Thursday, July 7, 2011

why I dislike Disney Princesses

When I was about six I had my first fight. I was playing princesses with my best friend, Abby. We both wanted to be Jasmine from Aladdin (who we both felt was the most beautiful and vivacious of the princesses) and I had a Jasmine costume and Abby had a beautiful Snow White costume. I remember Abby said "I'll be Jasmine since my hair is longer, but I get to wear the Snow White dress. Pretend-pretend that you're Snow White and we are borrowing each others' dresses." I said, "Well if I have to be stupid Snow White I want to wear the dress." She said, "No, it's my dress!" And I said "You sure? I thought you were Jasmine and borrowing it?"

We ended the day crying and didn't talk for two days, which is forever in six year old best friend time.

My point is that, as a little girl, I didn't just watch disney movies for entertainment, I acted them out, I sang the songs, I begged birds to dress me, I wanted to be them. As I grew up, this "pretend-pretend" games evolved into something more sinister. In 5th grade I was playing Spice Girls at recess. In middle school I couldn't play pretend anymore but I did dress like Audrey Hepburn for every single band and choir concert. I guess I shouldn't be surprised when I see some woman do something special and my first thought isn't "wow that was special" but rather "I wish I could do that." Studies show girls are socialized to model themselves after women they see in the media and society, to create idols and heroes all around them. I know this is a sweeping generalization and I feel bad for doing it, but I hate that disney princesses create such misogynist dark role models for impressionable young girls.

Snow White is the most chauvinistic story. The major conflict arises from two women fighting over who is the most beautiful of them all. (Oh it would be that hard to write about two girls with any other sort of personality attributes?) So, a young and naive Snow White runs away from home, goes to a stranger's home, climbs into the beds of 7 unknown men, and when they discover her, she becomes their dutiful housewife, because that's the only thing women are good for. After being poisoned for being attractive, a prince saves her by making out with her comatose body. Knowing nothing about Snow White except for the fact that she's hot and good at cleaning, the prince knows he is in love with her and they live happily ever after.

Sleeping Beauty is a very similar story to Snow White. In the fairy tale she sleeps for a hundred years. It is the height of female objectification, she has no personality, charm, or even consciousness and the guy still wants to fool around. Disney reduced a woman to her physicality so much so that they could have saved some money and just cast a flesh light. What is that teaching young women?

The little mermaid was one of my favorites when I was a kid. I sang the songs in my stuttering lisping little kid voice and I had a little mermaid costume as well as several other souvinier decorative paraphernalia. But this may have been one of the worst ones for me to like. Ariel was the first poster child for my eating disorders when she drastically and violently changes her body to get a man to notice her. She also exemplified codependency in the most sickening sense, giving up her greatest talent to be with a man. And it works in the disney version. A man falls in love with her even though she can't talk the entire movie, as if to say, a woman doesn't need to say anything or have a personality to be loveable. Why did my parents let me watch it? They might as well have shoved playboy in my face and said "see, because you're a woman this is the only thing you'll ever be good for."

Jasmine is a sex object her father can trade around for political power. Her only talents include being hot and to attempt to save herself and Aladdin she uses the only skill she has, which is seducing Jafar. Does it work? Not fully, and Aladdin saves the damsel in distress in the end.

Beauty in the Beast is probably the least misogynist, but it's still chauvinist. Belle is intelligent, kind, and has integrity, but what really saves her and the beast in the end is her hot looks. Also, the beast is cruel and gruff and abusive to her at first and she falls in love with him anyway. What really saves everyone is Stockholm syndrome. It's a symbol for how women are held captive in society by ourselves, the media, and men, that in our imprisonment we just have to endure the abuse and learn to love it.

Cinderella: I don't even want to touch it. Women are only good for cleaning, being hot, and the only way to get out of that is to marry a rich man who can provide for us.

What about the bechdel test? This test rates films based on the criteria of containing at least two female characters who talk to each other about something besides a man. None of these films do that, reiterating to young children, the entire goal in life for women, is to get a man to love you.

I hate that these were the role models being shoved down our throats as children. I hate that we dressed up like and idolized these women. All of them were dehumanized, depersonalized, and objectified. We were taught from a very young age how to fit into gender roles. I hate that unrealistic standards for feminine beauty were portrayed not only as a neccessisity, but as the only requirement for being loveable. More than anything I hate the idea that even for adults, it's hard to find a film with a female lead where the entire goal isn't to trap a man. Is that our only role in society? To fall in love? I would like to think I'm more ambitious than that. I can hope that women in my generation are seeing these force fed sexualized plastic beauty images and thinking "I can be more than that."

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