This was a paper that I wrote for my Research Methods class back in College. It recently came to mind while watching Disney films with my Stepson and I thought it would be fun to look back on it. *The format has been altered since submission for grading- it was originally in the proper content analysis format with footnotes etc.*
The Portrayal of Women:
Alfred Hitchcock Films versus Disney Films
Joanna Ahti
Social Science Research Methods 300-300-AB sect. 00019
December 9, 2013
Women have always played important roles in films however they are not always portrayed well. The purpose of this content analysis is to assess how women are portrayed in Alfred Hitchcock films compared to Disney films released during the same years. Six films were selected, viewed and analyzed using coding sheets. From the data collected, the following recurring themes were found: love, women as damsels in distress or heroines and villains. By analyzing these themes, it led to the conclusion that the women in Hitchcock’s motion pictures are shown to be capable of being quite deceitful and need rescuing but are also very strong and heroic. In Disney films they are portrayed mostly as the villains. For future studies, using a different time period one preferably after the Women’s Rights Movement of the 1970’s should be used to see if the results differ.
Keywords: Hitchcock; Disney; films; women; portrayal
Women have been stereotyped in many ways and this has leaked into popular culture. One method of research into this subject is done by looking deeper into the music industry, songs and lyrics. For example, studies have shown that while misogyny is a reoccurring theme, it’s not done as frequently in rap music as people may think. In the following study, the medium that is used in the place of music is motion pictures.
Past studies have stated that any woman in Disney films who failed to be pretty, tolerant and submissive could not possibly be the heroine of the film. Alfred Hitchcock’s use of women in movies has been a long standing topic of interest. After the release of films such as Psycho (in which the leading lady is murdered), and Frenzy, along with Hitchcock’s infatuation with actresses (more specifically Tippi Hedren), it was thought that he was a misogynist. The leading ladies who worked for him refute that idea and would state that he really liked women. By analyzing the recurring themes from both Hitchcock and Disney films, this study hopes to provide insight to how women are portrayed during these years.
It was decided that three movies from each category for a total of six films, would be sufficient for the research while working within this project’s time constraints. To select the samples, I found full lists of Hitchcock and Disney movies the motive being to find three movies from each that were released around the same years. The Hitchcock movies were chosen from the years 1954, 1959 and 1963. I was able to find Disney films that matched those years except Disney did not release a movie in 1954. The next best option was to choose one that was released the closest to it. This is why one Disney film is from 1955. Since there is only a difference of one year, I found it to be acceptable. The films by Alfred Hitchcock included North by Northwest, Rear Window and The Birds. The films by Walt Disney Pictures included Sword in the Stone, Sleeping Beauty and Lady and the Tramp.
Once the films were chosen, each of them was viewed while keeping observations using the aid of a coding sheet. The variables used for the coding sheet were the female characters descriptions in the film, their background, their actions throughout the film, the clothing worn and the situations they find themselves in during the film. For the Disney films which are animated, it must be noted that the term “female” includes humans, animals and mythological/folklore characters. The data was analyzed to find recurring themes and to compare the two categories of films. Costumes had originally been a theme since it offered interesting data, however limitations on the length of this paper caused it to be excluded for this study. The subsequent lists detail the results found and are classified based on theme.
Love
Love is a very popular theme that is used in most movies. In North by Northwest, Cary Grant’s character Thornhill has the line “Will she kiss me and poison me to death?” which describes his relationship with Eva Marie Saint’s character Eve very well. Within the first five minutes of conversation between the two of them, they discuss making love. Thus begins a film full of sexual references. Thornhill falls in love with Eve but the love he has for her is clouding his judgement. In the end, after an on and off again relationship, Eve becomes his third wife.
In Rear Window, even the secondary characters have storylines based on love. For example, James Stewart’s character Jeffries has a neighbor nicknamed Miss “Lonelyhearts”. She dresses up, makes candlelight dinners and pretends to have dates. Her loneliness leads to a suicide attempt but is stopped by beautiful music and she later dates that same musician. The leading lady Lisa is a sophisticated, successful, rich and popular blonde bombshell. Lisa is in love with Jeffries and she wishes he would leave the magazine he does photography for so they can get married. He says that is nonsense and that her lifestyle doesn’t fit with his. They fight over which one of them should change for the other. Lisa loves him and wants to be a part of his life. In the final scene, we see she is the one who changed her lifestyle for him. This shows how women go out of their way for the men in their lives. This is also seen in The Birds when Tippi Hedron’s character Melanie gets curious about a man she doesn’t know after meeting him in a bird store (“Mitch” played by Rod Taylor). She goes out of her way to get a gift, travel, and surprise him at his family’s home. Melanie puts all this effort into this plan for someone she had only talked to once, for less than ten minutes. Throughout the film, it is mentioned how fond Mitch is of her, they kiss and it seems like the beginning of a relationship.
Fairy tales also revolve around the theme of love. In Sleeping Beauty, when Aurora unknowingly meets Prince Philip, she is in a daze caused by love at first sight. Aurora gets upset when she is told she can’t see him anymore because she is already betrothed. When Aurora is tricked into pricking her finger on the spindle and left in a sleeping state, she can only be saved by the kiss of the one who truly loves her. In Sword in the Stone, there are female squirrels and one of them follows Arthur. She is very clingy, flirty, kisses him and she won’t leave him alone. When she finds out he really is a human boy, she is heartbroken and that is the last time we see her. Even if it is just for a short amount of time, love was still integrated into the film.
Damsels in distress or heroines?
