Kelsey Koblitz
Monday Night
The Lion King
For as long as I can remember I have been watching Disney movies, but I never really
realized exactly how much that they can actually teach you about life, or how much they want to
persuade you is real life. Disney teaches children socialized gender behavior; the way that they
should grow up to act in society based on their individual gender. The reason that they can do
this is because of the huge fan base that they have behind them. Growing up I probably saw at
least 75 percent of the Disney movies that came out during the years that I was old enough to
watch them and even now that I am an adult I still watch any new ones that happen to come out.
Today I am going to tell you exactly how Disney teaches children socialized gender behavior by
giving you examples that I have found in the movie “The Lion King” to support my claim.
Looking back over my notes I have already found something that supports the fact that
men and women are different, not the same. I have at least two pages more notes for
stereotypical roles of men than I do for stereotypical roles for women. This already shows me
that men are looked at as more “important” in this movie in particular than women are. This
supports the old idea that men are supposed to be the leaders of their family and that their wives,
the women, are supposed to be silent statues beside them.
Because I have more material for men, let’s start with analyzing their different
characteristics shown through this movie. Aggression is the first one that I will start with. As
soon as we meet Scar, Simba’s uncle, we notice that he is cocky, envious, and most importantly
aggressive. You can tell by the way that he talks to his brother, Mufasa that he is mad at him and
that he blames him for his not becoming king when he was the “rightful heir”. You can definitely
see his display of aggression when he’s singing his song with the hyenas. Scar’s singing alone
translates as being powerful and unstoppable with lyrics like, “my teeth and ambitions are
barred.” While this sing a long is going on the hyenas are marching in a hitlerian style army
showing power and dominance. Scar isn’t the only character that shows his aggression however,
Mufasa also does quite a bit. When Mufasa is showing his son, Simba the pride lands, Simba
decides that he wants to learn how to pounce instead. So, of course Mufasa tells him the correct
technique. He tells Simba that he should practice on Zazu, Mufasa’s right hand man/bird in the
form of a “beat him”. If they were people instead of lions there probably would have been a
chest bump involved. Out of nowhere Zazu is pounced on by Simba, followed by Simba and
Mufasa rolling around playing “rough and tumble” together. Even though this example may be
small, this is a form of aggression. Mufasa is teaching his son how fight with other animals just
for the sake of beating them up. This translates to little boys that they should grow up to be
“tough” and “powerful” because that is the only way that they are going to be able to get what
they want. The only way Scar is going to be able to get what he wants is by defeating Mufasa
and Simba. This translates to little boys that the only way to succeed in life is by aggression and
violence.
Now that I have fully discussed the characteristic is aggression, another characteristic of
the male gender that I found in this movie was cockiness. The best example of this is when
Simba, Nala, and Zazu are on their way to the watering hole and Simba starts singing a song
about how he can’t wait to be the king. His song includes lyrics like, “the main event”, “do it my
way”, and “I’m in the spotlight.” Simba is cocky in the fact that he thinks that he can run the
kingdom better than his father can, and that everyone is going to listen to him when he becomes
king. His cockiness continues when he and Nala wander off into the elephant graveyard by
themselves and they get caught by the hyenas. Simba acts like he is big enough to take them on
and protect both Zazu and Nala even though the hyenas are at least twice his own size. Even
when he is losing the fight he still has the same smug, cocky face. This tells little boys that they
are indestructible and that no matter what the case, even if someone is obviously bigger than
them that they can win anyway, that they will win anyway. This subconsciously tells boys that
they don’t need any help from anyone else, that they can do it on their own, that they are the
“main event”, and that they are the most important thing.
