According to a study published by the U.S. Washington Post, men talk even three times more than women when they were not even the ones playing the main role in Disney´s films.
According to a study published by the U.S. Washington Post, men talk even three times more than women when they were not even the ones playing the main role in Disney´s films.
The linguists Carmen Fought and Karen Eisenhauer, who are researchers from the Pitzer University in California in the United States, published some preliminary conclusions about their work in respect of the way of talking by the female figures in Disney´s films to find out where they take the slightest ideas about what to be a young woman.” Carmen Fought explained.
“We do not believe that the girls’ way of talking or behaving could be natural; on the contrary, once they watch those films repeatedly, then they are educated about the roles of their gender.” The researcher highlighted.
As part of a first period, the work was about to see how long the female characters were talking in Disney’s stories which allowed them to distinguish the films through three periods.
The first classic of princesses by that famous film production film company marked a stage in which women used to talk as much as men: The film entitled ´Snow White´ (1937) had the 50% of the lines made by women and that number was increased up to 60 % in the film entitled ´Cinderella´ (1950) and it reached the 71% in the film entitled ´the Sleeping Beauty.´ (1959).
The aforementioned researchers state that there is a decrease of the female presence in thoe films due to the influence of musical films from Broadway which increased the quantity of characters who were talking in comparison with those ones from the previous period by increasing the gender inequality.
After a ten-year period when Disney did not produce any film of the princess films series, the film entitled ´involved´ (2010) was the first film of the last stage in which the women´s voice began to have a higher presence with a 52% while within the film entitled ´Brave´ (2012) the women´s voice reaches the 74 % of the entire time of the film. The related surprise was given by the film entitled ´Frozen ´ (2013) given the fact that even though the main characters are two sisters, the 59 % of its dialogues are adsorbed by men, all the time.
The lack of female, powerful, respected characters by even playing a humorist role was another aspect which was analyzed.
“In general, it is about an isolated princess trying to get married; however, there are not female characters trying to do other things.” Carmen Foughty pointed out.
“There are not women leading the people to fight against the beast, let alone women drinking in bars and singing songs or giving instructions to other women; therefore, any other thing, which was not looking for a husband in Disney´s films, is made by a man.”
A symptomatic case is the one of the talkative and funny fellow of the character named as ´Sebastian´ in the ´Little mermaid´ film or the one named as ´lago´ as part of the ´Aladdin´ film in which men have the best lines, generally, except in the case of the ´Pott´ character from the ´Beauty and the Beast ´film.
Finally, that research look for analyzing that aspect that it is said about the flatteries received by women in particular while within the era of the classic films the 55% of them were focused on the princess´s appearance and the only 11 % of them were about their achievements and skills. Moreover, it was as part of the ´Renassance´ period when the 38% of them are centered on their physical appearance and the 15% of them on their achievements.
“To distinguish the gender´s assigned role is essential to analyze the kind of world where the princesses live and even who have the power to rule by having the possibility about talking and who does not. Besides, there are many cases where the men talk stronger than women in films where they are playing the main role.” The researchers concluded.
Source: Radio Rebelde