In The End...

How do these movies impact the young children that grow up watching them? I find that this is a question that did not even occur to me until recently—these movies played such an important part in my own childhood that it made me wonder how they could affect children’s perceptions of love and women. The resolutions of all of these movies are strongly gendered and help to “reinforce the desirability of traditional gender conformity” (England, Descartes, and Collier-Meek 565). The princesses always end up winning over the prince by the end of the film, regardless of what happened previously with them in the movie. This is so unrealistic, especially in some of the settings that the princesses encounter. I’m not saying that a happy ending is completely out of the question, but the way that it is presented by Disney is often improbable. This is especially obvious when you look at how the princesses and princes fall in love with each other: “at first sight (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty), against all odds (Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, The Princess and the Frog), or both (Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Pocahontas)” (565). As the years have gone on the time frame in which they fell in love has become more realistic (going from one day to a developed friendship then love interest) but it still troubles me that this is the resolution that Disney always chooses. Pocahontas is the only princess that does not go with her prince but she is still linked to him romantically at the end of her story. These stories tell little children from a very young age that love and/or marriage are the only ways to end a story; that independence and happiness  are not two things that go together (according to Disney standards). This completely degrades women because it makes them seem like they are completely codependent on their men and cannot lead a “happily ever after” kind of life without a man by their side.