Gender Stereotypes in Brave Movie (2012)

Abstract

Gender stereotypes are a set of beliefs and expectations about the appropriate characteristics of women and men visible not only in daily activities but also in literary works such as movies. This study aims to (a) prove the presence of gender stereotypes in the Disney movie “Brave” produced by Pixar in 2012, (b) observe how the discursive practice influences the writers to produce them, and (c) determine why social contexts influence the emergence of gender stereotypes in the movie. The data in this study are in the form of clauses containing gender stereotypes presented in utterances performed by the characters. The method used is qualitative using Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of critical discourse analysis as the main approach. The results show that (a) gender stereotypes are present in “Brave” and portrayed through clauses uttered by the characters, (b) the social backgrounds of the writers influence the emergence of gender stereotypes in the movie, and (c) the arising of gender stereotypes in “Brave” is influenced by the social context when and where the movie was produced.