Disney Princess Life Lesson
I believe that everyone’s childhood included watching Disney princesses. The princesses are part of my childhood. My favourite Disney princess is Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Being older, I still love to watch Disney princess and others Disney animations. I never knew that Disney princesses represented a deep meaning of gender role, ethnicity and body image until I began to study them further.
Disney Princesses Life Lessons (How to be a princess):
Now remember, No nagging, bragging, sweating, fretting, slipping, tripping, Slurping, burping, twittering or frittering allowed. Stay Present, stay pleasant, stay proud.
Shoulders back and Tummy in and Pinky out and Lift the chin and Slowly turn the head from side to side
Breathing gently Stepping lightly Smile brightly Nod politely Never show a thing you feel inside Glide!
To be a princess Is to always look your best To be a princess Is to never get to rest Sit for a portrait, never squirm Sleep on a mattress extra firm Speak and be clever Never at a loss for words
As you can see, being a princess you need to achieve all the things that were shown above. I think I would be a horrible princess.
In Cinderella, there was a scene which spoke about the Royal Highness who invited all eligible maiden to attend the ball. Cinderella said she would like to go to the ball too but her stepfamily would not allow her as she was the maid. This scene suggests that only girls of high stature can be capable of finding love. There is another scene in Cinderella where the mice are going to help her to make a dress. Two male mice want to do the sewing but a female mouse comments to leave the sewing to the women. This can show that Cinderella teaches girls that they are supposed to do domestic work, and boys shouldn't do any domestic work.
In Snow White, in a massive dwarf house, she says: “you’d think their mother would clean”. In this animation, they teach that girls must be clean and domestic. All the household work must be done by women. According to the Snow White story, women are supposed to stay within the home.
In addition, The little Mermaid teaches girls the need to be pretty and to be silenced. Ursula shows that girls only need a pretty face and they don’t need intelligence. Ariel accepting Ursula’s deal to sacrifice her voice for true love teaches us the need to change for a man’s love and that girls are superficial.
Did anyone think that domestic abuse existed within Disney Princess stories? Beauty and beast were showing it is ok to be in an abusive relationship. That means girls need to accept men as dominant in the family and relationship.
Have you ever thought about why all the Princesses are so skinny? Especially their waist. How can they be that small? Disney also shows young girls that if they want to be a princess, they need you to be skinny and pretty. One the other hand, almost all the princesses are white skinned, Tiana being the first black female princess in 2009.
However, Disney has slowly changed ideas of stereotype, gender role and ethnicity within their films. Disney films are beginning to portray women in a more positive way. For example, Pocahontas shows independence; Mulan shows bravery; Jasmine shows strength; Tiana shows determination; Rapunzel shows being driven. Nowadays, Disney has a big impact on young girls and their identity. It is important to monitor the messages that children are receiving from television.
