Sunday, April 26, 2015

Disney Rant: Female Characters

Some of you have probably heard the idea that Disney's computer generated female characters all look exactly alike. Most of the time the characters are compared to Rapunzel for some reason. 
I am here to prove why this is ridiculous. 

Believe it or not, but people are in an outrage regarding this! To be completely honest, I'm not sure why. I have done my research and read many articles and posts and blogs about this topic and it seems that everyone is just showing pictures of how similar the characters look but not so much why this is a big deal.

Anyway, this is getting under my skin because the characters do NOT look that similar! 

I'll start off with this picture: 




This is one of the pictures most typically seen in the debate that all the characters look the same. In accordance, this picture follows: 


Oh goodness. 
These very few, specific characters from select movies have smooth jawlines and noses. 

Goodness me. 

OH MY ODIN. 
STOP THIS. 

Do I really need to do this?
I guess I do. 


Violet has almost perfectly circular eyes with distinct lines under them. Her nose is a bit wide and downward facing. Her lips are thin with a downturned upper lip. Her chin is also rather pointy. 
HEY THAT'S JUST LIKE MRS. INCREDIBLE!
No duh. That's her mother. 

Along similar lines, Queen Eleanor has a ovular had shape with a long, pointed nose that's very close to her mouth. Her eyes are not too big and she has thin eyelashes. 
OH GOSH THAT'S JUST LIKE MERIDA!
No duh. That's her daughter. 

But wait! Elsa has low cheek bones, huge eyes that are slightly slanted. She also has a downward pointed nose that's relatively low on her face. 
DEAR HERA THAT'S JUST LIKE ANNA!
No duh. That's her sister. 

Do you see where I'm going? 

These family relationships aside, my descriptions between these six characters show their differences in face shape alone.

(Analysis of the other characters)
Honey Lemon has a long nose that isn't turned up or down, but has a large bridge. Her eyes are higher up on her face and aren't too exaggerated. Her mouth is also fairly large.  

Rapunzel has a longer head shape with a larger chin. Her nose is wider and upturned quite a bit. Her mouth doesn't turn up very much and her eyes are seriously massive. 

Penny has a heart shaped face with eyes that are far apart from each other, a long nose that's only slightly upturned and a very small mouth. Her eyes are only turned up a little and she has almost no visible eyelashes. 

Ellie has a wider heart shaped face with very circular eyes. Her nose has no bridge but is fairly round and upturned. Her mouth is lower set to her nose and is slightly wider. 

Gogo has wide, slanted eyes that are farther apart from each other, a low set nose with no bridge that is slightly downturned and very close to her lips. She has full lips and full cheeks. 


I'm not going to go into Vanellope or the emotions because they're not supposed to represent humans but instead ideas or video game caricatures. 

Okay? 
Can we all move on?

The most repeated argument is of Rapunzel, Elsa, and Anna looking the same. 

So here:
Look at them. Look at them closely. 

Do you see the difference in eye shape? How Elsa's are slanted and farther apart?
Do you see the difference in nose shape? How Rapunzel's is upturned and shows the bridge? 
Do you see the difference in lips? How Elsa's are thinner and straight across? 
Do you see the difference in eyebrows? How Rapunzel's are closer to her hairline? 
Do you see the difference in face shape? How Elsa's is more pointed and her jaw line is harder? 

DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE? 

On top of all of this, why is no one looking at the bigger picture? 










The characters being compared are always the same ones. Never are the other characters taken into consideration. With only the six females listed above, there are obvious and distinct differences in their faces. 

Besides the fact that these women do not look that similar, it isn't Disney's fault.
Yes, they're the ones making the characters, but it's only in response to the public.

Society has set expectations for certain roles. For example, we expect a princess to be stunningly beautiful. Well that means the princess in the movie has to appeal to the most typical sense of beauty and therefore Disney makes the character as such. 
Society expects that the quirky sidekick is a bit off in their looks, so Disney might give them a larger nose or a unique face shape. 
Society expects villains to look mischievous and shifty, and the furrowed eyebrow and downturned mouth can only mean that the person's up to no good. 

Disney makes their characters in accordance to what the audience wants. 
Okay?

Are we chill?