.tumblr.com [Accessed: 4 April 2017]

- Peggy Orenstein (2006), What’s Wrong With Cinderella? The New York Times Magazine [Online]. Available at: www.nytimes.com [Accessed: 4 April 2017]

- A Yerby (2006), Gender roles in Disney Animation, Male characters in Disney movies - Very masculine "the rescuer", american.edu, Page 5 [Online]. Available at: scholar.google.co.uk/ [Accessed: 4 April 2017]

- Alvina Lai (2015), Looking At Female Characters in Anime and Manga Through a Western Feminist Lens, The Mary Sue [Online]. Available at: www.themarysue.com/ [Accessed: 4 April 2017]

- Valentina Zarya (2016), Study: Disney Princesses Negative for Girls Positive for Boys, How Disney Princesses Are Hurting Young Girls, FORTUNE [Online]. Available at: fortune.com/ [Accessed: 10 April 2017]

- Mark A. Philbrick (2016), Disney princesses: Not brave enough, EurekAlert [Online]. Available at: www.eurekalert.org/ [Accessed: 10 April 2017]

- Alexis Nascimento-Lajoie (2016), Female Japanese Representative Refutes UN Suggestion to Ban Media Depicting Sexual Violence, niche gamer [Online]. Available at: nichegamer.com/ [Accessed: 10 April 2017]

- Nancy Beimen (2007), Prepare to Board, Chapter 1 Reality Is Overrated, Chapter 1 Page 10 [Book] [Accessed: 17 January 2017]

- Amy M Davis, (2006) Good Girls & Wicked Witches: Women in Disney’s Feature Animation, Depictions of women in American culture, pgs 6-8 [Book] [Accessed: 19 April 2016]

- L Mulvey (1975), Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Page 20 [essay] [30 October 2016]

- R Dyer (1998), Stars, Stars and spectators, Pages 187-188 [document] [30 October 2016]

Figure 1