A case study of the changing trends in portrayal of societies in the two versions of Disney’s DuckTales.
Cartoons as a staple of youth entertainment are well known for its influential properties, often garnering negative attention over claims about violence and aggression. These influential properties can be attributed to the long hours children ages 8 to 10 are exposed to cartoons, causing them to learn and often mimic the behaviours of characters they most easily identify with (Hentges & Case 2012). For example, boys often gravitate towards male characters with similar interest or cultural background and would begin to adopt the lessons and behave similarly to them. Besides different forms of aggression, cartoons’ depiction of society and the stereotypes that inhabit it also have the same degree of influence on the youth. Continuing the earlier example, boys would understand from cartoons that males have to be masculine and tough in society regardless of consequences. This is important as cartoons’ portrayal of society reinforces negative stereotypes in terms of gender, sexuality and race which would discriminate and further divide the next generation, thus slowing down social progress. In Christensen’s (2017) article, students of certain cultural backgrounds are often excluded from school activities due to the lessons and stereotypes portrayed in cartoons. Regardless, cartoons also portray positive societal stereotypes and would be a viable method of instigating social change by educating the youths about the current values of contemporary society. Hence the aim of this article is to argue that there is a change in the trends in which cartoons portray of society and how it may influence the youth through gender stereotypes being broken and the evolving displays of aggression.
The case study used are episodes 4 and 10 of Disney’s DuckTales cartoon from the 1987 and its 2017 reboot respectively. Episode 4 of the 1987 version covers the story of the triplets, their nanny, pilot and female friend’s rescue of their uncle, Scrooge McDuck while episode 10 of the 2017 reboot covers two stories which includes solving the mystery of the triplet’s missing mother and also Scrooge McDuck’s rivalry with the Greek Gods (Magon 1987 ; Youngberg 2017). By analysing these particular episodes from the two renditions of the same show, a pattern of change can be identified and studied to understand how the values of normative society has adapted in over three decades.
Methodology
This article chooses to focus on these episodes as they are able to parallel each other in terms of tone and character dynamics while portraying the idealistic societies in their respective eras. An analysis of each of the episodes would be carried out followed by a comparison that would identify if the trends have changed or maintained throughout the years. To do this, textual analysis is used in order to understand the messages the cartoons are trying to show and how it may affect the audience. For instance, the portrayal of gender roles and its effect on the youth’s societal views. Furthermore, content analysis would be used in order to analyse the selected episodes of the two cartoons in order to identify the patterns of societal portrayal and how it has changed in over 30 years. For example, finding the frequency in which aggression is used in both episodes. Literature reviews would also be used to further analyse this case study and understand how these changes may affect the youth and society in order to provide academic background to the research.
Findings and Discussion
Breaking Gender Stereotypes
Gender stereotypes are often present in cartoons to allow children to quickly identify and relate to the characters. This can be seen in episode 4 of Ducktales (1987), where the male characters, triplets Huey, Dewey and Louie along with the pilot, Launchpad and their uncle Scrooge McDuck are shown to be more aggressive while not being as smart as their female counterparts by nature. They are allowed to openly ridicule things and people they dislike without consequence. Besides that, as males, they are allowed to resort to violence, often justified though saving the female characters from harm. Even though female characters are portrayed as bossy and annoying, they would use their intellect to overcome obstacles instead of male character’s head-first approach. In the 22 minute episode, the male characters saved the girls three times while the female character saved the group once which is a low 25% occurrence with only one quick praise given to the girls for their help. However, the larger praise is reserved for the male characters as the plans were executed by the guys and the girls ended up being saved again. Youths may interpret this as girls are only there to spout ideas while the guys are meant to be the saviours, causing a disparity between the children’s understanding of their future roles in society.
Contrariwise, episode 10 of DuckTales (2017) breaks these gender roles by allowing the characters to step out of their traditionally assigned molds. Even though aggression is still present and would be further discussed later in this article, the problems were ultimately solved by talking and reaching an understanding by the male characters which is rare in action cartoons where justice can be equated with punches (Baker & Raney 2007). There is also a switch in gender roles as one of the triplets, Dewey, was seen to be cowering in fear while the female lead, Webby was the one to stand bravely, saving and even comforting Dewey throughout the episode as seen in figure 1 (Youngberg 2017, min 9:03). Throughout this episode, the female character saved the male character once while the male characters saved the group another time, which shows that there is a 50% occurance of equal heroic spotlight given to each gender. In addition, aspects of the female characters remain such as being the brains while the male characters still maintain some ideals of brawn over brains, as expressed intently by Dewey at the start of the episode “Stop assuming I know stuff. Like baseline, assume I know nothing.” (Youngberg 2017, min 2:10) However, this is not true for all male characters in the show as Dewey’s older triplet, Huey was shown to think of solutions instead of engaging headfirst while Dewey and even their uncle Donald Duck was able to show vulnerability. These traits are uncommon for male characters in any form of media as the alpha-male stereotype often enforces ideals of emotional inaccessibility (Gillam & Wooden 2008). This big change in gender roles teaches the youth that male characters should be open to vulnerability and female characters are not just damsels in distress.
