A Feminist Reading of Moana: A Break of Traditional Gender Roles

Abstract

Movie known as one kind of media which portray reality or social condition and issue. One of many issues in today’s society is women equality. Some Walt Disney’s animated movies should be related to this issue because they depict young women as their protagonists, whom are known as Disney Princesses. Moana is one of them. However, Moana’s main character named Moana is described as a different Disney Princess because of the roles she played. Therefore, this research aimed to show to readers how Moana promotes gender role equality by breaking traditional gender roles. The analysis was done based on Feminism perspective. Focusing on examining the main character’s dialogs, actions, and her interaction with the other characters, this research is a descriptive qualitative study. The findings reveal that Moana promotes gender role equality by presenting a young female protagonist who breaks traditional gender role and some male characters who fail to stick to their gender roles