Phil Nellis posted this image on Google Reader today. Funny, Rachel and I spent the entire dinner talking about this exact issue. Do we really want our kids to want to become like these princesses or have them as their role models? We didn’t even get into their stories, we just focused on how shallow and materialistic they were here at Disney World. This image though picks apart a bit more about these princesses and of course leaves us with the question; do we really want our kids growing up with these girls as their role models? I’ve always been told that it’s normal for all little girls to want to be a princess. These of course are the princesses that they want to be like. Really? Is this that normal? Don’t even get me started on the teen pop stars.
of course I want my girls to be like this. Isn’t this just a clear view of how women make by? You cant honestly expect me to believe girls can live happily ever after if they aren’t attractive.
I recommend this book. Sound.
http://www.amazon.com/Captivating-Unveiling-Mystery-Womans-Soul/dp/0785264698
Reminds me of the doc “Mickey Mouse Monopoly” which talks about the various ways in which Disney movies support gender and racial stereotypes, while also commercializing children’s culture (you can watch this free on google or surfthechannel). The part I personally found most haunting was when they were interviewing nine year old girls about Beauty and the Beast and this is what one girl said after watching the movie:
If Belle was my friend and I’d seen her go through this whole thing, I probably would say, keep being nice and sweet as you are, and that probably will change him and in the movie he does.
Yikes. Nothing like training our daughters to passively accept abusive relationships!
I appreciated that particular deconstruction of disney princesses as well. I originally saw it on the Sociological Images blog.
There’s a lot of this stuff in north american christian culture as well. The passivity, which is a huge part of our cultural construct of “femininity,” obsession with desirability, etc. Contrary to popular myth, these aren’t Biblical descriptions of women – just cultural.
For anyone who might be interested in exploring more on this topic, I would highly recommend Naomi Wolf’s “The Beauty Myth” and the older book “Femininity” by Susan Brownmiller.
I don’t agree with this picture. where’s the other princesses like mulan and pocahontas? did they not save their families/loved ones via commending qualities? mulan freaking takes her father’s place in the war and comes home with honor and what not, while pocahontas saves her entire tribe from a war with the settlers! if you want to insult disney, be thorough and look at all the characters, not just a select few.