Comparative Analysis of Body Language of Female Characters in Cartoons from Feminist Point of View-Centering on the Modern Animation of China and Disney-

Abstract

AbstractFeminism has become an important social topic in the world today,there are differences in the understanding of feminism between Western Europe and Asia. Animation has great influence,the concepts reflected in the works also affect the society. In this study, the Analysis of Gender Role Behaviors in Accordance with Visual Expression of Disney Animation, written by Yi Seul Jung, Eun Jeung Kim is used as an analytical framework to analyze the times of male and female body movements in female roles and to compare and analyze the independence of female roles. US Disney and Chinese commercial animation with female protagonists released in the same period from 2016–2019 were selected for analysis. They are Disney-produced.Moana (2016), Frozen II (2019) and China-produced Big Fish and Begonia (2016) and White Snake (2019), respectively.The analysis results show that the female characters in Disney cartoons show almost the same number of female and male movements.On the contrary, the female characters in Chinese cartoons show more female body movements than men, showing greater deviation. Contrary to Disney’s independent and brave female characters, the female characters in Chinese cartoons are weak and the typical female characteristics that should be protected are very strong. Therefore, from the feminist point of view, there are cultural differences in women’s independence. It is hoped that the research results of this thesis can become the basic materials for Chinese animators to build female characters. KeywordsWalt disneyChinese animationFeminismBody languageFemininity