Feminism amongst Disney Princesses

 Written by Yongma Lee

3/2/2015

 

             Throughout my Disney movie collection, I have every Disney princess movie and attempt to organize my movies with my sorting system. However, most of the Disney princess movies all have a similar form of ideology with only a few princesses fighting the stereotypical status quo of the typical princesses. Most of the princesses play the role of a damsel in distress or even someone who can’t stand up for themselves especially fighting against the antagonists in the Disney movies. In addition, most of the Disney princesses in the movies portrayed as cheerful, naïve, fragile, obedient, quiet and childish more often than not about causing conflict. On top of that, they feel the need for a hero or a prince to save them and sweep them off their feet due to their portrayal that the majority can’t resolve issues on their own without the need of their parents and love interests to resolve conflicts for them. Furthermore, their remarkably respective beauty caught romantic interest of the male protagonists to the point of marrying them immediately after the meet a few times with the exception of some of the hero would like to get to know the princess better before if the Disney princesses are the right ones for the heroes and princes. Besides the typical ideas for a good ending, a majority of Disney princesses portrayed with a slender waist, beautiful singing voice, and a beautiful face, which also cause girls to try to imitate them by any means to one day that they will become princesses as well. The main concept in those movies is the feminism due to the majority of the Disney princesses portrayed as naïve and childish often plays the role of the damsel in distress let alone the cause of multiple issues.

             Walt Disney wanted to stay true to the adaptations of the fairy tales as much as possible since the classic era after the introduction of Technicolor into the motion picture industry along with adding a sense of a musical in it starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. During the movie’s screening, it portrays the female protagonist as naïve yet cheerful, but very good at cooking and cleaning around the dwarves’ cottage until they arrived. Although the dwarves found her asleep in their room and yet one of them wanted her to get out their house, but they find out about her wicked stepmother wanted her dead just because the princess is in the way for being the “fairest of all.” As the queen finds out that Snow White’s still alive through the magic mirror, she turns into an old hag to trick Snow White into take a bite of the poisoned apple sending her into a “sleeping” death until the prince kissed her and takes her to his castle (Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.) A few examples of portraying this princess as a sort of naïve damsel in distress as the queen deceived her in disguise even though the dwarves warn her not to let strangers in the house along with the stereotypical idea of waiting for the prince to come and save her even though she hardly knew him. On top of that, Snow White was the first princess portrayed as fragile, yet cheerful because she can’t do anything else to resolve other than cleaning and cooking while staying at the dwarves’ cottage. The next Disney princess film, Cinderella, adapted into another Disney film from the everyday fairy tale book written by the Brothers Grimm with the female protagonist in a similar position yet Disney made it a bit more fantastical such as talking mice and birds helping her making her dreams come true by meeting the prince at the ball. Yet she needs the mice, the dog and birds to resolve her own “happily-ever-after.” Yet, she can’t do anything to stand up against her wicked stepmother, her stepmother’s spiteful cat, Lucifer, along with her ugly stepsisters (Disney Cinderella.) She couldn’t do anything on her own due to her submissive behavior out of fear inflicted by her stepmother. The very similar patterns resides within certain Disney princess films such as the Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. They all have the same ideology that they need the help of the heroes and supporters to resolve the problems for them such as fighting against the antagonists. In addition to that, they needed men to resolve the conflict that they caused as the princesses described as someone who can’t resolve anything. However, only a few successful attempts in encouraging feminism in the films might encourage influence in the desire of treating women as equals. Although very successful in encouraging feminism in the princess franchise, the majorities of the princesses are cheerful, naïve and fail to resolve anything on their own, as they need men to resolve the matters for them.

             Although the majority of Disney princesses portrayed as the role of damsels in distress, only three princesses qualified for change in the stereotypical status quo. They intend to defy their role of being stereotypical women that meets the expectation of the male majority. For example, Tiana isn’t the kind of woman who is waiting for a prince to sweep her off her feet, but she wanted to work hard to make her dream a reality. Because of her work for her dream, she doesn’t have time for dancing or messing around even after she first meet the prince as a frog. In addition, she is the type of princess who’s not afraid to speak her mind and resolve her own issues (The Princess and the Frog.) Another example is Milan as she defies traditional behavior of Chinese women and even joins the imperial army while pretending to be a man. She did that due to trying to help her elderly and stubborn father from going to another war in his current condition. After they discover she is a woman while checking for the injuries that Shan Yu inflicted, the army spared her from a death sentence yet leave her in the mountains while marching forward to the imperial city. However, after witnessing the antagonist’s survival from the avalanche and trying to warn both the imperial army and the citizens about the situation, Mulan realize that she need save China by protecting the emperor and defeating the villain. Despite the anger from the emperor, he and the rest of the citizens showed her their gratitude for what she had done for all of China and saving the emperor’s life as well as Mulan recognized as a hero (Mulan.) Although these princesses are rebellious, they also assert their own rights as individuals yet hold on to their feminine characteristics considered positive by contemporary feminists such as compassion. As a result for the princess narrative, the characters are a new form of female heroes in a progressive sense. Trite’s theory encourages the purpose of rewriting the fairy tales too meet the expectation in an ideological sense (Whelan. 29.) Naturally, the second wave princesses portraying in a compassionate, and understanding manner, but they also possess some naturally masculine traits such as assertiveness and cleverness (31.) With the combination of feminine traits and naturally masculine traits into some of the second wave and third wave princesses, it creates a recipe for a smart and assertive princess that would set a better example for the audience.

             Even though the idea of a princess who is assertive and understanding is very interesting, but recent Disney works starting to backslide on the traditional princess concept from the Classical era. Although some positive reception from Tangled and Frozen are favorable, but the viewers should look closely that the recent princesses portrayed in a more feminine manner than a balance of the natural traits found in female and male characters respectively. At the same time, Frozen has brought a revolution defining Queen Elsa’s journey toward happiness yet Anna wanted to search for love even if it means falling for the first prince that she meets (Frozen.) However, the current feminism in Disney films flawed in multiple parts and hopes that feminism would improve for the better in the motion picture industry especially from the upcoming Cinderella 2015 remake. Although I saw the twists and changes, in compare and contrast from the original plot, but I will be the judge on the new take of the remake and how will the movie change the viewpoint on the female half of society for the better with new Cinderella being a proper heroine. The struggle of feminism weighs in heavily on the princess movies’ new direction depending on Disney wanting to change their approach towards women as society is changing for better or worse.

Works Cited:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Dir. Larry Morey. Disney, 1938. DVD.

Cinderella. Dir. Clyde Geronomi.  Disney, 1950. DVD.

Frozen. Dir. Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee. Perf. Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel. Disney, 2013. DVD

The Princess and the Frog. Dir. Ron Clements. Disney, 2009. DVD.

Mulan. Dir. Tony Bancroft. Perf. Ming-Na. Disney, 1998. DVD

Whelan, Bridget. "Power To The Princess: Disney And The Creation Of The 20Th Century Princess Narrative." Interdisciplinary Humanities 29.1 (2012): 21-34. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.