Sociological Deconstruction of the Disney Princesses

you have to realize that all these stories predate disney. The princesses’ roles where likely set long before woman’s sufferage, never mind the feminist movement. So disney (in regular disney fashion) took stories that already existed and made it their own, within the original framework. Why doesn’t Mr. Brunner consider characters like Wendy, or Mulan. or more modern disney female roles, like in pixar movies. Pixar’s stories tend to be brand new and not recycled. So, females characters aren’t held down by their pre-feminist/ woman’s suffrage beginnings.

They forgot to mention that Ariel is only 16 in the Disney movie.

This is ridiculous! To say that Belle of Beauty and the Beast has “only one asset – her sexuality” is just wrong. In the film she was portrayed as a whip-smart bookworm, and her brains intimidated men like Gaston.

Jasmine is a similarly powerful female character, and of course Pocahontas and Mulan aren’t in this picture, all the better to make the author’s fairly shaky point.

The only one I dispute is Belle. She saves a prince by being openhearted, seeing past appearances and choosing substance over flash. How is that ‘her sexuality’?

This is silly and can only be taken on a comical level. For one, the real fairy tales, not the sanitized Disney versions, are not only grisly,entertaining horror stories, but were at one time, relevant cautionary tales. Heck, some of them still are. Secondly, it’s a fairy tale. When you start insisting that fairy tales be adjusted to reflect feminist or other modern values, you sap all the fun out of them.

Don’t forget this works for the princes too:

http://imgur.com/6B1Ln

Okay, my knee-jerk reaction was to find this amusing, but the reality is that this is pretty unfair to Disney.

The first, and maybe most obvious, issue I have is with the fact that whoever did this cherry picked the characters that make their argument. Where’s Mulan or Pocahontas? Oh, those characters don’t really fit the message so we’ll just ignore them.

Second, characters like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella are taken way out of context. At least the dates are acknowledged, but is it really fair at all to hold Disney movies from 1937 up to a modern feminist standard?

Finally, the characterization on Belle is pretty brief, and I suspect that’s because the complaint doesn’t really fit. Belle was very independent and her sexuality had nothing to do with saving the Beast.

In short, the whole thing is kind of ridiculous.

Not only was Ariel 16 as stated above but I believe all were minors and most 17 and under. Walt was a pedobear

I think this view of Disney princesses is a bit simplistic as many people have already suggested. I’ve always enjoyed fairy tales (both the Disney versions and the originals) as well as alternative tellings and little known tales that are rarely seen anymore. I enjoy them because they are a bit of escapist fantasy. On the other hand I won’t be exposing my kids to them (Disney or original) until they’re old enough to understand that this really is an unrealistic fantasy and not something to aspire to.

If you have a strong stomach I’d recommend looking up the original stories, which were passed down orally, not to entertain children but to teach them serious life lessons about societal standards, political scheming, incest and rape, slavery, brutality and survival. I think most people would be surprised how graphic and scary the original stories were and how little emphasis was put on how fabulous it would be to be a princess/prince. Because it wasn’t. While it was probably a far cry better than being a peasant in terms of food and shelter, princes and especially princesses were little more than property, had very few personal freedoms and had to deal with all the same dangers as a peasant child.

Women are unstable. They should live confined lives, and should not take part in important decision making. The ones with exceptional looks should be treated differently. Almost with a kind of respect, but not the same respect that hardworking men share for each other. More of like “Hey this one is good looking”.

Also, let’s not have it overlooked that Jasmine is by far the hottest of all Disney Princesses. Nah, the hottest of all Disney characters, ever. Jasmine is wicked hot.

Oops, submitted too soon. If we really must point our fingers at anything, it’s the fact that the 1937 Snow White is the only one of the bunch that won’t cause little girls to turn anorexic to look like her. The others are turning into beanpoles.

I do enjoy the old classics nevertheless.
The newer ones don’t suit my tastes at all
Disney tries to compensate by taking the traditional helpless damsel in distress and turn her into a “modern” everyday women and I find it quite boring.

Newer princesses looks more modern, smart and liberated. But they send the same message that older princesses (get saved by males) did, which is even worse because no modern girl will identify herself with Snow White but they can with Jasmin.
Here is where the value of Pixar comes in, with new (and way better) stories, new characters better storytelling (less songs) and new technologies this generation will be growing much more liberated and become free thinkers.

To: “This matters”

Have you ever heard of a troll before?

I took a films and literature class once in which the professor chose the particular theme of fairy tales that had been made into Disney films. Disney definitely had a thing about mothers, as you’ll see if you look at how few “classic” Disney films feature mothers.

And I agree, Belle was more than just her beauty. I was so happy when “Beauty and the Beast” came out, because not only had Disney come up with a film heroine who was bookish, but she had BROWN HAIR. (This is a big deal to a brown-eyed brunette who grew up surrounded by blonde, blue-eyed imagery)

Okay but here is the thing, we as adults see that they are stories and that princes dont just pop out of no where and save the normal looking folks…but its true that LITTLE GIRLS are taking the wrong messages. Walt Disney was a high level Free Mason and a rasicst sob to boot. He knew that only having the most sexually pleasing women being saved by the man would lead young women to be easily swayed into harmful ways of changing their bodies like eating disorders. Not many young girls are going to relate to the large busted tiny waists and big sultry eyes of the princesses while being an undeveloped and confused child. while the guy who made this is a numskull and hasn’t learned about photoshop yet its a valid point that LITTLE GIRLS (not you or I) are taking bad values away from those movies.