Besides the questionable legitimacy
in Disney’s effort in introducing different ethnicities to younger age groups,
the company is also (un)-intentionally imprinting in the publics’ mind a
perception of what a princess "should" look like. Thus, the question
remains relative - what is a princess supposed to look like?
Although these characters are make belief,
children identify with them on a much deeper level. The natures of conflict
through Disney films are the ideals that they show through their princesses. Disney has created standards for
young girls on how to grow up into proper women in order to find their prince,
a.k.a. “true love.” Such indication prompted a question that whether true love
has to be a prince, in other words, a man with royal descendant or a wealthy
family background.
In terms of appearance, it is observed
from the films that women are supposed to be beautiful, acquiescent and have
curvy figures. However, over the years, as observed from the movies, the
princesses’ appearance has evolved from pretty “girl-next-doors” to idealized
women with the looks of a Barbie doll and the figure of a top model. While Snow
White and Cinderella were still characterized by a healthy roundness, from
Aurora on, the princesses are all forced to meet with almost unachievable body
images. Like Yzaguirre (2009) observed, from naive, innocent and proper girls,
they have evolved into sex symbols, as the length of their skirt or coverage of
their skin and breasts seems to have followed the reduction trend. For instance,
Jasmine wears a crop-top that reveals her belly and a major part of her chest;
Pocahontas’ skirt is over the knee and Ariel’s outfit is nothing but a bikini. Subsequently,
as reflected in numerous media publications in the last two decades, young girls
are nowadays encouraged to meet with increasingly unrealistic beauty ideals,
which force them to present themselves as sexualized objects.
The princesses from the 90s on have
been modeled after contemporary and Hollywood’s beauty icons. In the Little
Mermaid, Ariel’s looks were supposedly based on Farrah Fawcett’s, a 1970s
actress and pin-up girl (Bell, 1995). Sherri Stoner, an actress weighing only
ninety-two pounds, served as a live-action model for both Ariel and Belle
(Bell, 1995). The rather conservative ambitions of Ariel are explained by Yzaguirre
(2006) as typical of the 1980s, an era during which young women are said to
have rejected the more feminist, challenging ideas of the 1970s, while still
retaining the aim for economic equality. This resulted in a confusion and
contradiction of expectations imposed on teenage girls.
The new beauty standards also opened up
a path for another behavioral value, as their main concern is to make
sacrifices to please men and serve as objects to be looked at. It should be
noted that there seemed to be a tendency in the later films to depict extreme
sex objects as “exotic.” For example, Jasmine from Aladdin, Ariel from the
Little Mermaid and Megara from Hercules are all portrayed as more aggressively
sexual, utilizing their seductive qualities as a tool. Jasmine used her sultry
look to deceive Jafar, while Ariel made use of her beauty and body language, instead
of her other qualities, such as her singing talent, to get the prince to kiss
her before sunset.
In terms of social expectation of
gender roles, during the period from the 30s to 60s, Disney films showed a male
dominated outlook. Thus, feminists have regarded Disney movies as an unhealthy
outlook for young children, especially girls, to watch for the physical
attributes they suggest, along with the values supporting male dominance. In
the first three Disney classics – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella
and Sleeping Beauty, the princesses do not hold jobs of their own and will not
disobey direct orders. Cinderella would just keep on
passively obeying every orders from her stepmother and stepsisters, though
unwillingly. When she was not allowed to go the royal ball, she still showed neither
resistance nor rebellion.
However, a more positive evolution can
be detected in the behavioral patterns through the films. The first two
princesses introduced – Snow White (1937) and Cinderella (1950) – came out
after the efforts were made in fighting for women‘s suffrage and helping with
World War I. The two princesses’ only goal is
for marriage and love, and all they do is wait until their princes find them. They are the models for the
typical housewife, as Snow White takes care of the dwarves and Cinderella looks
after her stepmother and stepsisters and the animals. Moreover, they only know
how to be pretty and sing. The next princess – Aurora from Sleeping Beauty –
was brought to screens during the second wave of feminism which lasted 1960’s
to the 1980‘s. Women were fighting for
inequalities, whether they were legal, sexual, family, workplace, or
reproductive rights. The Feminine Mystique in 1963 by
Betty Friedan was the book that kicked off the new wave. In 1968 there was a protest to
the Miss America Pageant, saying it was an arbitrary form of beauty and what
society deemed as beautiful.
