Context Of Practice: 3000 word essay

Adele Pierce
Context of Practise

Write a semiotic analysis of a series of related illustrations. As semiotic texts what sort of reality do these illustrations construct and how do they do so'?

Walt Disney has created many fairytales princesses, of which follow a certain creative structural format. This essay will evaluate how they are perceived from a feminist perspective and focus on how successful these female characters are in fulfilling their duties as role models to children. It will also explore the cultural codes of fairytales; how the female character created within fairytales follows a certain format that is recognizable to people and also the connotations and denotations behind the ‘Princess’ image. This will be done by analyzing illustrations based on these roles; the use of semiotic codes and myths within illustrations, supporting this notion of the ‘ideal’ woman.

Generally, fairytale quests involve a vulnerable young female character, for example Little Red Riding Hood lost in the woods, with a wolf hiding behind a tree ready to pounce at her or again, Cinderella sat by the fire scrubbing the floors under the orders of her wicked step-mother. These are supported by the cultural codes commonly used within fairytales to represent a weak female role that requires a savior in the form of a strong dominant male. Within these types of illustrations the Princesses are often portrayed as getting themselves into danger, for example Little Red Riding Hood is warned by her mother not to stray from the path, which can be suggested as symbolic of what is valued most in this patriarchal society: a heterosexual relationship. In order for a woman to be safe, she must follow the conventional path her mother has, to avoid being attacked by a wolf. The characters are often ‘seen and not heard’, imprisoned in towers, to protect them from all dangers. Daniel Chandler’s ‘Semiotics: The Basics’ states “The power of such myths is that they ‘go without saying’ and so appear not to need to be deciphered, interpreted or demystified.” This is true of fairytales with the employment of codes we do not question, or challenge the misguidance of the image and ideals that are offered. What we know to be a typical ‘Cinderella’ image is apparent to us by the use of codes and signs within the image so that immediately we recognize it as what we know by myth ‘complex sign-systems which generate further ideological signs’ – agreed by a social consensus.

Chandler also added 'Discourses of gender are among the ‘explanatory’ cultural frameworks which have been interpreted by some cultural semioticians as myths or mythologies.' Here, Chandler is suggesting that the myths (fairytales) provide a framework that gender roles adhere to, which imbibes children at an early age of development, of what their purpose is. Marcel Danes also explores myths within fairytales in ‘Of Cigarettes, high heels, and other interesting things – an introduction to semiotics.’ 'Folktales, legends, fairy tales, and fables are the narrative descendants of myth. Similar to myth, these do not mirror what happens: they explore reality and predict what can happen.' 'Fairytales hold a strange magical appeal over every child, no matter what age.' As children grow up reading fairy tales, they are fixated on the notion of happiness being a struggle to achieve. Happiness never comes simply in fairytales; there is always a time schedule or someone to battle against or even the idea of escapism before reaching the ultimate ‘happy ever after.’

In this illustration (fig. 1) by Arthur Rackham we see a young female clasping her hands together by the window as if waiting for someone to come and rescue her. She is dressed in rags, a code often used when representing the clothes of Cinderella. After all she is named after ‘cinders,’ implying she sat in dirt and worth nothing more than burnt-out ash. In order to enhance this filthy appearance the illustrator has used dull tones that almost look as if his brush too was not clean when applying these colors. The colors mix together to create a lot of grey tones within her skin and clothing - it certainly does not portray a strong female that takes pride in her appearance. Looking out of the window we get a sense of longing, and possibility of hope that she may be rescued from her surroundings, which appear to be most uncomfortable – the hard wooden floors against her bare feet. The illustrator is playing on the idea of the ‘damsel in distress’ and a sense of urgency to be freed from these surroundings. However; in true Cinderella style she would not be recognized dressed like this; it takes a fairy, a miracle, and magic to transform her in order to achieve the life she strives for. This miracle also comes with a time limit for added pressure on which she must convince the Prince she is worthy. Rackham portrays Cinderella as an innocent figure, her wispy hair, pure porcelain white skin, her posture and frame suggesting she is a shy, harmless character and is extremely vulnerable reflecting all signs that as a culture are recognized when visualizing Cinderella. The denotation of this image is a vulnerable female character looking out of the window in search of rescue from her surroundings. The image connotes a vulnerable female unable to fend for herself and seek her own freedom but rather relying on the aid of someone else (a male) to escape the nightmare she is living and live ‘happily ever after’. This also connotes women waiting for a chance of happiness.

