Many Mickey Mouse cartoons feature the so-called Sensational Six, including Mickey Mouse himself, his girlfriend Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy and Pluto. These are the most popular and loved characters of Disney animation (The Disney Wiki, n.d.). Sub-series under the primary franchise Mickey Mouse feature Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck as protagonists. Donald Duck also has his own series entitled Don Donald. The majority of the Sensational Six consists of male characters with the only exception of Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck. Therefore, there are a number of discourses around gender stereotypes in Mickey Mouse cartoons (Mithun, 2022).
For years, around 90% of all character adventures have been led by male protagonists. In terms of Mickey Mouse cartoons, Mickey, Donald Duck and Goofy are at the lead of the adventures, while female characters play a supportive role that would not be able to exist without their male counterparts. Since the male characters are portrayed as smart and adventurous, this gives them privileges and a great interest of the public. By contrast, Minnie Mouse is portrayed as a housewife spending her time in the kitchen or cleaning the house (Mithun, 2022).
Another stereotypical portrayal of characters is the use of colours. Female characters are dressed in pink, purple or pastel colours that are considered to be traditionally representative of the female gender. By contrast, male characters take all the punchy colours: red, green and blue (Mithun, 2022). Paul Wells in his book Understanding Animation refers to the similar design of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Both characters are drawn the same way, but in order to differentiate Minnie from Mickey the designers used a number of stereotypical features to define her femininity. She has long eyelashes and wears lace underwear, a skirt with a high waist and high heeled shoes in a pink colour (Wells, 1998). The same approach has also been applied in the design of Donald and Daisy Duck. All of these characteristics dictate the traditional gender norms where males are strong and rational, while women are delicate and emotional and support their partners, taking care of the household (Kincaid & Malcom, 2023).
The traditional feminine portrayal of Minnie Mouse in Mickey Mouse cartoons both in the early (1928-1935) and modern era (2013-2019) has remained essentially unchanged. Even though Disney made efforts to modernise their princess characters and has given credit to the importance of gender in their cartoons, they did not make any changes in Minnie Mouse. It can therefore be said that the Sensational Six perpetuate traditional gender stereotypes (Kincaid & Malcom, 2023).
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