The Catholic Church ❤s Disney Princesses

Anastasia, I appreciate your discussion of Barbie’s role in the gender construction of what it means to be a girl. It is very important to realize the negative affect this has on both young boys’ and girls’ impressionable minds. We see a similar message in Disney films from the past. All of the Disney princesses look similar to Barbie with perfect bodies, luscious hair and extremely white straight teeth.

Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White and Aurora, the original Disney princesses, were all saved and some how turned into a better person by their male prince charming. These films, which 90’s babies watched on repeat (myself included), taught boys how to act like a stereotypical heterosexual dominating male and they taught girls how to act like stereotypical passive heterosexual females. These films, like Barbie, taught girls that you need to look a certain way to be lucky enough to fall in love with a man and that is the only way a girl can have a happily ever after.

For example in The Little Mermaid we are taught that a man will only notice you if you look like a stereotypical woman when Ariel transforms from a mermaid into a human in order to pursue a relationship with the prince. The prince actually seemed to enjoy the fact that she could not talk reinforcing the idea that women should be seen not heard. Even Mulan, a film that seems to promote the idea of a strong independent female, starts off with Mulan’s difficulty in finding a man to marry because she was not feminine enough and ends happily because she ended up finding a man to marry through her participation in the army. With all of these negative messages targeted toward little girls one would think these movies would have been censored or outright banned. However that is not at all what happened, mostly because there was not enough nudity involved to censor them, (except in The Little Mermaid where she was basically just wearing a bra for half the movie) but largely these movies were tolerated and praised over the years because of these stereotypical messages. Society wanted women to learn early on that they would not be happy unless they were married in a heterosexual relationship.

Going back in time to the 1930’s Kulturkampf where the Catholic Church was trying to gain control over the cinema and the types of films that were eligible to screen, we can see why and how Disney princess movies made the cut. The Catholic Church was not pleased with films in the 1920’s promoting and glorifying civic corruption, crime/gang violence and sex/sensuality and as a result worked at creating the Motion Picture Producers and Distributers of America Association (McGregor, 2013). The MPPDAA came up with a list of Do’s and Be Carefuls, which was put in place as an attempt to censor the content and subject matter of films, though it was not an officially recognized law Hollywood producers still followed these guidelines considered necessary to police Hollywood. This guide had three principle rules, 1. Films could not show content that would lower the moral standard of those who view it 2. The correct standards of life shall be presented with the allowance of added appropriate drama for entertainment purposes 3. No law, whether natural or human, could be mocked. In addition to these three principles, Catholic values such as the sanctity of marriage and disregard of homosexuality were also promoted (McGregor, 2013).

Disney did not show any content that would lower anyone’s moral standards, they actually worked to perpetuate the stereotypical female who is kind, caring, passive and in need of rescuing through all of their earlier princess characters. There is no Disney film that explicitly shows or implies that the man and woman are engaging in premarital sex, so check on depicting the “correct” standards of living according to the Catholic Church, for the most part (excluding Snow White who gladly moves in with 7 strange men even though she knows she should not talk to strangers).

Now, we must realize that Disney is not completely innocent in the third principle an argument can be made in the case of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White that the princes kissed the princesses, without consent, in order to wake them from their slumber. In my opinion that is promotion rape culture by spreading the message that men can do as they please, so long as they are waking a princess from a spell. Focusing on the third principle in terms of it’s religious roots, Disney princess movies actually reinforce both the sanctity of marriage and heterosexuality through the happily ever after ending, resulting in the marriage of a man and woman. On top of all of that the Catholic Church could use Disney movies as a way to spread their message to young, impressionable minds (smart move Walt, get em’ while they’re young). Today times have changed and Disney has been changing with them as we’ve seen in the latest attempts, being Frozen and Brave, where a woman’s happily ever after FINALLY did not revolve around a man or marriage. In keeping with the theme of change, it has recently been announced that Disney is in the works to make a movie featuring the love of two homosexual men.

Now, before I continue with this I will unfortunately have to admit that this announcement appears to be a hoax, but the backlash it received is interesting to investigate. According to the above post, an adovocate for the Christians For Traditional Marriage Association spoke out in regards to how the movie would be an insult to Christians everywhere and likened the film to the beginning of the apocalypse. We can be thankful that the old religiously based censorship techniques are not so strongly enforced in today’s film ratings as they are mostly concerned with nudity and sexual scenes, but the old idea of the Catholic Church attempting to have a say in Hollywood still permits. I question whether the world is ready for this, I mean yes homosexual relationships are existent in almost every television series today, but seeing as this film’s target audience is children it would be interesting to see whether that affects it’s chances at ever reaching the production floor. I think this film is exactly what our society needs during these changing times to help children instead understand what love looks like, not sexuality. I leave you with the question to ponder whether you think the MPAA and Ontario Film Review Board would give this film the standard Disney G rating or a higher one due to the content going against Catholic values? Further do you believe that the Catholic Church still has the same influence on the current movie rating system used today?

Here is a comedic clip about Disney princesses, skip to 5:02 as that more directly relates to the above conversation, but feel free to watch the entire clip if you wish. BE ADVISED THAT THERE IS MUCH USE OF EXPLICIT LANGUAGE.

Here are some links to articles related to the above discussion for your further reading pleasure:

Reference List

McGregor, A. (2013). “Introduction: Catholicism and Cultural Hegemony During the Long 1930s,” in The Catholic Church and Hollywood: Censorship and Morality in 1930s Cinema (p. 1–43). London: I. B. Tauris.