‘Representation in visual culture is inevitably bound up with ideology. Representation both reveals ideological belief but, it could also be said that representation in visual culture informs and constructs our beliefs and ideas on society’ – Danesi. How we perceive the character of Cinderella is made up of all the codes throughout the years from illustrators, film, books all of these image makers that stick to the same pattern in order to portray the representation of this character so that we recognize her as an innocent, young, hard-working vulnerable female. For example, many illustrations show Cinderella sat by the fire looking miserable or scrubbing the kitchen floors. All of these codes create an ideology, which ‘shapes our understanding’ of what this character should be and this is not questioned. However, it is questioned what this character represents in a modern day society in terms of being a role model. Are we telling our children in order to achieve ‘happiness’ we need a sense of miracle or rescue? Would this bring true happiness? We never see the reality of the female role within fairytales such as divorce, adultery or other problems that could be faced in romantic life. This fulfills the definition of a myth, yet still modern society strives for the ‘ideal relationship’. Prince William and Kate Middleton for example is a real life Cinderella story. A lot of women today could only ever dream of the real life fairytale but we don’t see the complications that comes with that relationship because it is private and kept away from the public eye. After the happily ever after will be the struggle and pressure Kate has living in the public eye and adapting to life within the royal family. Kate is made to fit the representation of how we would wish a Princess to be. Furthermore, Kate was made out to be a ‘rags to riches’ figure, but she actually came from a very wealthy background with a good family and education.

A film poster from 2011 for Red Riding Hood (fig. 2) whereby Amanda Seyfried poses as the young innocent female draped in red within the middle of the dark scary woods alone, highlights how fairytale codes are still being used today. “Codes are ‘organizational systems or grids’ for the recurring elements and go into the constitution that humans make” – Marcel Danesi.
This image also includes representation. Ferdinand De Saussure drew attention to the fact that representation relies on a ‘shared cultural knowledge’ for understanding to be fulfilled. Is it not our understanding as a culture that Red Riding Hood should be seen in a red cape, in the middle of the woods, looking scared and alone and in danger? This poster ticks each of those boxes and emphasises them. This is done by adding imagery of blood splatters suggesting death. According to Danesi red connotates ‘ blood, passion, sexuality, fertility, fecundity, anger, sensuality.’ The image maker sets the scene within the snow, which suggests that Red Riding Hood is not dressed for the weather; therefore will be freezing cold emphasising her porcelain skin. White skin as Danesi would evaluate represents ‘purity, innocence, virtuous, chastity, goodness, decency.’ The background of the image is black which connates ‘evil’ at night which again adds to the danger as she is sat cradled on the floor. She is looking up to the camera so the viewer feels they are the dominant one, dangerous, looking down on her – the victim. Had this been a different camera angle and Red Riding Hood was dressed in this bloody cape looking down at us, we would feel endangered and that she is infact capable of murder and a powerful female role. Something as simple the composition here completely enhances our understanding of the character. The text ‘Believe the legend’ once again brings to light this idea of beliefs. Why do we chose to believe in fairytales? Who creates these ideologies by which the viewer are so emotionally impacted? Red Riding Hood once again in need of a strong dominant male to free her from this situation she has found herself in as she attracts danger; standing out from her surroundings in the bright red cape. This poster summarises the myth of Red Riding Hood. The basic ‘ingredients’ needed in order to make a representation of the character, with the reoccuring elements most fairytale illustrations or images have that are the predictable aspects of how Red Riding Hood should look and behave.