Figure 1 : Webby comforting Dewey (Youngberg 2017, min 9:03)
With this, it can be analysed that the values of gender roles in society has changed in over 30 years. Even though some traits remain, a push for diversity can be seen such as male characters being smart and diplomatic while the female characters are tougher and more adventurous. This can be interpreted as cartoons slowly moving away from the traditional sense of stoic masculinity to a more emotionally open version of manhood and more self-loving and brave version of femininity. For example, in DuckTales (1987), young girls are thought to be concerned with their looks as one of the female characters commented on another “poor girl really needs a beak job when she grows up”, while in Ducktales (2017), the male character was the one to comment on appearances “This tunic is surprisingly slimming!” (Magon 1987, min 12:50 ; Youngberg 2017, min 9:34). The reason for the slow change is because youth centric networks such as Disney and Cartoon Network tend to reinforce stereotypes based on their target audience in order to retain their attention (Hentges & Case 2012). Due to children finding cartoons more convincing than situations that arise in reality, exaggerated stereotypes are still utilised to increase viewership (Beasich, Leinoff, & Swan cited in Baker & Raney 2007). Despite that, networks are now starting to break gender stereotypes after the initial introduction as this would help influence the youth males to be more open and females to be braver. This is because after the initial push for relatability to garnering the child’s attention, a break in the mold can be applied to educate the youth about the fluidity of societal gender roles. By properly integrating positive stereotypes while still making the characters relatable, the youth would be both enticed and educated (Silva 2016). Hence, there is a change in trends of gender representation in cartoons in order to influence the youth to achieve a more emotionally balanced society.
b) Displays of Aggression
Aggression in cartoons have been present since its inception and shows no signs of slowing down as it is one of the driving factors that sparks youths interest (Coyne & Whitehead 2008). Aggression can be portrayed in many ways such as indirect and direct aggression where indirect aggression can include discrimination, sarcasm, insults and gossiping (Coyne & Whitehead 2008). DuckTales (1987) showed the boys actively ridiculing the female characters for being annoying and weak, as seen in figure 2, while also encouraging to use violence in order to solve their problems and later rewarded for it. In the episode, indirect aggression was used 18 times while direct aggression was applied 9 times. As stated by Luther and Legg Jr. (2010), children quickly learn and adopt acts that will either be rewarded or have no consequences, thus inducing them to mimic passive aggressive behaviours as they perceive it to be an acceptable manner in society. The female characters on the other hand were not given such luxuries as their quips and sarcastic remarks are only met with negative responses such as them being bossy or annoying. This shows that even though indirect violence is used by both genders in cartoons, males are often rewarded for it, hence encouraging this behavior further while females are thought to remain docile and accept the verbal or physical bullying that is targeted towards them.
Figure 2: The triplets openly insult the Webby (Magon 1987, min 3:41)
Both direct and indirect aggression are still prominently portrayed in the 2017 version and the female lead’s participation is met with the same response as the male characters. Throughout the episode, indirect aggression was portrayed 22 time while direct aggression was shown 11 times. This finding is shocking as the frequency of aggression displayed has increased, especially in terms of indirect aggression. Moreover, any form of aggression that was applied by the characters were shown to not accomplish the goals but lead to delays, as can be seen in the two storylines portrayed in the episode which are the fights between one of the triplets, Dewey and the female lead, Webby, and also the competitions between Donald Duck and the Greek Gods. The 2017 version makes it clear to the audience that being humble and having open discussions until an understanding is reached is the prime way of solving problems. Despite that, aggression is still not openly punished, instead it is just put aside as a character trait or a momentary conflict. Therefore, the trend of rewarding aggressions is coming to an end, even if consequences to the aggression remains unaddressed, while talking and understanding is now a more sought out ability in contemporary society.
The differences in amount of aggression used in the two versions are staggering as they show that not much has changed in terms of methods used to garner audience attention. Even so, the youths are still largely influenced by relatable characters rather than violent events (Coyne & Whitehead 2008). Moreover, the 2017 cartoon chose to include scenes where the characters apologised to each other for being mean such as when Dewey returned to apologise for calling a monster ugly while the 1987 cartoon did nothing in similar circumstances. DuckTales (1987) allowed the triplets to realise their mistake for their indirect aggression towards the female characters, but nothing was done in spite of that. As Albert Bandura studied, youths quickly understands through observational learning that aggression is often followed by rewards as depicted in cartoons, thus enforcing such behaviour as it is portrayed more frequently compared to the scenes of apology and discussion (cited in Luther and Legg Jr. 2010). Nevertheless, the change in minor trend of aggression may lead audiences of the 2017 cartoon to learn the value in open discussions rather than DuckTales’ (1987) portrayal of aggression being the only means to an end.
To conclude, the case study of the two versions of the DuckTales cartoons have shown that there is a change in the trend that cartoons portray society. This can be seen through the ways the two versions of the cartoons handle issues such as gender stereotypes and aggression. Thus showing that the values in society has evolved and the cartoons aim to educate the youths about it. For instance, DuckTales (2017) emphasizes more on an open and more vulnerable version of masculinity while having strong and smart female leads while the 1987 version showcased the need for men to save the women and have the right to discriminate them for it. Even so, the comparison between the case study subjects have also objected the argument that there is a change in trend as aggression, whether it be indirect or direct is still heavily present in the two cartoons. Regardless, the 2017 version did educate the youths on the idea that having open discussions and apologising for your mistakes is more important as compared to the 1987 version which neglected to portray this aspect to the youths. It may be suggested that future research can be conducted on audience reception while also conducting further study on the emphasis on individualism that is more inherent in DuckTales (2017) than in DuckTales (1987). Nevertheless, it can be argued that there is a change in trend of cartoons’ portrayal of society in order to further educate the youths.
(2199 words)
References
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