Describe the podcast
The podcast I listened is from Freakonomics, "Does Hollywood Still Have a Princess Problem" episode 392 produced by Stephen J. Dubner on October 23, 2019. I have been a subscriber of Freakonomics, so I searched up the keyword Disney and Gender in my Apple Podcast, it showed up. This episode is also available online: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/princess/.
Summarize
This podcast is 50 minutes long, talking about Disney and Hollywood movies, and their impacts on gender inequality.
I liked how Dubner’s daughter Anya talked about her perception of Disney princesses, Anya and I are of a similar age, so it is great to hear her opinion. When the host asked what Anya could associate with when he says the word princess. Anya said Beauty. Dubner then asked again, “How about Disney princess?”, “Strict guidelines”, Anya answered. Regarding the movie Beauty and the Beast, Anya had a similar perspective with me, she said she liked Belle because “Bella is a different girl who likes to read books, and it is nice for her because she loves someone despite his (the Beast) appearance,” however, she also mentioned, “people like Belle is still based on the fact that she is beautiful”.
Sarah Coyne, a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University, commented that the gender roles in films are that, “Girls are submissive, passive, really kind and sweet. While boys are assertive and aggressive”. Geena Davis, an actor and founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, mentioned an interesting fact that I also observed in my life, is that people don’t realize there is no discrimination in films, she said, “Many don’t realize it’s a stereotype, telling girls to be more feminism can’t be a stereotype”, and she stated that it is harmful to have such gender guidelines in films, because “stereotype limits the potential”.
What is interesting is that, in part of the podcast, the host focused on talking about Beauty and the Beast, Dubner and his guests also discuss how the development of social construction lead to changes in the 2017 version of the movie. Sean Bailey is the president of the production at Walt Disney Studios, she said they added the elements as followed, “it was really important to, have her try to escape, have her not engage with him. And at a certain point in the movie, he (The Beast) says, ‘Could you ever be happy here?’ And Belle says: ‘Could anyone be happy if they aren’t free?’.
Reflect on the Genre
In the beginning, Dubner used an excerpt of the conversation between Geena Davis and him, to start the podcast. Which did an excellent job in bringing the audience into the topic, sparked our interest and curiosity immediately. After around ten minutes of the conversation, music came in (the introduction music that Dubner used in every episode), and Dunbar introduced his podcast with the topic of this particular episode.
In introducing the other voices, Dubner either inserted the voices of the guest then introduce the guest; or introduced the guest first then started the conversation.
2
The host did not formally conclude his podcast. Instead, the ending music came in at the end of the conversation (in the last two minutes, and the music just covered the last two sentences in the conversation). After that, Dubner changed the music into his old ending music, saying, “Thank you for listening, this is Freakoeconomics…” and ended his podcast by introducing the next episode.
Hi Cuiyao! The first and the second paragraph of your Summary part are really impressive since as you mentioned, princesses and definitions or standards or what you called "strict guidelines" of beauty that princesses gave limit possibilities. I haven't thought about that. I merely thought what aspects and which ways females could be restricted, but obviously, I haven't thought all the way done to how females' future could also be restricted or shaped by such princesses and as what you mentioned "strict guidelines."
Your podcast is very attractive to me, with pictures and a lot of analysis.