Disney's Princess Revolution: Deconstructing Femininity in Animation

This thesis examines the evolution of the representation of femininity within the Disney Princess brand and how such shifts align with Disney's broader approach to gender narratives and brand strategy. The research explores how Disney's representation of female characters in the animated films Sleeping Beauty (1959), The Little Mermaid (1989), and Moana (2016) showcase the brand's use of brand feminism as a part of their marketing strategy and brand identity. The context of this research problem lies in the substantial influence Disney plays, as a global and major media conglomerate, in communicating and shaping perceptions of femininity through its Princess films. As Disney evolves its narratives, it has increasingly incorporated brand feminism as part of its corporate strategy, employing feminist ideals to enhance brand loyalty and maintain cultural relevance. Hence, understanding how femininity is constructed and communicated across the Disney Princess films is critical as these illustrations offer insight into the evolving representation of women and highlight how Disney employs feminist branding strategies to reflect cultural shifts. The main research question guiding this thesis is: How does the representation of female characters in Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959), The Little Mermaid (1989), and Moana (2016) reflect the brand's approach to femininity and power in relation to societal discourses? This thesis utilizes a qualitative approach, employing a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine how femininity is constructed through a specific categorization. This categorization is based on four key markers of binary gender stereotypes, employed to analyze how the visuals and discourse reflect, reproduce, or challenge power relations in each film: traits, role behaviors, physical appearance, and occupations. These binary stereotypes of femininity, introduced by Deaux and Lewis (1984), serve as a framework to analyze how the films construct discourses of femininity. Additionally, these themes reveal how femininity is portrayed in each film, reflecting the sociocultural contexts of their respective time periods. The selected animated films belong to one of the three Disney Princess eras, Classic, Renaissance, and Revival, each representing the social and feminist changes of the era in which it was produced. The main findings reveal that early Disney films like Sleeping Beauty reinforce oppositional views of femininity, whilst The Little Mermaid begins to explore themes of independence, but it does so within a primarily romantic framework. Moana marks a substantial shift from the previous films, emphasizing an empowered and autonomous female protagonist who transcends the rigid gender binary through nuanced depictions of femininity. This thesis concludes that the brand's evolving representation of femininity, as brand feminism, functions as a strategic business tool to align the brand with contemporary feminist discourse and a response to broader sociocultural movements over time.