Monday, August 21, 2017
Can Disney fix its broken “Princess Culture”?
Salon.com: Historically, Disney princesses have exposed girls to stereotypical notions at a young age of what it means to be a woman. Their understandings of their own femininity have been, and continue to be, shaped by the “role models” they’ve been provided by the House that Mickey Built: the iconic damsel in distress Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, the woman asleep for most of her narrative, and so on.
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I think there has been a definite improvement in the messages girls get from Disney princesses when you compare the earlier movies to more recent ones. To be fair, given that they started with Snow White, a character whose personality can mostly be described as nice, whose main interest appears to be cleaning, and whose entire plot arch is being saved by a prince. In comparison, Moana is a future leader who breaks tradition to save her people by enlisting the help of a reluctant and egotistical demigod. And more importantly, Moana is a complex person who along with being smart and strong is also afraid and not necessarily sure of what to do. I think the core of the problem is when Disney princesses are portrayed as some form perfection rather than as complex people. This is obviously worse when that idea of perfection is problematic (submissive, unambitious, dependent, etc.) but it also becomes a problem when people push too hard toward the idea of a “strong woman” and make her so brave and strong and confident that she becomes unrealistic. I think Disney is doing a better job of creating more diverse (both in terms of ethnicity and personality) group of realistic princesses, and I hope they continue to push themselves to fix the problem they created with the ideals presented by the earlier princesses.
Salon's article, "Can Disney fix its broken 'Princess Culture'?" highlights the new dilemma that main steam culture and media is coming to terms with: how can we reverse the damaged socializing of the genders? What the article says is true, girls are taught from an extremely young age that being thin and pretty and liking pink are all much more acceptable than wanting to go outside and climb a tree and play soccer with the boys. Today, many big companies, Disney included, have begun to realize their part in this socializing, and have tried to start reversing it with ads, storylines, etc. that focus instead on girls doing more "boy-ish" things, and that being acceptable. But then where does that leave the girls who find within themselves a true love for playing pretend as princesses or baking with their families or making up fun hairstyles? Solely switching one gender stereotype for the opposite does not reverse gender socializing. It still makes people stuck between either being a "tom boy" or a "girly girl". There must be another way for our society to show young girls that they can do whatever, be whatever they want to do or be without any issue of what will be acceptable at that time.
In a gender studies course my sophomore year I had the opportunity to do a full-length research paper on this exact topic. The problematic effects of the Disneyfication of the childhood experience are pretty clear and have been extensively researched. One of the more disturbing points that I came across in my research but that this article does not mention is the nature "sexual" content, such as it is, in Disney Princess movies and particularly the relationship of sexualization and race. One of the authors whose material I used framed the True Love's Kiss in Disney Princess movies as the physical culmination of a romantic attraction between a man and a woman. In other words, in that universe, The Kiss can be translated as intercourse. In the Classic Era Disney Princess movies two out of three of the princesses are unconscious when their prince kisses them. Beyond the negative implications of that, there is also the issue that Disney princesses and heroines of racial minorities tend to be far more sexualized than the white ones. For example, Jasmine was the first princess of a racial minority and Jafar was the first villain who's had sexual urges as a motivator in his storyline. Overall although significant progress has been in Disney's representation of women, their content is by no means problem free, and their earlier content is still pervasive in our culture.
This article brought up an interesting point. It brought up how pop culture and international brands like Disney effects out everyday life and influences our societal norms. Showing how the princes effect has affected young children’s social and body images proves how impressionable the mind of children are and the minds of society as a whole. The debate that could be brought up with this is, does Disney need to be more careful and be held to a higher standard regarding their content because their target audience is young children and the minds of the future generation. TO this I would say yes. Disney does need to be careful with the image they present in their characters than other companies for example Paramount, who targets generally an older audience. Like the article said, Disney has gotten better over time with providing good role models in their characters for young children to idealize. This is becoming increasingly important as media becomes more prevalent in children’s lives than any other generation.
Coming from the background of an all girls high school, as well as serving as a nanny for two young girls and their brother for the past four years, I have been able to experience feminist movements as a strongly opinionated member of them, as well as seeing the effects that campaigns such as Girl Up have on their intended audience. There is already a change in message from when I was their age. The difference in messages received from the traditional plain, but pretty, princess whose life revolves around love and marriage and characters like Merida, Elsa, and Moana is really quite impressive. The goal to remind young women that they are capable of being leaders full of independence and power is received well and clearly by today’s audience. The girls that I have cared are always pretending that they are on quests, adventures, and the heroes of their own stories, which is traditionally the role of the male prince or knight. Disney’s efforts are clear and effective in their new campaigns; however, they were a part of enforcing a massive stigma towards girl’s being bold and independent, and it will take a lot of effort to rectify that. Disney also needs to work towards representing different gender and sexual identities and disabilities.
I think this is just one small portion of a very large cultural norm about young girls. I do not like the idea that this article thinks that their is something broken with culture. Culture is not something that can be snapped in half and broken, it is a flexible idea that comes from groups of people. Culture is what it is, if it is something that is not liked - that does not mean it is broken and needs fixed, it means it needs to adapt to the newer changing times. I think that the classical Disney princesses have good intentions, especially for the time they were created in. Now as our world and culture is evolving Disney is changing the way they show princesses and I think it is great, and again has good intentions. I'm sure that in another 50 years were going to look back on the current Disney princesses like Moana and being saying they have flaws in what they are teaching children as well. Culture continues to change, and huge companies like Disney do have a lot of influence.
This article leaves me with mixed feelings, mostly good ones. First off, I am impressed and excited for the advances in gender roles that Disney has decided to take on in response to correcting their initial mistakes of solidifying the ideal female princess. This article highlights at the beginning the tragic influence that the female princesses have had on young girls but takes on a more uplifting mood as it discusses Disney's promotion of loving who you are inside and out. I also feel that Disney might be a bit hard on themselves for thinking they caused such an awful standard, and I am not denying they did, for the first set of Disney Princess movies, such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, etc., definitely depict an unrealistic depiction of the female character and body; however, I am impressed by their most recent movies that encourage young girls to be outspoken and different. They are still working on the body image of a "perfect girl", but I believe the video attached to the article did a good job of conveying the effects that the smart, enthusiastic, strong princesses such as Moana, Meredith, Tiana, and Mulan have had on young girls.
I am extremely skeptical of Disney as a corporation. In fact, I am skeptical of corporations in general. As mentioned in the article, this newfound emphasis on the strength that is tied to femininity is very questionable. Is it truly to help young female children develop their own relationship with femininity or is it simply a marketing ploy to convince surface level feminist thinkers to engage in and write about their content again? Even as an 11 year old, when Princess and the Frog came out, I questioned the motives. Why was the first blk princess someone who looked like me, a mixed person, and not more like my dad, who is dark with clearly African features? And why was she a frog for most of the movie?
I understand that the cultural imaginative around gender right now is shifting. But in order to truly encompass all female children, Disney needs to slow it down with the white princesses for a good while. Directly after Tiana we got Anna, Elsa, and Rapunzel. All strong women undoubtedly. But young females of color are denied the right to be strong and feminine as well. They are told that they must only be strong and that their femininity is never enough. Disney needs to truly look at the intersections of gender, sex, race, and color and come back with a solution that isn't 3 princesses of color in my 18 years of life.
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