I could go on for a long time about all of the stereotypical gender roles of men that I have
found in “The Lion King”, but I think I will wrap it up with this last one, being closed off. This
characteristic of men is shown after Nala finds Simba while he is living in the jungle with
Timone and Pumba. Nala and Simba have fun and play around with each other, caught up in the
moment of finding each other again, but as soon as Nala addresses Simba coming back and
taking his rightful place as king, he clams up. When she asks him why he won’t come back with
her he tells her that she wouldn’t understand. In order to cope with the loss of his father he has
kept all of his feelings to himself, not wishing to disclose anything with anyone that may be
important to him. The one time that he does, he gets his feelings hurt. At one point during the
movie Simba, Timone, and Pumba are all lying down in the grass and looking up at the stars,
wondering what they really are. Simba tells them that he thinks that the stars are the kings of the
past looking down on them, because that’s what his father had told him when he was still alive.
Timone and Pumba proceed to laugh at him, because they think that the things that they have
said are much more likely to be true, not knowing that they are really hurting Simba’s feelings.
In order to not let Timone and Pumba know how upset he really is, Simba just laughs it off. He’s
trying to “save face” with his friends, so that they don’t know that his feelings are actually hurt.
This teaches boys that they are supposed to be “tough” all of the time and that their emotions are
a sign of weakness. Guys are supposed to be the leader in a family or in a relationship. How are
they going to be able to do that if their emotions get in their way?
Now that we have talked about the stereotypical gender roles for men in “The Lion
King”, I think it’s time we moved on to the stereotypical gender roles for women. The first one
that I want to talk about is how this movie teaches girls that they are supposed to be nurturing
and caring. You notice this mostly at the beginning of the movie when Simba is little. The only
time that he purrs is when he is around his mother, Serabi. He acts different when he is around
Serabi than when he is around Mufasa. Simba will kind of go in and out of her legs while she
walks, just to be close and near to her. He will also nuzzle up next to her and not Mufasa. He
feels safe and protected when Serabi is around becomes of the tenderness and gentleness that she
provides to him. Serabi is also the one that gives Simba a bath, which shows little girls that that
is something they should be doing, not their husbands. All of this translates to little girls that they
need to be nurturing and caring to little children and animals, that it’s their job. At one point
during the movie Mufasa rolls over and tells Serabi that, “before sunrise he’s your son.” This
tells girls that no matter whether they are in a marriage or are a single parent that caring for the
children is primarily their responsibility. It also tells girls that they should be emotionally
available at all times, so that they are ready to care for and nurture small children and animals, as
well as be gentle and tender with them.
Now that I have fully discussed the stereotypical female gender role of being nurturing
and caring I can move on to my other point of this movie showing girls that they need to grow up
to be damsels in distress. One of the best examples of this is when Nala is begging Simba to
come back to pride rock because he is their “only hope”. She is basically saying that the
lionesses aren’t capable of defending themselves or able to fend for themselves and their children
and friends. This translates to little girls that they need are going to grow up and need a man to
take care of them, that they won’t be able to accomplish much in life unless they have a man to
support them. There is another example in this movie that also supports my theory of women not
being able to stand up by themselves. At the end of “The Lion King” when Scar slaps Serabi
across the face it takes a big group of the lionesses to be able to pick her back up. Not even
figuratively, but physically this shows that we as women are not able to stand up for ourselves.
I’m not saying that it is a bad thing that your friends are there to pick you up when you are down,
but this movie gives girls the impression that women aren’t capable of standing up for
themselves, whether that be physically or figuratively. This scene shows girls that we are made
to be damsels in distress, that we aren’t made to be independent.
After watching “The Lion King” and fully analyzing it for the first time I have been able
to see the many different stereotypical gender roles that men and women each have. Throughout
this movie men are subtly portrayed as aggressive, cocky, and closed off, among other things,
whereas women are portrayed as nurturing and caring and as damsels in distress. Instead of being
equal as today’s society would like to have us believe, this movie displays how different and
opposite men and women really are from each other. Because Disney has such a huge fan base, it
isn’t very hard for them to be able to give children subtle hints about what they should be like in
the future. Maybe even the reason that some people think the way they do is because of some of
the Disney movies that they watched as children. Today I hope that I have told you exactly how
Disney teaches children socialized gender behavior by giving you some specific examples that I
have found in the movie “The Lion King” to support my claims.