Are Disney Princesses Good Role Models for Children?
The Patriarchy in the Disney Princess World
The Disney Princess movies are some of the most famous movies of all time. Almost everyone has heard of them, or at least the stories of each the girls. Little kids love to dress up as princesses and can even have Disney Princess themed birthday parties.
But over time, a lot of speculation has arose about whether the Disney Princesses are good role models for young children. Their stories often emphasize patriarchal values that society is hoping to move away from.
Because so many children look up to Disney Princesses, it is important for people to begin recognizing how there are a lot of underlying ideals that the movies encourage.
Let’s name the most important two.
Definitions of Beauty
The Disney Princess movies show that beauty is one of the most important things a woman can have.
Starting with their look themselves, all of the princesses are designed to be look beautiful. They all have incredibly skinny waists and centralize their beauty as major parts of each story. Each of the princesses is deemed as “one of the most beautiful” people in the story line.
Beauty is also emphasized in Disney Princess stories when all of the villains are portrayed as “less beautiful” and ugly.
Think about — Arial vs. Ursula, Snow White vs. Evil Queen, Rapunzel vs. Mother Gothel, Cinderella vs. her Stepmother and Ugly Stepsisters, etc. All of the princesses are often set up against a less than beautiful person to emphasize the fact that beauty is equivalent to good character.
This isn’t to say all the Disney Princesses are bad people. But, their comparisons to villains are always to people less beautiful than them. This can cause people to take away the message that beauty = moral.
Every Girl Needs a Man
This is probably one of the worst, both one of the most prominent messages portrayed in the Disney Princess Movies and stories.
Almost every Disney Princess is saved by a guy. Most of the princesses have an ongoing problem with their “less beautiful” villain, and they seem only able to achieve their goals once a man shows up.
Most of the stories emphasize the patriarchal ideal that men should be the savior for women. All of the original princesses need to have a prince that either saves their life or saves the story. It’s as if a male presence makes women more likely to succeed.
These ideals that can appear from the Disney Princess movies are not good role models for younger children. It should be noted, however, that more recent Disney movies have shielded away from making a male prince an important part of the story (take Brave, Moana, and Elsa from Frozen for example). But, the original stories of some Disney Princesses are often biased in how they support patriarchal ideals.
Being aware of these underlying messages can be important to any adults, parents, even babysitters, etc. There are countless stories that are made for children that even promote people of color as the main characters which are better routes.
Turning away from the most obvious choices for child entertainment can be a good step in not supporting stories that promote ideals society wants to move away from.
The messages that can be taken away from these movies are often seen in social media too as children grow up. Many women are told that they don’t fit in with the definition of beauty and that beauty makes people “better”. A lot of girls are also told that every girl needs a guy to save them.
It’s best to limit the exposure to those ideals early on.
So in summary, no the original Disney Princess movies and stories aren’t always the best role models. But recognizing this and moving to promote other stories that align with encouraging messages can be all the change younger children need.
