What Makes a Princess?

I am the youngest of three girls, but growing up you wouldn’t think so. I was a classic tomboy. I spent my time playing with mini skateboards and the Wii while my sisters and friends were raised on dolls and princesses. I wore cargo shorts and shirts with skulls on them while my sisters and friends wore skirts and dresses. On Halloween, I was a skateboarding skeleton while my sisters and friends were Cinderellas and fairies. It’s obvious that American culture (excluding the tomboys) takes immense pride in its Disney’s heroines. From Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty), Belle, Cinderella, and more, these princesses are praised by girls and boys alike, but is this rightfully so? Each story presents a woman in search of her prince charming to sweep her off her feet; a message no longer accepted by society. In recent years, Disney has presented more modern princesses: Ariel, Merida, and Moana. It’s clear Disney is taking drastic steps to change the way they portray a princess but is the damage already done? Traditional and modern alike, much of the American youth are constantly exposed to the stories of these women, but what do these princesses teach the younger generations about aspirations and what it truly means to be a woman?

In order to see how far Disney has come, we need to look at what it once was. So, I took it upon myself to re-read each Disney princess story because I never had much interest in them growing up. The first Disney princess came about in 1937, but a lot went on in American history to get to that point. The “Roaring 20s” brought a wave of feminism to the US: women won suffrage, entered the workforce more so than ever before, and they revolutionized women’s fashion. This momentum was quickly cut short when the Great Depression struck in 1929. 26 states implemented laws prohibiting the employment of married women and giving social security benefits only to women with spouses. When Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made its debut in the late 30s, the gender bias of the decade shined through. The first two pages of Snow White’s story describe her as beautiful, kind, and gentle, as well as introducing a charming prince into the picture. Snow White’s life was threatened by her mother because she was jealous of her daughter’s beauty, and when she is poisoned the only way she can be revived is through “Love’s First Kiss.” The plot may be somewhat laughable today, but the movie presented everything that a woman in this era was meant to be. A woman whose main quality is her beauty seems a bit outdated but, nevertheless, most of the Disney princess’ are exactly the same.

Cinderella isn’t much different. Released in 1950, Cinderella’s stepmother despises her for her beauty and practically enslaves her stepdaughter. Cinderella doesn’t see any way out of her dreadful life except through finding a husband. So, Cinderella goes against her stepmother’s orders and goes to a ball where she meets Prince Charming. When Cinderella leaves the ball in a hurry and loses her slipper, the Prince finds it, finds Cinderella, and the two fall in love. Happily ever after. This “charming” fairytale teaches young girls to rely on their appearance, and that beauty is their greatest gift.

1959 brings about Sleeping Beauty, the story of a princess who is cast into an eternal slumber, only to awaken with “True Love’s Kiss.” The fact that the Prince kisses Aurora while she is sleeping even though they had only met once is concerning, but the original story is even worse. The first edition of Sleeping Beauty, written by an Italian poet in 1634, presents a princess who is raped while in her eternal slumber, as a kiss isn’t powerful enough to wake her. She births two twins while asleep, only to wake up from one of them sucking on her finger. Despite the fact that she was sexually assaulted, she falls in love with her rapist. Horrifying, right? Disney clearly modified the story to be more kid-friendly, but it’s obvious Disney was churning out stories of benevolent sexism, and it didn’t seem like anything would stop them.

After the release of Sleeping Beauty, Disney went on a hiatus. Between 1957 and 1989 the industry, as well as society as a whole, transformed. Walt Disney passed away, “The Feminine Mystique” was published, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in employment based on sex, and more women entered the workforce than ever before. So, when The Little Mermaid was released in 1989, Disney decided to modernize the princess. The story of Ariel, a witty resilient woman unafraid to challenge her fate, was the first Disney film to promote feminism. The New York Times went so far as to call her a “spunky daredevil.” Ariel went against her father’s wishes and explored the ocean’s surface, rescued Prince Eric, and fought to be a human. Ariel was clearly the first princess that could arguably be a role model, but despite all of this, Disney didn’t get it all right. Ariel needed to kiss Prince Eric in order to prevent herself from becoming a mermaid again, and the Washington Post discovered that “in the five Disney princess movies that followed, the women speak even less. On average in those films, men have three times as many lines as women.” In an interview with BBC, Keira Knightley, a highly respected actress and feminist, stated in reference to Ariel, “I mean, the songs are great, but do not give your voice up for a man. Hello!” You could see Disney’s gears turning, but they hadn’t quite figured out what a perfect princess meant.