When looking into fairytale illustrations it appears some modern day representations of the Disney Princess (fig. 3) which plays on the idea of ‘role models’ were portrayed by using celebrities and fashion influences. For example, in 2013 one illustrator Michelle Moricci shows Disney Princesses as if they were behaving like Miley Cyrus – a female pop singer and role model for young girls today that has caused a lot of contreversy with her nudity and sexual behaviour. A complete contrast to the traditional codes used when representing the princess myth. However, it is rather humorous because it is a more realistic, modern view of women today and how women are sexualising themselves and becoming more adherent to standing out and making a statement in order to be seen. It goes back to this notion of Cinderella with the two ugly sisters doing their upmost to fit the bill - often in traditional books seen chopping off their toes just to squeeze into the glass slipper. To what extent are women willing to change for a man?

In 1970, Shulamith Firestone produced The Dialectic of Sex, one of the seminal works of second-wave feminism. In chapter seven "The Culture of Romance," Firestone asserts that Romanticism ensures women’s position in society as second-class citizens. Romanticism, she asserts, is comprised of 'Eroticism,' 'Sex-privatization' and 'The Beauty Ideal.' Romanticism combined asserts the male desire to play the gentleman (usually, by doing things the woman can do for herself like holding the door open), giving women a sense of false-flattery, encourage women to become individuals, paradoxically by doing what makes her the same as every other girl (dying hair, losing weight, getting plastic surgery) and discourage women from developing real character - thus making men appear more irreplaceable. 'The Beauty Ideal' has one specific purpose: 'it is designed to keep the majority out.' Firestone asserts that just when women begin to achieve the ideal, when they've had the plastic surgery, dyed their hair, stained their skin, the beauty ideal changes (to a naturally unattainable figure) to maintain the system. It can be argued fairytales contain codes that emphasize this notion of ‘ideal beauty’ and how women should react within society – especially towards men.

The Princess archetype imposes an ideal of beauty upon children; through the introduction of illustrations, films and books and children often admire these characters as role models. The media plays on this and we see children emulating the Princesses by buying their outfits, purchasing toy characters and recreating this ‘ideal world’ themselves. But what exactly is ‘happy ever after’? Is it the reliance that a Prince will come and save us from our tower, put a glass slipper on our foot and whisk us off into the sunset? One of the most well known fairytales, Cinderella, questions the idea of beauty. Every woman in the town was invited to a ball whereby they were made to look their best in order to impress the Prince. Why did Cinderella go through all of that effort of completely transforming herself in order to please a man? This subtly suggests that if she turned up in her usual rags, the ‘happily ever after’ ending would not have happened. Could she not be a Princess if she was just her usual self? This could potentially induce a complex in children who idolize these princesses. It also instills that anyone can look like this if they worked hard enough towards transformation, which could induce damaging behaviors such as eating disorders. It could then be argued that illustrators or any image-makers of these characters should be presenting a more positive message within their work, such as maintaining a sense of independence as a strong woman in society into these children’s stories. It is interesting to evaluate ‘ugly’ roles within fairytales too; for example the ‘ugly sisters’ in Cinderella, which sends the message that being ‘ugly’ or not beautiful is a bad trait, an evil one.

These illustrations are succesful in raising that question to society. It is asif they are purposely challenging the stereotypical view of the Disney Princess , but also it supports this notion that women have to sexualise ourselves to men for success. These illustrations go against the ideology of how the usual Disney princess is seen; it is never expected to see them dressed provocatevly and having fun. Using such bright colours enhances this play and it is a strong message being delivered about happiness as a female within society today against the relevance of fairytales.
‘ We do encourage our children’s fantasies; we tell them to paint what they want, or to invent stories, but unfed by our common fantasy heritage the folk fairytale, the child cannot invent stories on his own which help him cope with life’s problems’ Bruno Bettelheim – ‘The Uses of Enchantment’. This questions the power of fairytales as influence to children today and whether they affect them mentally or support and guide them through life and the issues they may face. It also highlights the impact that the fairytale has, and illustrators creating these images have the responsibility of how these images will be viewed and the effect they will have.

