Gender Roles in Disney's Alice in Wonderland

Growing up as a girl in Midwestern America, I always loved Alice in Wonderland. One of my favorite Disney movies, I loved Alice's adventurous nature and the colorful friends she met along her journey through Wonderland. Unlike some of the other movies of my childhood such as The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast, Alice had no inclination to find her way to Prince Charming. She instead embraced a childlike curiosity that got her both into trouble and out of it. The gender roles played out in Disney's newer, live action version of Alice in Wonderland are a bit different than both Caroll's original book and Disney's original film, however.

The fact that the new Alice in Wonderland features a much older Alice, on the verge of marriage, exposes a bit of our society's infatuation with portraying a much "older" image as favorable (can kids just not be kids anymore?) This idea of marriage helps exemplify the gender roles present, however. There is much pressure on Alice to not only marry the geeky red-headed aristocrat, but his mother also assumes she will fill her proper gender role by spouting off all of his dietary needs at the very start of the film. Alice seems to go along with it at first, but later catches her sister's husband cheating-this seems to be the turning point in her attitude, and possibly the cause of her running away after the proposal.

It is important to note that within Alice in Wonderland most of the leadership roles are fulfilled by women-the Queen of Hearts is, of course, the particularly brutal ruler. The White Queen, on the other hand, is the softer, feminine queen that is slowly gaining discreet support. The gender roles of these two queens are very important, especially when you take into consideration the effect their predicament has on Alice. The Queen of Hearts demonstrates that in order to get ahead you must take on a violent and fear-inducing persona-traditionally masculine in our society. The White Queen embraces no such violence, and states a few times within the film that acting violently is "against her vows." However, she has no qualms sending others to do her dirty work-hence sending Alice to slay the Jabberwocky (cutting off his head, no less).

Though the main leadership roles of Alice in Wonderland are held by females, it seems the "brains behind the operation" in both cases happen to fall with men-the Red Knight for the Red Queen, and most ironically the Mad Hatter for the White Queen. This gives the gender roles an interesting place. The Red Queen is comically shown to be quite stupid-and rather naïve as well. The manipulative Knight rules Wonderland through the Queen. The White Queen may be the ruling figurehead trying to rise up in power, but it is the Mad Hatter that leads and organizes the resistance against the Red Queen. Really, the White Queen does little other than stand as a symbol.

I commended the makers of Alice in Wonderland at first for allowing the White Queen to retain her femininity, but it was because of her particular lack of action that I was a bit saddened. She needed Alice to save her kingdom and stand as her "champion," but again, Alice had to take on masculine traits in order to do this.

Now, I have no problems with females embracing courage within children's movies. Empowering girls is a great action to take, but I feel at the same time that it is a bit archaic that in order to succeed one must take on masculine characteristics. In this way, the gender roles within Alice in Wonderland are a bit hegemonic in nature-perpetuating the idea of "masculine" as ideal in our society. This ideal is perpetuated in the end of the film. I loved that Alice did not end up marrying, and became a part of the company her father left behind-a positive message showing that Alice indeed has the adventurous nature of her father. But forsaking the traditional female gender role to embrace a more masculine version also isn't the answer.

What would have been the proper ending for Alice in Wonderland? There is no easy answer here. I don't believe that the ending was improper, or sexist. It is obviously attempting to empower young girls to seek new horizons, which I entirely support. My suggestion is perhaps to not make the contrast between feminine and masculine quite so sharp. It shouldn't be "settle down and be a housewife" vs. "adventure with your father's trade route and see the world, after slaying a hideous creature." Gender roles today should be much more fluid in their interpretation, I believe. Why such a stark dichotomy between masculine and feminine within Alice in Wonderland, as well as our own culture? I'm not saying we should perpetuate historical female gender roles, but we shouldn't demonize them either. The point is to consider all gender attributes to be equal, and just as likely within every person. Alice in Wonderland does a good job of showing females embracing masculine characteristics (in both positive and negative ways), but they do little in showing men with fluid gender roles, positively embracing typically female gender attributes.

I think Alice in Wonderland made a good effort at empowering young girls to overcome their traditional gender roles to broaden horizons. I believe by giving the White Queen highly feminine traits, and the Red Queen negatively violent traits, we see a step in the right direction in getting away from idealized aggressive masculine traits. Though there are some obvious issues, I would say Alice in Wonderland did a relatively good job in promoting healthy gender roles to the youth of our culture. But more work is still yet to be done.