Disney and Gender

Guest: Carmen Fought, PhD, Professor of Linguistics at Pitzer College  Disney’s princesses have come a long way since Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Ariel and Belle and Mulan and Merida and Anna and Elsa are so much more capable and independent than the damsels-in-distress of the classic Disney animation era. Much better role models for girls, many of us would agree.  But, a couple of linguists have been analyzing Disney’s catalogue to get beyond the basic storyline of these princess films and they’ve discovered that while most of them feature strong heroines, men do 50 percent, of not more, of the talking and, in some cases, as much as 90 percent. The gender gap in both roles and dialogue is striking, when you start looking at the numbers.