Blame It On Disney

My friends and I have always been a fan of the original Disney movies and all of the Disney princesses. It may sound stupid and immature now, but you have to admit that almost every little girl was at least exposed to (if not infatuated by) the original six princesses… Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Ariel, Belle, and Cinderella. But, after thinking about every single one of their movies, it became pretty obvious to me that a lot of blame for “the way things work” today had to fall on these princesses.

Has it every occurred to you that in all of the Disney movies, the ONLY thing that ever saved the princesses was their artificial beauty? Let’s look at Snow White. She is condemned and killed out of jealousy of her beauty by another woman. However, she is saved in the end because the prince is captivated by her beauty. What about Sleeping Beauty? Again, she is put into an endless sleep out of jealousy by another woman, but once again is saved by her fiancé because of her beauty. What about Jasmine? Her story is a little bit different. Because she will not marry when the law told her to do so, she is enslaved by a powerful man and is rescued, once again, by a prince. Belle? She actually saves a prince, however her only quality is her beauty. Cinderella? She is saved by a prince only because of her beauty as well, not because she is a hard worker and cleans a lot. And my favorite? That would easily be Ariel. In order to lose her fishtail to be more attractive to Prince Eric, Ariel trades her voice for looks. But don’t worry, she has nothing important to say anyways and is ultimately saved by another prince.

Are you beginning to see a pattern here? In these movies, women are marginalized as the damsel in distress and the men are marginalized as the great and powerful savior! There is absolutely no gray area. It amazes me that such subtle images and concepts are basically drilled into young girls’ heads at such an early age. It’s no wonder the gender roles in America are so set in stone like they are today.

So here is the final word of Walt Disney:

To all of you young girls out there, being beautiful on the outside is the most important thing.

To all of you young boys out there, be rich, famous and handsome and you will one day own your own princess!