A woman holds the love of her life and as the last breath slips from his battered body, she begs him to stay as she finally whispers the confession of love he’s been waiting to hear. A bright, ambitious, and inquisitive 16 year old girl held back by her old fashioned father gives up everything she has in order to achieve her life-long dreams. A young man battles the very minions of hell to save the woman he loves. And a woman of unparalleled kindness becomes friends with the outcasts and forgotten members of society. An empire of creative genius equal to that of The Walt Disney Company has yet to, and most likely will never emerge. Nearly every family in Western culture is familiar with the stories of adventure, achievement of dreams, and timeless love that are the backbone of nearly every Disney saga. Of course among those tales, the most well known are probably the stories of the Disney princesses. And I for one am tired of those who generalize and stereotype the Disney princess movies into chauvinistic close-minded false representations of what life should be.
First of all, let’s be clear: The first Disney princess movie (Snow White) came out in 1937. You read me right; NINETEEN THIRTY SEVEN. It’s hardly fair to judge a movie from the early 20th century by the standards of 2011. Quite obviously, the roles of women were very different back then. Let’s take a brief look at Snow White in context of the time period. America had been in the most crushing depression in its history. Women of the time had to work, probably for the first time in their lives, in order to support their families. This whimsical departure from reality into a world of love at first sight and random musical numbers that Snow White provides would have been a welcome escape. You can whine about the prince always saving the princess all you want but the fact is that the majority of the women in 1937 didn’t want to be out “battling dragons.” They wanted to be home raising their children as their handsome “princes” fought off the evils of the world and came home to bestow on you a romantic kiss. And while thankfully, society has made the transition into a world where many women have successful careers and work in the same environment as men, it’s simply impractical to judge these cartoons in that context.
As a life-long Disney fanatic (No seriously, my dishware is all Disney, I have a Mickey Mouse house key, and one time when I was bored I made my own Disney princess online. Sue me.) I’ve been bombarded by overenthusiastic feminists who cry and wail about how degrading the Disney princesses are to women. So here are my responses to some of the more popular arguments.
“They just sit around and wait for their prince to save them.” *Please see second paragraph* Continuing on. Not all princesses have the wait-and-see kind of attitude. Prince Eric wouldn’t have been able to impale Ursula with a ship if it hadn’t been for Ariel’s help. Not to mention, she saved him from drowning. Cinderella escapes with the help of her animal friends in order to try on the glass slipper against the will of her step-mother. And Belle isn’t saved by anyone. In reality, she’s been battling off Gaston by herself throughout the entire movie.
“Disney Princess movies show unrealistic love stories.” DUH. I have to say it again. DUH. Of course the love affairs of the Disney princesses are unrealistic! They’re movies! I hate to break it to you but it’s almost the year 2015 and although Back to the Future II said so, there are no flying cars or hover boards yet. In addition, a house cannot be lifted by a bunch of helium balloons, Darth Vader does not live in a galaxy far far away, Hogwarts doesn’t exist (I know, it hurts me too), and it’s impossible for all of Charlie Brown’s clothes to instantaneously fly off his body when the baseball whips past him. So what if it’s unlikely? The point is to entertain, not represent the real world. Go watch a documentary if it bothers you that much. And if you’re a stickler for realism, I think you should be focusing more on the whole “part fish part human” thing Ariel’s got going.
Above the entrance to Disneyland the plaque reads “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” I would argue that the same principle applies to all Disney movies. The intent is not to make a comment to society that women have to be ridiculously good-looking in order to achieve happiness. It’s not that women should stay home with a smile on their faces and clean with their animal friends while the men are out slaying dragons and sea witches. And it’s not that love befalls only the attractive few who have beautiful singing voices and serenade one another from the balcony…. Oh and there has to dwarves involved. For people who only get those messages from Disney classics, I truly feel sorry for you. I understand that the Disney princess movies advertise that kind girls are the ones the princes fall for, that women have control over their own destiny, and that true love is something worth fighting for. For the most part, the world is made up of hard, pessimistic people who’ve forgotten what it was like to be a child and know without a doubt that Santa was coming down the chimney any second, everyone told the truth, and Belle really did fall in love with the Beast. I myself am one of those extremely sarcastic, cynical people (I didn’t care for The Notebook, PDA makes me sick, and I’ve never read a Nicholas Sparks book), but what I love so much about Disney movies is that for those brief 92 minutes, I’m a child again. And I do believe. And like Walt Disney said, “That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget.”
