Male And Female Portrayal In Children’s Movie

Have you ever thought about what type of movies you watched when you were a child? Did those movies maybe include a male superhero or a female princess, and in what way were these characters portrayed in? Did the way of portraying have anything to do with the character's gender? In the Ted Talk “How movies teach manhood” Colin Stokes talks about in what way movies portray men and women and what that teaches children. In this essay I am going to reflect on how men and women are portrayed in movies directed to young boys and girls from a feminist and a psychological perspective according to the Ted Talk “How movies teach manhood” by Colin Stokes. 

In the Ted Talk Colin Stokes brought up in his Ted Talk is the Bechdel test (“How movies teach manhood”, 6:15). The Bechdel test is a test focused on how women are portrayed in movies. The test includes different criteria that a movie needs to have before passing the test. For example, there are at least two female characters in the movie that have lines, and that they are talking to something other than men. According to Stokes many of the movies produced by Pixar do not pass this test. Those children’s movies produced by Pixar do not pass this test shows that men get more screen time in children's movies in general and the female characters are mostly there for the men. Through a feminist perspective this shows that women are seen as an object while men are seen as the subject. 

Apart from the Bechdel test Colin Stokes also talks about how the male and female characters usually are portrayed in a certain way in children’s movies. According to Stokes when it comes to movies directed to young boys the male characters are often portrayed as the hero of the movie. The male characters often only have two goals for the movie, defeating the evil villain with violence and getting the reward which often is the female character of the movie (“How movies teach manhood”, 9:22). Meanwhile, when it comes to movies with the target audience of young girls the boy is not the hero, but the female character is instead. The female characters are often very independent and portrayed as the hero or the warrior of the movie. 

Therefore, you could say that movies directed to girls are in some way better than movies directed to boys at least if you look through the feminist perspective. This due to the fact that movies directed to boys show more of an unhealthy relation between men and women, where women are seen more as an object. Which also is something that is criticezed by the feminist perspective. In addition to this the movies with the target audience young girls often have strong and independent female characters that teach girls to challenge the patriarchal society. Which through a feminist perspective is good due to the fact that the considered great literature lack such female role models. 

On the other hand by looking at the Ted Talk through a psychological perspective the example that Stokes presents on how the male character often only has two goals could be analyzed differently. The psychological perspective includes different approaches. One of these approaches is the Jungian approach. This approach focuses on three different parts of the self. The shadow which according to the Jungian approach is the unconscious self or the dark side of a person. The persona which is the social personality and lastly the anima which is the soul images. According to this approach of the psychological perspective When it comes to literature and movies these three parts of the self could be reflected in different characters. For example the shadow is often the villain in the story according to this approach. The persona is the hero of the story and the anima is the heroine. 

Therefore, according to the psychological perspective and more specifically the Jungian approach the male character in Stokes’ example would be the persona or the hero of the story. The villain that the male character aims to defeat by the end of the story would be the shadow according to the Jungian approach. Lastly the female character that Stokes refers to as the male character’s reward would be the heroine of the story. 

To summarize you could say that the conclusion that could be drawn is that how men and women are portrayed very differently in movies. How they are portrayed depends on whom the targeted audience is, if it is young girls the female characters will most likely be very strong and independent. While if it is a movie directed to young boys the male characters will be strong once or the persona according to the Jungian approach of the psychological perspective. The female characters would mostly just be there for the male character and be considered the anima according to the Jungian approach. However, something considerable is that this is a general conclusion. Of course there are movies directed to boys that have strong independent female characters but in general it is very unusual.