“… Then a noble princess is not a human!” – Princess Kaguya As several other GLARe posts show, gender stereotypes are reflected in animated characters. When you place a Disney princess next to a prince, the differences are stark (take Sleeping Beauty below, for example). Traditionally, the princess might be polite and beautiful, taking a … Continue reading To be a ‘Princess’: Language, womanhood & social status in Studio Ghibli’s ‘The Tale of the Princess Kaguya’
Tag: subversion of gender norms
Hegemonic masculinity and the subversion of gender stereotypes: A linguistic analysis of DreamWorks’ ‘How to Train Your Dragon’
"When I was a boy, my father told me to bang my head against a rock, and I did it. I thought it was crazy, but I didn’t question him. And you know what happened? That rock split in two. It taught me what a Viking could do, Gobber. He could crush mountains, level forests, … Continue reading Hegemonic masculinity and the subversion of gender stereotypes: A linguistic analysis of DreamWorks’ ‘How to Train Your Dragon’
Amzad Hossain & Fu (2014) Young Girls and Flying Images: A Semiotic Analysis of Hayao Miyazaki’s Animations
Uses semiotics to analyze meanings in nine Miyazaki films (1984-2008) - Nausicaa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo. Studies recurring images and representations and how they connote meaning in regards to female characters, as well as proportions of speech … Continue reading Amzad Hossain & Fu (2014) Young Girls and Flying Images: A Semiotic Analysis of Hayao Miyazaki’s Animations
Blush (2021) Bending the Elementary: Queering Gender and Sexuality in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Beyond
Looks at the role of television in constructing gender for children and reinforcing traditional gender roles, especially Judith Butler’s “heterosexual matrix”, with lexical analysis of how characters do and don’t escape it. Investigates the ways in which Avatar: the Last Airbender (2005-2008) either upholds or subverts the dichotomies of gender and sexuality, by analyzing the … Continue reading Blush (2021) Bending the Elementary: Queering Gender and Sexuality in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Beyond
Finley (2023) Defamiliarizied Gender in the Works of Hayao Miyazaki
Argues that Miyazaki’s films portray unconventionally strong female protagonists through defamiliarization, stating that the films Spirited Away and Kiki’s Delivery Service borrow from and rejects elements of Japanese culture to create characters and settings that evoke the defamiliarization of gender, e.g. in genderbent references to folklore and historical figures. Contains close analysis of the original … Continue reading Finley (2023) Defamiliarizied Gender in the Works of Hayao Miyazaki
Giunchigliani (2011) Gender transgressions of the Pixar villains
Explores whether the phenomenon of gender queering identified in Disney villains is also present in the films produced by Pixar. The appearances and behaviour of three male villains from Pixar's films are coded for stereotypical masculine and stereotypical queer features, and these are compared to existing findings on Disney villains. This thesis will be useful … Continue reading Giunchigliani (2011) Gender transgressions of the Pixar villains
Li-Vollmer and LaPointe (2003) Gender transgression and villainy in animated film
Covers the presentation of male villains from ten animated feature films as queer or transgressive in their performances of gender. Areas examined qualitatively include the villains' physical attributes, costuming and props, body language, activities, and dialogue, as well as more general queering of the antagonists. This article will be useful if you are interested in … Continue reading Li-Vollmer and LaPointe (2003) Gender transgression and villainy in animated film
Mohd Najib (2019) Queer representations in Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe
Looks at queer representation and gender performativity encoded in visual and verbal signs in the cartoon animation, Steven Universe, using semiotic analysis. Uses qualitative data that looks at salient extracts from different scenes across the series, incorporating both visual and linguistic analysis alongside one another. This thesis would be useful for those who are interested … Continue reading Mohd Najib (2019) Queer representations in Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe