Disney Princesses Franchise: Negative Gender Stereotypes
When Walt Disney created his first full length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, he had no idea just how impactful his princesses would be. The Disney Princesses Franchise is one of the most successful and recognizable in the world however, these cartoons come with consequences. In what ways do the Disney princesses affect or young, impressionable girls? From negative gender stereotypes to lack of diversity, subliminally these Princesses can cause quite a few problems. One should be aware of just what exactly these young girls are being exposed to.
Today The Walt Disney Company is a world rebound Multibillionaire corporation but it has come a long way from its roots. Founded by Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney, the “Walt Disney Studios” as we know it today was founded on October 16, 1923 and was originally dubbed the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. The brothers were successful with a slew of popular cartoon such as Alice's Wonderland (1923), Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1928), and Steamboat Willie staring the most famous Mickey Mouse, previously named 'Mortimer Mouse', who would later star in several Disney Studios produced films and become the icon of the Walt Disney Brand. “Walt Disney has been, arguably, the most influential American of the twentieth …show more content…
century. Beginning in the late 1920s, his immense and multifaceted entertainment enterprise – short cartoons, feature-length animations, live-action films, comic books and records, nature documentaries, television shows, colossal theme parks – inundated the United States, much of the Western world, and beyond” (Watts, 1995). Disney’s success would only further expand. His nest project, taking three years to complete, would star the first ever “Disney Princess”, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1934), and would take the title of the first ever full length animated film to premiere in movie theaters. With this, Walt Disney had unknowingly created a legacy that would continue to impact young children, mainly young girls, long after he would be gone. “For more than nine decades, the name Walt Disney has been preeminent in the field of family entertainment. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to today's global corporation, The Walt Disney Company continues to proudly provide quality entertainment for every member of the family, across America and around the world” (The Walt Disney Company, n.a).
The gap between the first Disney Princess and the next one was indirectly caused by WWII. Many working at the Disney studios were drafted into the war. However, Disney was able to survive and released Cinderella in 1950. But after that they would become the staple to Walt Disney Studios. The Disney princess franchise that stretches from the meticulously hand drawn Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the yet-to-be-released digital princess Moana, is one that has contributed to the lives of millions of young girls not only on the united states, but across the globe, both positively and negatively. The Disney princesses are so well know that many children do not know that they were derived from much earlier, similar tales that were much too gruesome for children to watch “In recent times, since the invention of cinema, the visual representation of fairy tale characters has been dominated by the Disney version of these tales. Such is the power of visual representation that children tend to believe that Disney's version of the fairy tale is the real story rather than the "classic" version to which they may or may not have been exposed through school or home. (Hurley, 2005)”
Recently the beloved Disney Princesses have been under harsh criticism from those who believe that they are psychologically harmful for young girls to consume at the alarming rate at which they are. Many blogs and websites are dedicated to critiquing or applauding the way in which Disney princesses influenced them as young girls, while simultaneously analyzing the and the young preteen girls of today. “The fairy tale is one of the longest existing genres of children's literature. Through the ages, children have formed mental images of the princesses and other characters depicted in these tales from their representation in the written text as well as in the illustrations that have often accompanied those texts. Fairy tales, therefore, have an important role to play in shaping the self- image and belief system of children” (Hurley, 2005). Either way it is known that the Princesses have a huge impact whether it be positive or negative.
A few years ago the Disney Princesses Brought in about $100 million in merchandise . today Disney Princess products are sold internationally in over 90 different countries, earning roughly $3.4 billion since the Disney Princess Franchise was launched. To understand how the Disney Princess Franchise became so well renowned, of course one would have to look to Disney’s marketing strategies. In 1999 Andy Mooney joined the Walt Disney Company and was put in charge of Disney consumer Products. “They weren’t even Disney products. They were generic princess products”, he mused, and soon afterwards, with extremely low resistance within the organization, very little marketing, and no focus group testing, the Disney Princess franchise was launched. In 2001 sales for the Disney Consumer Products division was generating $300 million. Fast forward to 2012, and the Disney Princess franchise earned a whopping $3 billion in global sales making them the number one brand for best-selling entertainment products” (MCNG Marketing, 2013). Mooney basically grouped together the princesses, plastered their face on everything imaginable, and then he made it available to the public, creating the Disney Princess Franchise we know today. Children weren’t the only ones targeted by the Disney princess Franchise. Nostalgic teens young adults, and grown women were the also victims of Mooney’s clever marketing tactic. Princess wedding dresses and dinnerware a Sephora Reigning Beauties Cinderella Collection, electronics, stationary and accessories were all created to lure in the adult dollar. Making Disney Princess products ageless/timeless was one of the best works of marketing magic that Disney could have ever pulled.
As young women of this generation, it is imperative to analyze and understand the messages and images that one’s childhood was bombarded with, and acknowledge how that has made a significant impact on one’s personality to this day.
Although no one in the group is plagued with the so called “Princess Syndrome” This topic was chosen because this group is composed to three young, African-American women who were all spoon fed Disney Princesses at a young age. This project was created with the curiosity as to how Disney is still affecting young girls be it positive or negative. A love for Disney but a lack of good representation in terms of race and characteristics inspired this
project.
For example, not long ago, more than half of the Disney Princesses are Caucasian. Loaded, flattering words like beautiful, smart, kind and royalty surround these almost carbon copy characters making them admirable but hardly relatable for girls of color who couldn’t see themselves in the likes of Snow White, Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty.
“Yeoman (1999) read a Cinderella-type tale, San Souci's (1989) The Talking Eggs, to the children and asked them to draw the main character, Blanche, who is Black…as well as Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters (Steptoe, 1987), another Cinderella- type tale with a Black heroine….the children "almost invariably drew White characters no matter what color they were themselves"…The implications that most if not all children, including children of color, see "White" as good, living happily ever after, and pretty, are disturbing” (Hurley, 2005).
Taking note of the diversity issue was a starting point. Research was conducted and other topic stemed from that. For example, Aladdin (1992) introduced the first POC Disney Princess Jasmine. Directly after Jasmine came Pocahontas (1995), Mulan (1998) and, The Princess and the Frog’s Tiana (2009). While it took a few years in between each princess in the past, today it seems as if we have a new princess every other year. Lately there has been an influx of Disney Princesses that are not only glamorous, but witty, smart, independent , and overall much better role models for girls than the Princesses of the previous generation. Better messages and dynamic personalities, and growing diversity separate these girls from the rest, leading one to believe that Disney is taking several steps in the right direction. The next Disney Princess Moana will be Polynesian making her the first POC digital Princess, seeing as that Tiana was the last 2D princess. The project helped to emphasize how this generation ids privileged enough to recive princesses who stive to set good example and be good role modles for young girls. It was noted that body image was another point that many have a problem with when it comes to the beloved princesses. Although not emphasized, the way a princess is supposed to look I is subliminal yet obvious in the way Disney designs their Princesses. And when every young girl between the age of 3-11 is a princess, this can become dangerous.
“The problem is: What is between the lines? Aurora is described as an extraordinarily beautiful woman, so young girls will understand, even if they are not directly told, that is how they are supposed to strive to look…you will notice that Aurora’s figure is as impossible as Barbie’s for humans to achieve. Unfortunately, this is not isolated just to “Sleeping Beauty.” All of Disney’s princesses, and even some of the female villains, are impossibly proportioned…” (The Sundial, 2006).
It was brought to attention that one has to be careful when presenting Disney princesses to young impressionable girls. Young women are already subject to negative body images from other types of media. Receiving the same negative body images/messages from something that is supposed to be child/family friendly, and influential as the Disney Princesses could be detrimental
Cognitive dissonance is a phase that comes to mind when discussing the Disney princesses. It’s easy to see that the Disney Princesses aren’t the best of role models for young girls with most of them being passive or aloft, waiting for some prince to step in and change their lives. However, Disney provides an attractive nostalgia that’s hard to let go of once being raised with the magical and glamorous stories that the Disney princesses are a part of. The stories are compelling and the characters are likable. “Disney is hard to resist. We have known that since we were children. Sometimes, Disney has shown us a representation of the world as we have experienced it both realistically and allegorically. At other times, it has revealed a vision of the world as we would like it to be, a place of innocence and enchantment where all is well that ends well. But… we must try at the very least to reread the effects of the political economy of the signs and images produced by Disney that pervade our everyday lives and those of our children” (Trifonas, 2001).
Today The Walt Disney Company is a world rebound Multibillionaire corporation but it has come a long way from its roots. Founded by Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney, the “Walt Disney Studios” as we know it today was founded on October 16, 1923 and was originally dubbed the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. The brothers were successful with a slew of popular cartoon such as Alice's Wonderland (1923), Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1928), and Steamboat Willie staring the most famous Mickey Mouse, previously named 'Mortimer Mouse', who would later star in several Disney Studios produced films and become the icon of the Walt Disney Brand. “Walt Disney has been, arguably, the most influential American of the twentieth …show more content…
century. Beginning in the late 1920s, his immense and multifaceted entertainment enterprise – short cartoons, feature-length animations, live-action films, comic books and records, nature documentaries, television shows, colossal theme parks – inundated the United States, much of the Western world, and beyond” (Watts, 1995). Disney’s success would only further expand. His nest project, taking three years to complete, would star the first ever “Disney Princess”, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1934), and would take the title of the first ever full length animated film to premiere in movie theaters. With this, Walt Disney had unknowingly created a legacy that would continue to impact young children, mainly young girls, long after he would be gone. “For more than nine decades, the name Walt Disney has been preeminent in the field of family entertainment. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to today's global corporation, The Walt Disney Company continues to proudly provide quality entertainment for every member of the family, across America and around the world” (The Walt Disney Company, n.a).
The gap between the first Disney Princess and the next one was indirectly caused by WWII. Many working at the Disney studios were drafted into the war. However, Disney was able to survive and released Cinderella in 1950. But after that they would become the staple to Walt Disney Studios. The Disney princess franchise that stretches from the meticulously hand drawn Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the yet-to-be-released digital princess Moana, is one that has contributed to the lives of millions of young girls not only on the united states, but across the globe, both positively and negatively. The Disney princesses are so well know that many children do not know that they were derived from much earlier, similar tales that were much too gruesome for children to watch “In recent times, since the invention of cinema, the visual representation of fairy tale characters has been dominated by the Disney version of these tales. Such is the power of visual representation that children tend to believe that Disney's version of the fairy tale is the real story rather than the "classic" version to which they may or may not have been exposed through school or home. (Hurley, 2005)”
Recently the beloved Disney Princesses have been under harsh criticism from those who believe that they are psychologically harmful for young girls to consume at the alarming rate at which they are. Many blogs and websites are dedicated to critiquing or applauding the way in which Disney princesses influenced them as young girls, while simultaneously analyzing the and the young preteen girls of today. “The fairy tale is one of the longest existing genres of children's literature. Through the ages, children have formed mental images of the princesses and other characters depicted in these tales from their representation in the written text as well as in the illustrations that have often accompanied those texts. Fairy tales, therefore, have an important role to play in shaping the self- image and belief system of children” (Hurley, 2005). Either way it is known that the Princesses have a huge impact whether it be positive or negative.
A few years ago the Disney Princesses Brought in about $100 million in merchandise . today Disney Princess products are sold internationally in over 90 different countries, earning roughly $3.4 billion since the Disney Princess Franchise was launched. To understand how the Disney Princess Franchise became so well renowned, of course one would have to look to Disney’s marketing strategies. In 1999 Andy Mooney joined the Walt Disney Company and was put in charge of Disney consumer Products. “They weren’t even Disney products. They were generic princess products”, he mused, and soon afterwards, with extremely low resistance within the organization, very little marketing, and no focus group testing, the Disney Princess franchise was launched. In 2001 sales for the Disney Consumer Products division was generating $300 million. Fast forward to 2012, and the Disney Princess franchise earned a whopping $3 billion in global sales making them the number one brand for best-selling entertainment products” (MCNG Marketing, 2013). Mooney basically grouped together the princesses, plastered their face on everything imaginable, and then he made it available to the public, creating the Disney Princess Franchise we know today. Children weren’t the only ones targeted by the Disney princess Franchise. Nostalgic teens young adults, and grown women were the also victims of Mooney’s clever marketing tactic. Princess wedding dresses and dinnerware a Sephora Reigning Beauties Cinderella Collection, electronics, stationary and accessories were all created to lure in the adult dollar. Making Disney Princess products ageless/timeless was one of the best works of marketing magic that Disney could have ever pulled.
As young women of this generation, it is imperative to analyze and understand the messages and images that one’s childhood was bombarded with, and acknowledge how that has made a significant impact on one’s personality to this day.
Although no one in the group is plagued with the so called “Princess Syndrome” This topic was chosen because this group is composed to three young, African-American women who were all spoon fed Disney Princesses at a young age. This project was created with the curiosity as to how Disney is still affecting young girls be it positive or negative. A love for Disney but a lack of good representation in terms of race and characteristics inspired this
project.
For example, not long ago, more than half of the Disney Princesses are Caucasian. Loaded, flattering words like beautiful, smart, kind and royalty surround these almost carbon copy characters making them admirable but hardly relatable for girls of color who couldn’t see themselves in the likes of Snow White, Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty.
“Yeoman (1999) read a Cinderella-type tale, San Souci's (1989) The Talking Eggs, to the children and asked them to draw the main character, Blanche, who is Black…as well as Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters (Steptoe, 1987), another Cinderella- type tale with a Black heroine….the children "almost invariably drew White characters no matter what color they were themselves"…The implications that most if not all children, including children of color, see "White" as good, living happily ever after, and pretty, are disturbing” (Hurley, 2005).
Taking note of the diversity issue was a starting point. Research was conducted and other topic stemed from that. For example, Aladdin (1992) introduced the first POC Disney Princess Jasmine. Directly after Jasmine came Pocahontas (1995), Mulan (1998) and, The Princess and the Frog’s Tiana (2009). While it took a few years in between each princess in the past, today it seems as if we have a new princess every other year. Lately there has been an influx of Disney Princesses that are not only glamorous, but witty, smart, independent , and overall much better role models for girls than the Princesses of the previous generation. Better messages and dynamic personalities, and growing diversity separate these girls from the rest, leading one to believe that Disney is taking several steps in the right direction. The next Disney Princess Moana will be Polynesian making her the first POC digital Princess, seeing as that Tiana was the last 2D princess. The project helped to emphasize how this generation ids privileged enough to recive princesses who stive to set good example and be good role modles for young girls. It was noted that body image was another point that many have a problem with when it comes to the beloved princesses. Although not emphasized, the way a princess is supposed to look I is subliminal yet obvious in the way Disney designs their Princesses. And when every young girl between the age of 3-11 is a princess, this can become dangerous.
“The problem is: What is between the lines? Aurora is described as an extraordinarily beautiful woman, so young girls will understand, even if they are not directly told, that is how they are supposed to strive to look…you will notice that Aurora’s figure is as impossible as Barbie’s for humans to achieve. Unfortunately, this is not isolated just to “Sleeping Beauty.” All of Disney’s princesses, and even some of the female villains, are impossibly proportioned…” (The Sundial, 2006).
It was brought to attention that one has to be careful when presenting Disney princesses to young impressionable girls. Young women are already subject to negative body images from other types of media. Receiving the same negative body images/messages from something that is supposed to be child/family friendly, and influential as the Disney Princesses could be detrimental
Cognitive dissonance is a phase that comes to mind when discussing the Disney princesses. It’s easy to see that the Disney Princesses aren’t the best of role models for young girls with most of them being passive or aloft, waiting for some prince to step in and change their lives. However, Disney provides an attractive nostalgia that’s hard to let go of once being raised with the magical and glamorous stories that the Disney princesses are a part of. The stories are compelling and the characters are likable. “Disney is hard to resist. We have known that since we were children. Sometimes, Disney has shown us a representation of the world as we have experienced it both realistically and allegorically. At other times, it has revealed a vision of the world as we would like it to be, a place of innocence and enchantment where all is well that ends well. But… we must try at the very least to reread the effects of the political economy of the signs and images produced by Disney that pervade our everyday lives and those of our children” (Trifonas, 2001).