The tables turn slightly when Beauty and the Beast was released in 1991, as the Beast is facing a horrible reality, not the princess. Yes, Belle is seemingly trapped in her small town, her only escape being reading, but the Beast has a much greater struggle. Like Ariel needing a kiss to stay a human, the Beast has to find his true love or he remains a beast forever. In her hometown, Belle is being hit on by Gaston, the handsome man that every woman in town loves, but she holds her ground and refuses to marry without being in love. For the first time in Disney history, the men are the desperate ones… Refreshing, right? Not so fast. Belle tries to rescue her father after he wandered into the Beast’s castle, and Belle ends up convincing the Beast to let her take her father’s place in captivity. She tries to escape, the Beast saves her, they share a romantic dance, and she falls in love. Yes, she falls in love with the man who kidnapped her. Once again, a Disney fairytale that starts off optimistic, only to be crushed by Disney’s relentless patriarchal views. I was surprised to see a story with this plot released in the late 1900s when women had accomplished so much, but after researching, I discovered that Beauty and the Beast was actually written in 1740 by a French, female novelist. Although it is meant to be romantic, the fact that a woman wrote a story that so clearly enforces a man’s power over a woman shows how deeply rooted these ideologies were in society.

In the twenty years to follow, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan, and The Princess and the Frog hit theaters, but nothing about these stories was truly revolutionary. That is until Brave took the country by storm in 2012. Princess Merida is the Katniss Everdeen of Disney, unwilling to conform to what her mother and society want (a stereotypically attractive, sweet, and married young woman) and relentless with a bow and arrow. Instead of focusing on Merida finding her Prince Charming, the story is centered on a tense mother and daughter relationship and how the two work through their differing opinions. Merida, although she accidentally turned her mother into a bear as a result, took matters into her own hands to try to show her mother she didn’t need to fit the perfect mold. She even throws herself in front of the bear when her father tries to kill it, threatening her own life to save her mother. While all of this is going on, three different clans are competing for the best suitor for Merida, but she couldn’t care less and decides to shoot for her own hand. This is what we meant by a modern princess, Disney.

The most recent and arguably most feminist Disney film, Moana, hit theaters in 2016 and has been coined “the most revolutionary princess film.” The story presents Moana, a young girl growing up on the island of Motunui and in line to become the village chief. Surprisingly, there is no catch to her taking this position. Moana can be single and still become village chief, and the movie doesn’t even mention the alternative. In fact, Moana is the first Disney princess movie to lack a romantic plot. Moana decides she must save her island and return the heart of Te Fiti, a dangerous voyage that her father refuses to let her embark on, but she does anyway. She rescues Maui, the demigod who she believes can help her save her island, but even when he bails on her, she continues on. The story is a modern, female rendition of The Odyssey, with both Odysseus and Moana embarking on an epic voyage and facing many difficulties along the way. In some ways, Moana’s journey is even more epic: Moana sets sail to save her island and all those who inhabit it, whereas Odysseus must get back to his island to stop a suitor from marrying his wife and stealing his wealth. Disney could not have released this story at a better time than in the midst of the election of Donald Trump, a man who calls women “beautiful pieces of ass”, rates them on how beautiful he thinks they are, and brags about grabbing and groping them. In such a polar political climate with feminism gaining momentum under an egotistical and sexist president, Moana proves to young women that they can take charge and build their own future without the help of a man, a message from Disney that is long overdue.

Disney’s princesses aren’t going anywhere, but it is empowering to see the development of recent princesses as strong and self-sufficient. There are two sides to every story, and analyzing these films as an adult results in a much different understanding than when a child watches them. Even so, young boys and girls absorb everything they see and they shouldn’t watch a princess desperately looking for love and beauty and think that is what they should seek as well. Each princess’ actions and ideologies mirrored that of the era they were created and, even though they are classics, younger generations idolizing princesses that enforce such a submissive role gives kids false impressions for how women and men must act. Some parents have gone so far as trying to ban these stories, for example, a woman in Newcastle, England who asked her son’s primary school to remove these stories from younger classrooms. Without banning the books and films altogether, but by implementing them into curriculums for older students rather than younger, the fairytales can be used to teach children how to respect one another and empower themselves.