Davis, A: Good Girls & Wicked Witches

An in-depth view of the way popular female stereotypes were reflected in-and were shaped by-the portrayal of women in Disney's animated features. In Good Girls and Wicked Witches, Amy M. Davis re-examines the notion that Disney heroines are rewarded for passivity. Davis proceeds from the assumption that, in their representations of femininity, Disney films both reflected and helped shape the attitudes of the wider society, both at the time of their first release and subsequently. Analyzing the construction of (mainly human) female characters in the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio between 1937 and 2001, she attempts to establish the extent to which these characterizations were shaped by wider popular stereotypes. Davis argues that it is within the most constructed of all moving images of the female form-the heroine of the animated film-that the most telling aspects of Woman as the subject of Hollywood iconography and cultural ideas of American womanhood are to be found. "A fascinating compilation of essays in which [Davis] examined the way Disney has treated female characters throughout its history." -PopMatters

An in-depth view of the way popular female stereotypes were reflected inand were shaped bythe portrayal of women in Disney's animated features. In Good Girls and Wicked Witches, Amy M. Davis re-examines the notion that Disney heroines are rewarded for passivity. Davis proceeds from the assumption that, in their representations of femininity, Disney films both reflected and helped shape the attitudes of the wider society, both at the time of their first release and subsequently. Analyzing the construction of (mainly human) female characters in the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio between 1937 and 2001, she attempts to establish the extent to which these characterizations were shaped by wider popular stereotypes. Davis argues that it is within the most constructed of all moving images of the female formthe heroine of the animated filmthat the most telling aspects of Woman as the subject of Hollywood iconography and cultural ideas of American womanhood are to be found. ';A fascinating compilation of essays in which [Davis] examined the way Disney has treated female characters throughout its history.' PopMatters

IntroductionChapter 1, Film as a Cultural MirrorChapter 2, A Brief History of AnimationChapter 3, The Early Life of Walt Disney and the Beginnings of the Disney Studio, 1901-1937Chapter 4, Disney Films 1937-1967: The "Classic" YearsChapter 5, Disney Films 1967-1988: The "Middle" EraChapter 6, Disney Films 1989-2005: The "Eisner" EraConclusionAppendix 1, Disney's full-length animated feature filmsAppendix 2, Disney films analysed in this study, with plot summariesAppendix 3, BibliographyAppendix 4, FilmographyIndex