When my mother was young, she was fascinated by the beautiful princesses and their love with handsome princes in Disney animated fairy tales. Therefore, she started to become tender and submissive, as in films like Snow White, these qualities help the heroines to solve their plight and get a prince. Then when I was at the age of reading fairy tales, I watched Mulan and dreamed about being a brave and independent heroine since Mulan's courage and wisdom save her father, her army and her country. This contrast shows that as the heroines in fairy tales are rewarded for different characteristics and behaviors, they continuously reshape the understanding of femininity. In the article "Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Message of Gender", Aaron Devor states that "female and male behaviors are the result of socially directed hormonal instructions" (535), and fairy tales are one of the "socially directed hormonal instructions" which promote certain gender behaviors according to social norms. In my mother's time, Disney animated fantasies like Snow White, which depict female roles based on a male-dominant hierarchy, stimulate weak and child-like actions by dependent women. However, as women gained more social power and altered their roles in the home and the workplace, animated fairy tales that reconstruct the idea of femininity and honor independent women who can speak their own minds, like Mulan, also emerged. Thus, by portraying various kinds of heroines, Disney fairy tales play an important role in constructing different conceptions of femininity to enhance female social gender roles in different times. The way it is enhanced is through reward systems, and as social expectations change, the behaviors that get rewarded also change.
             Disney fairy tales transform female gender roles into images of heroines, and the culturally approved characteristics and behaviors of these heroines are r...