Feminists were upset that the two most important gifts that the fairies gave
Aurora were the gifts of beauty and singing (Henke, Umble &
Smith, 1996).
On the other hand, while Snow White,
Cinderella and Aurora spontaneously took on domestic chores, seemingly happy to
be a housewife, no “newer” heroine is ever seen cleaning or cooking, even if
they are implied to still take on those chores. For example, as part of the
authoritarian and Confucianism culture, Mulan is expected to cook, serve tea
and feed the animals, she either fails because of her clumsiness or passes the
responsibility to others.
In addition, all Disney princesses are
expected to marry or are forced into a prearranged marriage. All princesses dreamed
of a romance themselves. For example, Ariel (1989), Belle (1991) and Jasmine
(1992), respectively introduced during the third wave of feminism, in which
women were focusing on being successful in the working world and achieving the
most they could. Belle, Jasmine and Ariel are
more independent, smart and not in a rush for marriage. Belle enjoys reading
while Ariel and Jasmine are both tired of their supposedly ideal princess lives. Ariel wants to see the human’s
world and Jasmine wants to escape from an arranged marriage. However, in the
end, the feminists realized that all Belle, Jasmine and Ariel wanted were love,
happiness and a fairytale ending. Even Tiana and Rapunzel, who fought to get
that they wanted, which were a business and a real identity respectively in the
end, they also got their princes.
It is suggested that women cannot be single and happy, as it shows in the films
that they need a man to fulfill their ultimate happiness. Pocahontas (1995) is
the only one who does not marry, but – despite her hinted fear of commitment –
she showed regrets having to repress her feelings. The Disney worldview is
clearly a simplified one, especially with regards to romance. As
heterosexuality is universalized, love at first sight, based on appearances, is
common and seen as the inevitable result of a boy and a girl meeting under the
right circumstances in most movies, except Beauty and the Beast and Mulan, where
romances depict female desire, develop slowly and – rather than being easy –
require mutual effort and compromises. It wasn’t until 2012, when Brave was
released, that the new princess Merida was portrayed to not have a love
interest, even the movie did not make an impact as expected.
Furthermore, as Yzaguirre (2009)
observed, unlike the older heroines, who suffered from a “Cinderella complex”
through which they fooled themselves that sleep or death-like passivity and
helpless dependence on men are the trend, the newer ones would stand up for
themselves. While Cinderella, the embodiment of self-control, merely dared to
utter protest when nobody could hear her, nearly all heroines from the fifties
on rebel against their parents’ expectations. The practice of marrying off
children seems to be the main cause of disagreement between different
generations. Disney princesses increasingly want to grow intellectually and
have a taste of adventure. However, they are unprepared for their encounters
with the outside world, which are filled with dangerous obstacles and can only
be overcome with the help of others. For example, Rapunzel disobeyed her mother
– whom she later found out to be a witch that kidnapped her when she was still
an infant – to run away from her tower to only find that she was unprepared for
all the vicious scheming in the real world.
Nevertheless, the more the princesses
are sporty and intelligent, the less they are dependent on others, even though
they often doubt their competence in taking important decisions and blame
themselves when things go wrong. Belle, Pocahontas, Mulan and Jane are
confident and brave enough to engage in risky rescue operations of others.
However,
these “daring expeditions” outside the domestic sphere are allegedly incorporated
on purpose, because, as Yzaguirre (2009) argued, they eventually guide the
princesses towards a romantic encounter. Women are never seen to show higher
ambitions, for instance to take on a leadership position in their community. Even
if they are offered the chance, such as Pocahontas being passed on as the
tribe’s leader, they are still passively and unwillingly take it.
References
Yzaguirre,
C. M. (2006). A WHOLE NEW WORLD? The Evolution of Disney Animated Heroines from
Snow White to Mulan.
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