I agree with “The Little Mermaid” presentation that the Little Mermaid film does feed into a dominant narrative about how women should act and behave, but also how like many other Disney movies made at the time, still shows parts where the dominant narrative is broken to create unique and human characters, such as on Aladdin when Jasmine run’s away to claim independence over her life, or when Pocahontas stands up against John Smith calling her people Savages.

In the movie, Mulan, the dominant narrative is that men are better in battle than women. the whole movie is about Mulan pretending to be a boy to fight for her father so that he won’t have to go to war. Mulan has to pretend to be a boy because women are not allowed to fight. Mulan ends up being the hero of the movie.

THESIS- The Little Mermaid, (the 1989 film), promotes a dominant narrative that women should sacrifice themselves and anything about them to adapt to a man’s needs. While Ariel is a confident female lead that sets herself apart from the rest by departing on adventures despite her obligations and restrictions as a mermaid, she still represents the dominant narrative when the prince comes into play. After falling for the powerful male character, she immediately focuses on doing anything possible to be with him, including giving up her own assets and life altogether.

I agree with the cultural analysis of Pochahontas and how they found that it incorrectly portrays Native Americans and what happened when Europeans first came to America. Using examples from the conversation between her and John Smith was a really good point because the relationship is a main storyline to the movie.

The film, Mulan (1998), resists the dominant narrative that women are less capable than men. Additionally, it defies the dominant narrative of what a socially acceptable woman should be like. The film does so by showcasing Mulan, the protagonist, as a hero. In 01:17:00 – 1:18:27, Mulan receives honor from the Chinese Emperor as a gratitude for saving China. He gifts her a medal of honor, Shan Yu’s sword (the enemy Mulan defeated), and offers her a position in his council. This demonstrates that the Emperor admires Mulan and how she is viewed as a savior, which defies these dominant narratives by displaying how a woman does not need to be the one being saved. She not only does not need to be saved by the men surrounding her, she saves them instead.

I agree with The Little Mermaid’s group thesis that “the movie breaks the dominant narrative that women should be submissive by listening and taking advice from the men in their life.” Ariel defied everyone’s expectations by going off to do what she wanted. She didn’t let people tell her what to do. The thesis really goes into depth about her struggles and triumphs.

The movie Mulan released in 1998 had many stereotypes about how women should act and appear. The stereotypes suggest that women should be thin, beautiful, quiet, and serve their husbands. Although there are also many moments in the film that break the stereotypes and show Mulan as a warrior and more than just a quiet lady. Most of the film breaks gender stereotypes by having its main character break the wall that generations of her ancestors had built.

My group’s thesis is about how the movie resists the dominant narrative of how women are less capable than men. It resists what women are traditionally supposed to be like. A scene that shows this is (41:17-41:03) when Mulan gets the arrow before anyone else could. She was able to do this by carrying weights that also proved she had discipline and strength.

The Lion King (1994) is a film that contains many dominant narratives and stereotypes that depict Africa in a certain way. The movie contains a wild and primitive land with no human life.. During the beginning of the film, there are many clear indications revealing how the depiction of Lions follow the African dominant narrative that Lions are capable of ruling entire sections of Africa. The film is able to make this stereotype clear through visuals and dialogue shown throughout the beginning of the story. With Lions being crowned the king of the animals in a lot of children’s media, it would make sense for this movie made for children to contain this single story of the power classes of the animal kingdom.              

In the Little Mermaid, Ursula is the main antagonist in the Little Mermaid.  Disney depicted the ¨bad guy¨ by making Ursula obese and unattractive.  She makes attempts to be attractive by putting on lipstick or swinging her hips.  She also eats disgusting shrimp where the audience hears her chewing loudly.  Her voice sounds masculine. also notice how the bad guy is obese and unattractive, however the good guy is skinny and attractive.

The Little Mermaid, (the 1989 film), promotes a dominant narrative that women should sacrifice themselves and anything about them to adapt to a man’s needs. While Ariel is a confident female lead that sets herself apart from the rest by departing on adventures despite her obligations and restrictions as a mermaid, she still represents the dominant narrative when the prince comes into play. After falling for the powerful male character, she immediately focuses on doing anything possible to be with him, including giving up her own assets and life altogether.

One scene that feeds into my theme is “Poor Unfortunate Souls” starting at [43:42]. Ursula warns Ariel that if she chooses to become human and be with Prince Eric, she will never see her father and sisters again. Ariel takes a thought at it but impulsively decides to choose Prince Eric. She also decides to give up her voice for the man, barely thinking vigilantly.

Mulan resists the dominant narrative that women are passive and weak but doing so it also reinforces the dominant narrative that men need to be strong and not express emotions. This is shown in the scene when Shang lee finds out his dad had died. He feels that he can’t express any emotions because it will make him appear as weak in front of his army. This enforces the dominant narrative that men shouldn’t be able to express emotions. Especially in the same way women are supposed to.

I agree with their thesis that the actions of Mulan challenges the dominant narrative that women are not as capable as men. This is shown when Mulan does things that the men are too scared to do.

Disney’s Aladdin features many stereotypes, such as a culturally appropriated Middle East, man-dependent women, and class ideals. While these stereotypes aren’t as noticeable as the ones in earlier Disney films, they’re still present and could potentially create a dominant narrative about these groups.

The Jungle Book, originally published by Rudyard Kipling, promotes stereotypes of non-Western cultures and races as primitive and animalistic.

the scene that relates to this is the king Louie scene, The King Louie, the King orangutan who was speaking to Mowgli. The orangutan was basically based off of African Americans. It also portrays A. A’s as non human, apes, a real insult in the modern world as well. This part in the movie was racist.

I agree with this group’s thesis, in that Ursula was shown as evil using negative stereotypes about beauty standards for women. I would like to add that it seems Disney was specifically queer-coding her as a drag queen, with a deeper voice, different body type than all the other women in the movie, and loud makeup. Disney has queer-coded a lot of their villains with subtle stereotypes.

In the movie Mulan (1998), Mulan resists the dominant narrative that women are less capable than men. It also defies the dominant narrative of what a traditional woman is supposed to be like. A scene that supports this is the scene towards the end where she fights against the main villain. All the other men who were in the war and were supposed to be strong didn’t want to fight him but Mulan stood up and fought him by herself.