Introduction
Disney is a well-known entertainment company that releases famous cartoons and movies. It has a 100-year history of showing stories of princesses that reveal the socio-political and cultural context of each historical period. Indeed, Disney’s products shape the whole industry, translating ideas to society. This essay examines Cinderella (1950) and Mulan (1998) cartoons to demonstrate how the theme of love and the perception of women has changed over time.
Main body
To begin with, both cartoons depict a story of two young girls finding their true love through adventures. Cinderella does not have parents and lives with her stepmother and stepsisters, while Mulan has both parents and a grandmother. Due to such a background, Cinderella lives a miserable life, serves her stepmother, and dreams of a miracle, whereas Mulan goes to war and decides to do what she wants. The choice of the background of both characters played a crucial role in constructing their personalities and character development.
Love is the central theme of Cinderella and Mulan that appears differently in the production. For Cinderella, love is the prince, while for Mulan, love is embedded in her parents and grandmother, especially when she decides to go to war instead of her father. Although Mulan has a love story with her fellow soldier, the main illustrated love is the love for her father and family. Mulan’s story depicts honor, respect, and love for older adults.
In addition, both movies illustrate different conditions for the emergence of love and its further development. In Cinderella movie, the prince falls in love with the main character due to her beauty and wonderful dress made by the fairy. He chooses her among many wealthy and beautiful girls at the ball. The audience did not see their oral communication and the development of their feeling toward each other. The prince and Cinderella just danced one time, after which the prince did not even remember her face. Such neglecting approach to love suggests that, for the society of the 1950s, it was agreed that men only loved beautiful women and that personality did not matter the most.
In comparison with Mulan, Mulan and the soldier develop their love, and they communicate with each other more than just in one episode as in Cinderella. The soldier falls in love with Mulan not because of her beauty and dress but due to her personality. She is independent and knows what to do on her own. Moreover, the development of her love is accompanied by the personality growth of Mulan as she starts to experience new feelings and emotions towards a man. The audience sees how the characters are changing and why they fell to each other. In Cinderella, it is not clearly depicted, suggesting that it is only enough to be beautiful to get love. Such an approach to love is linked to the perception of women in society.
During the time of making Cinderella in the 1950s, women were forced to focus on a wedding ring. They should care about how to marry successfully and live a life of a housewife. Without a good marriage, women are considered as not valuable and do not deserve happiness. Such a view is seen in the stepsisters and stepmother of Cinderella, who were preparing for the ball of the prince. They wore their best dresses to attract the attention of the prince, dreaming of marrying him. The stepmother gave Cinderella more work once she realized that her daughters are not that “adorable” to catch the attention of the prince. She looked at Cinderella as a threat to her daughters’ successful marriage. This illustrates that in the 1950s, it was vital for every girl to marry, particularly a more prosperous man.
Such perspective also shows a mercantilist approach the love as girls were interested in the prince due to his status and wealth. This can say something important about the society in which the prince is an idol not because of his virtues but for his material capital and title. For the community of the 1950s, stable financial condition was of greater importance than romantic relationship or personal happiness. As such, marriage was the center of the attention of girls and their families. The focus on marriage is also depicted in Mulan’s movie, where her mother and grandmother were doing their best to make her look more famine and attract potential husbands. However, Mulan was more self-conscious than Cinderella, deciding for herself what she wanted. This shows that societal views on marriage were changing into the choice of a girl. It is seen that at the beginning of the 21st century, personal happiness was a top priority, allowing women to decide on their own more than in previous eras.
Many significant events between 1950 and 2000 changed the role of women from simply a housewife to independent working women. For example, in 1963, the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, signed the law of the Equal Pay Act that prohibits the sex-based wage gap between men and women in performing the same job in the same workplace (Donaldson, 2009). Before this, women were underpaid and discriminated against, and the role of housewife was considered a norm, thus pushing young girls to be concerned about a successful marriage. The setting of Cinderella clearly depicts the society of the 1950s, in which girls were looking for men, wearing uncomfortable and unfit clothes. With regards to Mulan, the movie also has conservative views on the role of a woman, but it depicts Mulan as an independent girl who decides for herself. It can be assumed that Cinderella was a girl, convinced by society that her life purposes as a female were to do housework and find true love.
In contrast, Mulan is the one who goes against the established societal norms of not allowing women to fight. She decided not to down the honor of his father. The period in which Mulan was released was the end of the 20th century. It was a time of cultural, social, and political changes, providing new norms for the social order. For example, in the year of 1994, President Clinton signed the Violence Against Women Act, ensuring funding for programs that help women in gender-related violence, such as rape, domestic violence, stalking, and other issues (Donaldson, 2009). Mulan also shows that women can participate in the male-dominated field and can even be successful. In comparison, Cinderella cannot decide for herself and solves her problems only with the presence of a man.
Unlike Mulan, Cinderella is soft, feminine, weak, and has no voice at all. This shows the expectations of society about the image of women at the time the movies were made. For the community of the 1950s, females were considered the ones with almost no personality and who were only concerned about beauty and family. In the late 20th century, women obtained more rights and started to be shown as independent and able to work hard as men. The image of a working woman was in popular movies and TV series and addressed more in mass media. For example, the emergence of the TV series called Sex in the City in a similar year to Mulan demonstrates the leverage of women’s perception in society.
By depicting the stories of the four women, Sex in the City shows that women are also personalities with their perspectives on things happening around them. Likewise, Mulan also depicts such a call for viewing a woman as more than just a sensitive girl. The cartoon constitutes the ongoing changes in society at the beginning of the 21st century, and that continues till the present day.
Conclusion
Overall, Disney is a giant company that entertains people from all around the world. The products of the company demonstrate the socio-political and cultural conditions in the period. The essay analyzed two cartoons of the company that are Cinderella (1950) and Mulan (1998). The cartoons address the theme of love and women’s place in society. The perception of women has changed over time from a simple one who searches for a man or housewife to an independent working woman who can compete with men in their field. Cinderella and Mulan represented such changes in society.
References
Bancroft, T., & Cook, B. (1998). Mulan. [DVD]. Buena Vista Pictures.
Geronimi, G., Hamilton L., & Jackson, W. (1950). Cinderella. [DVD]. Walt Disney Productions:
Donaldson, G. (2009). The making of modern America: The nation from 1945 to the present. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield.