My Princess Experience

Some of my earliest memories include watching Disney movies, especially the princess movies. We had every movie on tape and they were used and abused quite frequently between my little sister and me. I never realized how truly sexist these movies are. I understand they’re fairy tales (or versions of them) and that they’re not meant to be based on real events but they are so fantasized that it’s almost unbelievable. Because these movies are such an integral part of many children’s lives I think it’s important to analyze some of the generalizations that Disney makes about women and how they can potentially influence the lives of their viewers. In this blog, I will focus on issues of race, marriage and gender roles in the Disney princess movies. The princesses that will be part of this blog will be Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan and Tiana. We all had our favorite princesses growing up, mine was Belle. We could all relate to their individual stories and wanted to be just like them when we grew up. But, in retrospect, I can’t help but to question how much these stories have idealized life to us starting at a young age and how much watching these movies have influenced how little girls picture the perfect life. Was Disney really that sexist at the beginning? Or were they just a product of their time, as the movies are becoming more and more accepting of strong female characters as time goes on? These are questions that we were unaware of as children, we probably didn’t even realize the injustices playing out before our eyes, but this blog will address the more adult issues at hand in these children’s movies.

Scholarly Sources:

England, Dawn Elizabeth, Lara Descartes, and Melissa A. Collier-Meek. "Gender Role Portrayal and the

     Disney Princesses." Sex Roles 64 (2011): 555-67. Web. 4 Jun 2011.

Lester, Neal A. "Disney’s The Princess and The Frog: The Pride, the Pressure, and the Politics of Being a

     First." Journal of American Culture 33.4 (2010): 294-308. Web. 4 Jun 2011.