Disney movies have been an integral part of my life and some of my fondest childhood memories. It was only recently when I realized that there were a number of stereotypes Disney movies foster. The movies promote the idea of “what is beautiful is good”(WIBIG). Physical attractiveness is a dominant theme amongst the central characters, which can be linked with romantic involvement and associated with positive and happy experiences in life. Several Disney movies suffer with this WIBIG syndrome. In Beauty and the Beast, the repulsive physical appearance was associated with a negative spell and when broken the handsome prince emerges. Moreover Physical attractiveness has also been inversely linked to aggression and directly associated with intelligence. Interestingly, a study has been conducted where 163 characters were rated and inter rater agreement varied from 0.69 to 0.93. Each character was evaluated on attractiveness, aggressiveness, goodness, intelligence, final outcome and romantic involvement. Cronbach’s alpha was used to evaluate the interrater reliability. The results from were in tandem to studies that evaluated non-animated movies on similar bases.

Children are exposed to these movies from ages 2 and up. This has developed children to form stereotypes and judge their peers. They tend relate friendliness, smartness and other social skills with physical attractiveness. With introduction of social networking websites such as Facebook, the stereotype of what is beautiful is good has further become a part of young adults perception of people and their peers. This notion has now become part of our unconscious belief, and a part of human nature that compels us to associate aesthetics with positivity.

However, Disney movies are now focusing on other attributes such as personality traits that help depict their primary characters. This shift has also seen when it comes romantic involvement; Disney now gives more importance to relationship between siblings and parents. I hope that this transformation has been inspired from the present day ‘modern society’. It’d be interesting to find out a little more about a study that takes a look at ratings of modern-day Disney characters.