The popular Disney Princess line includes nine films (e.g., Snow White, Beauty and the Beast) and over 25,000 marketable products. Gender role depictions of the prince and princess characters were examined with a focus on their behavioral characteristics and climactic outcomes in the films. Results suggest that the prince and princess characters differ in their portrayal of traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics, these gender role portrayals are complex, and trends towards egalitarian gender roles are not linear over time. Content coding analyses demonstrate that all of the movies portray some stereotypical representations of gender, including the most recent film, The Princess and the Frog. Although both the male and female roles have changed over time in the Disney Princess line, the male characters exhibit more androgyny throughout and less change in their gender role portrayals.

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Ethnography offers many potential benefits to family researchers, such as providing on‐the‐ground knowledge of the contexts that affect family functioning and processes. This article describes ethnographic methods and reviews how they have been and may be used in family research, whether alone or in combination with more traditional approaches. The author's fieldwork experiences are used to discuss some of the rewards and challenges of ethnography. The ways in which issues of personal identity and power may impact the relationship between the ethnographer and research participants are examined. Also discussed are the ways in which contemporary constructions of private and public space and time affect the ethnographic process. The goal of the article is to highlight the value of ethnography to family research and to increase awareness of some of the factors to be considered while planning such work.

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