The Patriarchal Institution of Motherhood as exemplified in Tangled

1. The Patriarchal Institution of Motherhood as exemplified in Tangled • Gothel teaches that • single mothers are not to be trusted • women are obsessed with youth • mothers are jealous of their daughters • single women are dangerous • mothers live through their children • Rapunzel teaches that • women are valued based on youth and beauty • daughters need a man to show them the world • domesticity is fun The movie Tangled by Disney demonstrates women’s limited roles in patriarchy. Tangled is a re-telling of the classic Rapunzel fairy tale. This PowerPoint will explore the Mother-Daughter relationship in Tangled and how the institution of motherhood perpetuates patriarchal ideals. Watch the trailer here: http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/tangled/ The main storyline is that Rapunzel’s hair possesses special powers of youth and healing. An evil witch, Gothel, wants to avoid aging, so she steals the baby Rapunzel from the Queen and King. Gothel raises Rapunzel as if she is her own. Gothel wants to keep Rapunzel forever so that she will be able to prevent herself from aging. Therefore, Gothel doesn’t allow Rapunzel to leave the home. A bandit, Flynn Rider, takes refuge in Rapunzel’s tower and Rapunzel convinces him to take her out into the world.

2. Why look at movies to understand our culture? • Storytelling is one way that we indoctrinate individuals into our cultural system as well as reinforce ideals. Since patriarchy is an unnatural system, patriarchy must have myths and stories that we all learn in order for it to survive. • Modern entertainment serves as the storytelling role of our culture. • Stories and movies teach and inform cultural mores. • Stories and movies exemplify cultural stereotypes and gender roles. • Stories and movies can be studied to understand what is happening in the culture at a given time. • The backlash against feminism shows up in films. Many films perpetuate limiting gender roles • bell hooks calls this ‘motivated representation’ - meaning that groups of people are represented in the media in a certain way for a reason • Children spend an average of 2-4 hours of time watching television and movies per day.

3. Modern Films’ Portrayal of Women Research Cited Below from Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media • Women’s inferior position in society is shown by the fact that they comprise only 29.2% of distinct speaking characters in children’s films. • In scenes that show a crowd of people, women on average only comprise 17% of the crowd. • 80% of characters with professional jobs are men in children’s films. • “Contrary to popular belief, there seems to be relatively little change in the percentage of females in family films across roughly 20 years.” • “Hollywood family films include lights, camera, and lack of female action. This is true on-screen as well as behind the camera.” • Modern children’s films represent women in a hyper-sexualized manner. Study examining 4,000 characters in films found that “Females were over five times as likely as males to be shown in sexually revealing clothing” • Women in children’s films spend much time in their homes, focused on being attractive, and trying to lure a man.

4. Patriarchy and the Institution of Motherhood • Patriarchy is a cultural system of male dominance that perpetuates narrow gender roles. • Two main roles women are expected to fulfill in modern American society: • mother • decorative object. • These two main roles include serving males, birthing and caring for children, pleasing males by striving toward an unattainable beauty ideal, putting other's needs first, and learning to seek approval from others. This plays itself out in all aspects of our lives. The institution of motherhood is one aspect of patriarchy that keeps women ‘in their place.’ • Adrienne Rich defines the institution of motherhood as one which "aims at ensuring that [women's powers of reproduction] -and all women - shall remain under male control.” Of Woman Born, Adrienne Rich p. 13 • Patriarchal culture maintains male dominance by making women feel like failures including in their role as women. "The institution of motherhood finds all mothers more or less guilty of having failed their children,” Of Woman Born, Adrienne Rich p.223 • Motherhood is just one example of how women are expected to give to others at the expense of their health, sanity, and own personal goals. Part of the cultural definition of a woman is a person who gives and gives to others and who takes great pleasure in living for others. "Motherhood as institution has ghettoized and degraded female potentialities." Adrienne Rich, p.13, p.13).

5. The Overbearing Mother and the Dangerous Single Woman • Older women are portrayed as jealous of young women. The evil stepmothers and witches of fairytales show this role. • In Tangled, the myth of the desperate, overbearing mother is taught by Gothel. She doesn’t want Rapunzel to have her own life. Disney’s character description says about Gothel is “controlling, manipulative, and over-controlling” • Gothel sings “Mother Knows Best” a song exemplifying ideas of the overbearing mother. “Mother knows best, Listen to your mother, It’s a scary world out there, Mother knows best, One way or another, Something will go wrong, I swear” You can see all the lyrics to the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5JcvXyPlbU&feature=related • Gothel is a single, middle-aged woman. It is frowned upon in patriarchal culture for a woman to be unattached to a man. Words such as ‘spinster’ or ‘old maid’ reflect these stereotypes of an unwanted older woman. Gothel is a witch. So, this perpetuates the idea that older, single women are plotting and scheming

6. Rapunzel – The Beautiful, Domestic Woman • Rapunzel’s character teaches complacency in the domestic role of women. Although her stepmother has relegated Rapunzel to the house and she dreams about the world outside the home, Rapunzel sings a song and happily cleans the house in one of the opening scenes. This teaches women that even if they are in the home, they can happily accept their role and make it fun. • This video shows the lyrics of Rapunzel’s song “When Will My Life Begin”, where she happily cleans while daydreaming about the world outside. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR80IN_OKAQ • Rapunzel is too fearful to leave the house until Flynn Rider, a man, comes into the house. • When she first meets Rider Rapunzel is barefoot. People are usually only barefoot in the home, so this is a symbol of her ties to the home. It goes along with the saying ‘pregnant and barefoot.’ • When Flynn Rider intrudes Rapunzel’s house, her two main weapons are her hair and her pan. She hits him over the head with a pan and she uses her hair to wrap him up. The symbol of a pan (a tool associated with the kitchen) and the hair (a symbol of youth and beauty) reinforcesRapunzel’s strong ties to beauty ideals, youth, and domesticity.

7. Youth and Beauty Ideals • Men hold the power in patriarchy and women’s power is linked to men by serving men, being appealing to men, or mothering men’s children. • Since women’s power is their beauty in patriarchy, there is competition based on appearance among women. Beauty and youth is fleeting. The main characters spend a lot of time on their appearance – thus teaching this behavior to women. • Mothers teach their daughters grooming rituals that emphasize the importance of women’s appearance. Gothel is passes on the idealization of youth to her daughter. • Rapunzel exemplifies beauty ideals with her blonde hair, large eyes, small waist, and thin body. Symbolism of Rapunzel’s long golden hair • The evil stepmother wants to sap Rapunzel’s youthful energy. She needs Rapunzel in order to maintain her youth. Long hair is a sign of youth and health. So, Rapunzel’s hair is like youth treatment for her Stepmother. • Rapunzel beats Flynn Rider with her hair when he intrudes her house. Rapunzel ‘wins’ with her hair. Since long hair represents beauty, Rapunzel wins with her beauty.

8. Sources • http://www.seejane.org/downloads/KeyFindings_GenderDisparityFamilyFilms.pdf • http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/tangled/#/rapunzel/about/ • Rich, Adrienne. Of Woman Born:Motherhood as Experience and Institution. W. W. Norton: New York, 1986.