Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Disney/Pixar
Ken Gillam & Shannon R. Wooden (2008) Post-Princess Models of Gender:The New Man in Disney/Pixar, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 36:1, 2-8, DOI: 10.3200/ JPFT.36.1.2-8
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JPFT.36.1.2-8
Gilliam and Wooden’s article looks at the representation of male characters in three disney pixar films, ‘Cars’, ‘Toy Story’ and “The Incredibles’. All major Disney Pixar films released since 1990 have followed very similar storylines featuring a male protagonist. The article argus that these films offer a ‘rather progressive postfeminist model of gender’ as the plot will generally centre around a bildungsroman style story of a male character having to overcome his overly masculine traits to ultimately mature and reach their goals.
Both of the articles authors are scholars in gender studies and have backgrounds in popular culture, and aside from this article have written a book focusing on ‘boy culture’ in Disney Pixar movies. Therefore their writing on this topic can be respected.
Unlike other articles I’ve read, this focuses on Disney’s representation of men. It’s mostly praise for positive representations of male characters, which isn’t surprising, what did strike me though was that these representations are seen as positive because they embody feminine qualities. While this doesn’t directly relate to our topic, it is indicative of Disney’s move towards a more progressive social standing. However this is limited as they only strive (and succeed) to create positive representations of male characters, not women, thus the article links to our current arguments about Disney’s representation.