James Finn Garner’s ‘Politically Correct Bedtime stories’ is a fantastic example of how fairytales are not true to life, and how over the year’s women have become less dependent on men and gained a sense of dominance, almost to the point of role reversal. If fairytales were created today this is how they would be written. “I find your sexist remark offensive in the extreme, but I will ignore it because of your traditional status as outcast from society.” James Finn Garner creates a story whereby the woman here solves her problems with the wolf independently and finds it offensive that a male thinks he can save her. “How dare you assume that womyn and wolves can’t solve their own problems without a man’s help!” The story ends with the Grandma chopping the male’s head off; and little Red Riding hood, Grandma and the wolf coming to a housing agreement living together after feeling a ‘certain commonality of purpose’ - a much more influential message for children of today’s society.

However, it must be said that fairytales are improving equal gender roles by providing female characters with more power and dominance. For example, Walt Disney’s 2010 advertising film poster for ‘Tangled’ (fig. 4) shows a far more dominant role of women than seen in previous fairytales. It still incorporates the stereotypical Rapunzel codes of the girl’s long hair and being trapped in a tower by her wicked Step Mother role; but in terms of being freed she has just as much to offer the Prince in return of her price of freedom. There’s a sense of balance, she has something the Prince wants and bargains with him - they both need each other. In the Tangled posters we get the sense that the ‘Rapunzel’ character is the heroine. However it still includes codes that are similar to the traditional fairytale structure such as her magic being limited once her hair is chopped off she then becomes vulnerable, but it gives a real sense of power from this character and determination to succeed individually. This is feel is a far more effective lesson to be passing on in terms of folklore, tales, and stories to teach children in today’s society.

“Barthes suggests in Mythologies that ideology is a condition of false consciousness promoted through fictions.” False consciousness is not really awake thinking or real world, which is what fairytales are they are, a tale, they are not true to life – so why are we so lead by them within our life and strive to achieve the same goals as the fairy Princesses?
To conclude there seems to be an underlying logic behind the system of representation of gender. A format by which fairytales adhere to in order to plant seeds in our brains when looking at the images that we find recognizable. This is due to pre-existing cultural codes that as a society we have accepted to be true.
James Finn Garner wrote, “Red Riding Hood, however, was confident enough in her own budding sexuality that such Freudian imagery did not intimidate her.” Should this powerful approach towards being a Princess not be explored much more in order to create more of a reality and prepare children for life’s real issues? I feel as a woman that images such as this ‘Tangled’ poster for the Disney film is more relatable and influential than that of the original image of Cinderella in rags awaiting her Prince.
“Parents wish to believe that if a child sees them as Stepmother’s, witches or giants, this has nothing to do with them and how they at moments appear to the child, but is only the result of tales he has heard. These parents hope that if their child is prevented about learning of such figures, he will not see his own parents in this image.” ‘Uses of enchantment’ – Bruno Bettelheim here questions how fairytales tie into parenting skills and the scary dominant roles of women that mothers wish to not teach their children in case they view them as the same. This is an interesting approach to the effect fairy tales have on children. Bettelheim talks of other fairy tales such as Hansel and Gretel and the role of women within this - tying it to neglect. For example, the mother being ‘source of all food to the children’ and how children feel disappointment and abandonment when reading Hansel and Gretel to find they too have been betrayed by such a motherly image. “A weak father is of little use to Snow White as he was to Hansel and Gretel. The frequent appearance of such figures suggests that wife-dominated husbands are not exactly new to this world”- an interesting take on strong dominant female roles within fairytales.
‘Myths function as a ‘metaphysical knowledge system’ for explaining human origins and actions. And this system is the one we instinctively resort to even today for imparting knowledge of the world initially to children. But even in contemporary adult life, the mythic personification of natural events continues to be an instinctual strategy for making sense of things.’ – Danesi’s Understanding Media Semiotics reminding us the impact fairytales have. Illustrators produce images for a purpose, to evoke emotion and execute an interesting concept – what are fairytale illustrations trying to subconsciously tell us about the role of women?

Figure 1.