Pre-Determined Gender Roles

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King Triton is highly protective yet still loving towards his daughter, and Ariel strives to end up with the love of her life; however, why do these characters need pre-determined gender roles? For instance, American media portrays women as needy, dependent, and weak humans that end their happy story with the perfect man. Teenagers as well are being hounded by the media telling them how they should carry out their lives. And most importantly, popular television and movies rarely display the true variety in family situations to children, the age group that still has the most to learn. In lieu of assigning gender roles and stereotypes on almost all forms of popular culture, American media should instead portray the true reality of today's people. …show more content…
These ideas of what a girl should dream of being is a demeaning and an inaccurate portrayal of a women's capabilities. Young girls look up to the females they watch in movies as role models and a form of inspiration; hence, these female roles should urge young girls to strive for greatness. Although a character's actions and decisions do not always purposefully correlate to that of a viewer's, many young girls spend great deal of time imitating and learning about their actions.This proves to be very concerning when the character they are imitating does not care about an education or a job, only the man is their true love. In the Disney movie Aladdin, a women's gender roles are strongly highlighted throughout as shown in a summary stating,“It is then that Jasmine reveals herself to them, demanding Aladdin be released. However, the head of the Royal Guards, Razoul, claims he is acting under orders from Jafar” (IMDb). This quotation perfectly depicts a perceived gender role of women. The movie supports the motion that orders should be taken from men and that women lack power in making decisions. Aladdin, along with the majority of American media, supports sexist ideals in a way that can negatively impact the viewer's thoughts and emotions towards women and their