Gender and Speech in a Disney Princess Movie

Nor Jijidiana Azmi ,Radzuwan Ab Rashid ,Mairas Abd Rahman ,Z Safawati Basirah

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.6p.235

Nor Jijidiana Azmi , Radzuwan Ab Rashid + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.6p.235

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Abstract

One of the latest Disney princess movies is Frozen which was released in 2013. Female characters in Frozen differ from the female characters in previous Disney movies, such as The Little Mermaid and Tangled. In comparison, female characters in Frozen are portrayed as having more heroic values and norms, which makes it interesting to examine their speech characteristics. Do they use typical female speech despite having more heroic characteristics? This paper aims to provide insights into the female speech characteristics in this movie based on Lakoff’s (1975) model of female speech. Data analysis shows that female and male characters in the movie used almost equal number of female speech elements in their dialogues. Interestingly, although female characters in the movie do not behave stereotypically, their speech still contain the elements of female speech, such as the use empty adjectives, questions, hedges and intensifier. This paper argues that the blurring of boundaries between male and female speech characteristics in this movie is an attempt to break gender stereotyping by showing that female characters share similar characteristics with heroic male characters thus they should not be seen as inferior to the male characters.

Highlights

Disney princess movies are well-known all over the world and has become part of popular culture
As argued by Witt (2000), children have high tendency to copy the female characteristics in the movies that they watch because they believe that it is an acceptable way of behaving
The aim of this study is to investigate the speech characteristics of the characters in Disney princess movie, Frozen

Summary

Introduction

Disney princess movies are well-known all over the world and has become part of popular culture. As argued by Witt (2000), children have high tendency to copy the female characteristics in the movies that they watch because they believe that it is an acceptable way of behaving. Children movies help the children to learn and develop their language in a friendlier manner compared to the learning in formal setting. This is because children will be more comfortable to learn language due to the presence of interesting characters and visual effects. Ismail & Yusof (2016) state that among the effective ways for children to learn language is by incorporating informal materials in their learning, such as storybooks with pictures and narrated in local setting and culture This is because children will be more comfortable to learn language due to the presence of interesting characters and visual effects. Ismail & Yusof (2016) state that among the effective ways for children to learn language is by incorporating informal materials in their learning, such as storybooks with pictures and narrated in local setting and culture

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