Disney

What do you see on the above image? A group of perfect girls, intelligent, beautiful and fighting for what they want and what they believe in? Or rather an army that can kill your personality without the need of weapons or physical violence, one that is capable of leading you towards self-destruction?

I grew up with Disney princesses, admiring them, singing their songs and dreaming of prince charming. Now that I am grown up I can see that incredible manipulation, the portrayal of the perfect body image and perfect woman in general, reflected in all possible media.

Yes, Disney fairytales are shallow, but are they really as bad as many would claim? Most of the stories are based on very old fables e.g. by Andersen or the brothers Grimm. Even though these tales are more realistic, they are also sad and more brutal and some of them would be inappropriate for children.

Disney merely took the ideas and turned them into very simple and shallow happy endings. And I think his take on the old tales might be more appropriate for kids than the original tales. For example, Pocahontas is kidnapped and tragically dies in England, the Little Mermaid kills herself, and maybe the most disturbing one: Sleeping Beauty doesn't wake up from the prince's kiss, so he rapes her and she wakes up 9 months later in the pain of childbirth...

So why are these lovable fairytales so fiercely criticized? I think that if only the girls were presented in a more natural way, i.e. not like Barbie dolls whose main goal is to marry the handsome prince, they would be far more approachable and illustrate a different discourse. One could argue that Bell liked reading books, Ariel and Jasmine wanted to see the world, they disobey their parents, fighting for what they want. But in the end they all end up marrying prince charming.

But these are the old stories, what is Disney teaching us today? Although the female body type stays more or less the same (very thin, big eyes and a big mane of hair), the emphasis is put on different values. In Frozen, the biggest impact is put on the love between two sisters, in Maleficent love is also not superficial, it wasn't enough for the prince and princess to look at each other in order to fall in love, it was Maleficent's love that woke her (so go girl power!).

Even though Disney is about more than just the princesses, somehow it is mostly associated with them. I think that far more harmful are the newer shows on Disney Channel which portray young girls wearing makeup, pursuing fame and handsome boys, because they are more real and the young audiences can relate better to them (they are not animated, usually pictured as 'average' teens at school).

So, maybe let's give the Disney princesses a break and focus now on the disturbing content that is on TV now.

"Just be beautiful and you'll be happy (seriously, we're not wearing any make-up)"