Further Reading: The Illusion of "Identity" by Sean Griffin (1994)

I decided to read further into Gender Identities, not only because I am interested in what people have to say on this topic, but because it would benefit my creative response. 

Unlike live-action, Animation is not grounded in the actual physicality of a live being. Instead animated figures are capable of transforming at the "whim of the animator" and are able to do anything and everything they want to. In the 1930s however, Disney began to develop their own way of animating, which involved creating very realistic human forms and movements, which gave the "illusion of life" to their viewers. The method of Rotoscoping helped Disney to achieve this realism in some of their animations.

Disney also began to develop the twelve principles of animation, one of which being "appeal". Because the use of Rotoscoping would retract from the character's appeal, they would touch up on the drawings to emphasise on the movements being captured. This worked for a lot of their female characters in their early days, and were able to create characters that were very appealing, even if they weren't necessarily representative, as I have discovered whilst writing my essay. They were however, less successful with the males. This could be due to the fact that a lot of the main male characters were pushed aside to make way for the female protagonist. For example, in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Prince Charming is very "wooden" as a lot of the focus was on Snow White, and apparently the studio didn't have time to rework his character before the film's release.  Prince Charming also doesn't have a lot of screen time so you don't have a lot of time to appreciate the character and to see his appeal, or lack of as it would suggest.

Having said this, Disney were very successful at creating appeal for their male characters in their 1992 film, Aladdin. It has been argued that the film has not been accurately representative of the race portrayed in this animation, but has been said to be an "enlightened feature" that has used animation to "further  the decentering of white heterosexual patriarchy". On the other hand it has been argued that in the attempt of overthrowing the system to deconstruct identity there has been a number of faults concerning "social constructionism". For example, the Genie - voiced by Robin Williams - shape shifts into many different characters including some caricatures of famous celebrities, different species, as well as dressing in drag. His transformations and his personality are obviously flaunted and this gives the character masses of appeal, but if the viewers aren't aware of the performativity that is being portrayed, then they may read this performance as "true". This point is emphasised when we return to the point that Disney create very realistic human forms and movements, and lack exaggeration as they focus purely on "the illusion of life". Due to this, some viewers may not see the joking nature of some scenes. 

To summarise, it is hard to "find a safe place from which to speak or create any sort of representation that is not attacked for being 'politically incorrect' in some manner" which Aladdin is a great example of. However, the exaggeration of human forms can help to create appeal and get across to the viewer the performativity of the animation. This is something I can and will bear in mind when it comes to designing my future characters, especially if I am dealing with a touchy subject such as Gender Identity.