Women in Hitchcock films are portrayed as heroines however they typically also need saving themselves. Eve in North by Northwest is deceitful however she is also a hero. Lying is a part of her job as an agent and she is good at it. As the movie goes on, her voice and actions become more forceful and she even becomes aggressive as she stands up for herself. When Roger finds out that there is a plan to kill Eve he tries rescuing her. Eve has been strong throughout the film but the climax is when Eve needs Roger to save her from falling to her death off Mount Rushmore.
Strong and helpful women are seen again in Rear Window. Stella is an insurance company nurse who helps Jeffries. Even though it’s her job to serve a man, her wit shines through when he asks her to make a sandwich for him to which she replies, “Yes, I will and I’ll rub some common sense on it.” Stella puts herself in danger while trying to help solve the mystery; as does Lisa who had previously said “It’s always the girl who saves the man.” Lisa does her own detective work and ends up face to face with a suspected killer. She uses her smarts to save herself. After she puts herself in danger, Jeffries looks at her in a new light. At one point, it is said to Jeffries “Feminine intuition sells magazines but all it is really is fairy tales.” This seems to undermine women and what they’re capable of doing. Lisa proves this to be false and is definitely a heroine in the film.
In The Birds, Melanie is portrayed as a young, educated, troublemaker who gets all of her money from her successful father. She seems more independent when we find out that she works at the airport and takes courses at Berkeley University. When a woman accuses her of being the evil cause behind the birds attacking, she stands up for herself and slaps the woman. Throughout the movie she takes on the role of caregiver and helps the children and Mitch’s mother, Lydia. Hayworth is the main heroine in the film when she dies while saving Cathy, Mitch’s sister. Mitch guides Cathy, Lydia and Melanie in an attempt to be their savior. Towards the end, Melanie investigates the house on her own, which was either naïve, fearless or foolish. When she is attacked Mitch comes to her rescue.
In Sleeping Beauty, the main character is Aurora however she only has eighteen minutes of screen time. The fairy godmothers are the heroines but they are also seen doing stereotypical women’s roles such as baking, cleaning and cooking. They also help Prince Philip save Aurora. If they did not give him some of their magic, he would never have been able to defeat the villain, Maleficent. It makes us question if they would be portrayed as being this heroic if they were magically powerless. The Lady and the Tramp does however, have Lady as the heroine. She saves the baby from a rat that is attempting to attack but this is not before Tramp needs to save Lady. In most of these examples, it is seen that although the females may be heroines, they also need saving.
Villains
In Disney films, women characters are not portrayed as well as in the Hitchcock films. In both Sleeping Beauty and Sword in the Stone, the women who held the most power were the villains. When these films were released, women with power was rare and something society was not be comfortable with. Maleficent is the “mistress of all evil”. She is the one who tricks and puts the evil spell on Aurora. She is said to be one of the most sinister Disney villains. As for Mad Madam Mim, her mission is to get rid of the hero Arthur when she finds out there is something good about him. This leads to a duel between her and Merlin in which she immediately breaks the rules she had made. She cheats while trying to outsmart Merlin but it doesn’t work and she loses. Other than the maid in the film, Madam Mim is the only other female. She plays the leading female role and while her scene is comedic, it is devoted to her being the evil character.
In conclusion, when comparing the portrayal of women in Alfred Hitchcock films to Disney’s, several differences were found. In Hitchcock films, women and their abilities seem to be underestimated yet they prove to be the heroines of the films. While they may need to be saved at some point, they are not portrayed as helpless as the women in the Disney films. Eve and Lisa both save the men in their lives. While in the Disney films, Aurora takes no part in saving Prince Philip and he saves her with a kiss. The way women are portrayed in Disney films is similar to the results found in the previously mentioned study done on misogyny in rap music. That study found that it is rare for women to be presented as independent, intelligent, or superior to men and deprecating images are seen more frequently. Further studies could be done to compare films by Hitchcock and Disney to see if women’s characters change in future decades. It is argued that films portray events that are important for certain points in time in order to get more viewers. After the Women’s Rights movement of the 1970’s, perhaps things in the film industry changed. “Feminist groups argued that women could be seen as active and competent without losing positive qualities associated with feminine behavior, like gentleness and sympathy.” While Hitchcock seemed to have a grasp of this to some extent, did Disney follow suit?
Bibliography
Bordwell, David, and Thompson, Kristin. “Film Art: An Introduction”. New York, NY:McGraw-Hill, 2004
Fawell, John. “Torturing Women and Mocking Men: Hitchcock’s Rear Window.” Midwest Quarterly 44, no. 1 (September 2002): 88.
Garrett, Greg. “Hitchcock’s Women on Hitchock: A Panel Discussion with Janet Leigh, Tippi Hedren, Karen Black, Suzanne Pleshette, and Eva Marie Saint.” Literature Film Quarterly 27, no. 2 (April 1999):78.
IMDB. “Sleeping Beauty Trivia” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053285/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv
Lady and the Tramp. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske. USA, 1955
North by Northwest. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. New York City: NY, 1959
Stone, Kay. “Things Walt Disney Never Told Us.” The Journal of American Folklore. Vol. 88, No. 347, Women and Folklore (Jan. – Mar., 1975): 42-50.
Rear Window. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. New York City: NY, 1954
Sleeping Beauty. Directed by Clyde Geronimi. USA, 1959
Sword in the Stone. Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman. USA, 1963
The Birds. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. New York City: NY, 1963.
Weitzer, Ronald, and Charis E. Kubrin. “Misogyny in Rap Music: A Content Analysis of Prevalence and Meanings.” Men and Masculinities 12, no. 1 (October, 2009): 3-25.
