Every little girl has seen them, we all know of them, the sugary sweet Disney princess movies that have captured the hearts and imaginations of little girls all over the world. Whether your favourite princess was Snow White, Cinderella or Ariel (personally I always loved Aurora from Sleeping Beauty), we all knew the songs and the stories and at some point in our lives, fallen for at least one of those Tall, Handsome princes that sweep our favourite heroine off her dainty feet.
And why wouldn’t he? I know very few straight women that wouldn’t be attracted to a Tall, Striking stranger. I’m sure it wasn’t just me that had daydreamed about being a princess, with the dresses, and the tiaras, and finding my prince that would sing to me, and we’d dance and he’d tell me I was the most beautiful thing in the world. Surely that’s healthy for a little girl? Apparently not.
Here we are, facing another pointless dilemma brought up my overprotective parents. Some argue that the merchandising of dolls such as the Disney princesses creates gender divides, as well as giving girls unrealistic beliefs of men and love. "Princess Dolls are promoting a very narrow and prescriptive view of femininity, and one that ought to be outmoded in the 21st century. I think they are regressive,” says Dr Melanie Waters, lecturer in English literature and specialist in feminist theory at Northumbria University. They encourage girls to be passive, and to nurture. There is also, says Dr Waters: “an aggressive focus on beauty, hair accessories and other images that promote the idea that girls should be concerned with their appearance”.
Now I don’t want to seem anti-feminist at all, I still get incredibly annoyed that for every £1.00 a man earns, a woman gets only 82p, but I feel that these people are looking far too much into the world of Disney. Were you all cursed by an evil enchantress when you were children? Because I’ve never met a Seven year old girl that hasn’t wanted to grow up and be a princess, Disney obsession or not. Then to say these girls are being brainwashed into becoming appearance obsessed, relationship craving bimbos, is just stupid. Surely all you extremist parents have enough to worry about without throwing Disney movies into the mix?
We’re constantly told that Princesses are giving girls a reason to be obsessed with being beautiful, or you won’t fall in love, and live happily ever after, but what about their positive traits? Each of the Disney Princesses are uncommonly kind, generous and hardworking. Some of them even take their destiny into their own hands, for example, Pocahontas giving up love, to lead her people, or Mulan, risking her life pretending to be a male warrior and save her father.
But of course, the way these princesses look, is far more important than how they act, or what they believe, right? Because they’re giving the “wrong impression” with their tiny waists, long legs and big busts. But what I can’t get my head around is how parents constantly tell their children not to judge purely on looks, and yet they are telling others and their kids that Disney films are bad due to the unrealistic way the women LOOK in the film. But why am I even bothering to express my comments on these movies, after all, the only reason they were created was to rile up mollycoddling mothers, oh and that other tiny reason, what was it again? Oh yeah, to entertain children, and give them something to enjoy and connect with.
As Disney continue to create new Disney Princess films over the years, introducing “Rapunzel” and their first black princess “Tiana” in “The Princess and the Frog”, both being very independent and self reliant, showing that Disney are making progress, people are still falling back and over-analysing the films from the 1920’s, which infuriates me, as this distasteful deprecation is making it harder to fully enjoy classic children’s films with your child without feeling riddled with guilt because you are the reason they are going to die alone with nothing but their hallucinogenic prince charming to keep them company.
Not only that, I find it terribly sad that people are so sure that women are so unbelievably stupid, and gullible, that it only takes a couple of Disney films and some merchandise to turn them into appearance obsessed, hopeless romantics that can’t care for themselves at all. “We’ve had one date! It must me love, after all, Cinderella only met Prince Charming once, then they got married! That’s how relationships work, Right?”
Please, if not for me, but for your own kids, just let them watch Disney films. Your kids wont be younger for much longer, at least give them the satisfaction of being able to lose themselves in the magic of Disney when they’re younger, before they come crashing down to reality as they grow up.
