The twenty-first century has transformed from traditional customs to more liberal ideas. One example is the view of Cinderella and how she may be detrimental to young females or how she can be molded to society’s view and become empowered. Critic from Time magazine and author of “The Princess Paradox,” James Poniewozik discusses how the idea of princesses can be powerful or harmful to the adolescent women of today. He emphasizes Hollywood’s version of Cinderella in real life portrayals and suggests that there are quite a few princesses in existence who are strong and self-determined and not weak and helpless. Like Poniewozik, Peggy Orenstein examines roles of princesses; however, she does so in a different light. Self-proclaimed feminist and author of “Cinderella and Princess Culture,” Orenstein describes how as a mother of the Grranimals era she is struggling with her daughter growing up in the princess world (671). The author points out many different aspects of the princess culture that she fears may be more than a craze, such as Club Libby Lu, the princess franchise, and animated movies of Disney princesses. Although both authors agree that princesses may be just a phase, Orenstein fears from a mothers’ perspective that princesses are a negative role model, whereas Poniewozik describes from a critic’s point of view that princess could potentially do no harm.…
1. There are many gender stereotypes present in Disney films. Some of the most common ones are seen in almost all main characters. The women have big breasts, small waists, fluttering eyelashes, they are also very seductive and use their sexuality to get what they want. Women are seen as weak and being the “damsel in distress.” For male characters in Disney, they are always seen as heroic, tough men, with chiselled chins, outrageous muscles and the perfect overall body. They are always seen as the ideal perfect man. Many Disney movies including The Little Mermaid, The Beauty and the Beast, and Cinderella demonstrate that to be happy, men and women have to have the “ideal” physique.…
To be feminine means having qualities and or appearances traditionally associated with women. Women are expected to act a certain way, and that certain way is to be subservient to men. They are depicted as insecure human beings who want to look pretty to impress others, and in order to find a husband. Gender roles in society state that women who are opposed to them are rebellious “she-males” who wouldn’t make a good wife or mother instead of viewing them as women who are independent, powerful, and strong in society. When beautiful women in magazines or television shows always have flawless skin and a perfect complexion, the typical female viewer, who is most likely not all of these things, will be alienated by the very image in which she is supposed to identify with. Young teenage girls, whose bodies are changing and developing, are being deprived of necessary nutrients at every meal in order to match this archetype of an ideal…
Firstly, I believe that fairytales are atrocious for little kids, for the subject of body image. Body image is a major controversy when it comes to Disney movies. Beautiful locks, ‘perfect’ eyes, ‘perfect’ nose and thin waist are what most all of the Disney princesses look like. In the Disney original movies the bad guy, for example the stepsisters in “Cinderella” are portrayed as ‘ugly’, while in the original version they are known as beautiful, and delicate. In the Disney version of “Cinderella”, it suggests the prince did not look towards the stepsisters because they did not look ‘perfect’. This further proves that Disney movies suggest viewers to have beautiful looks, and skinny to posses the power for a prince or anyone to fall in…
Poniewozik begins by stating that it is a nightmare for the young girls wanting to be princesses today. Society expects every little girl wants to be a princess. Poniewozik blames Hollywood for this. It’s true in recent decades that Hollywood has produced quite a few cinderella stories and also many other fairy-tail type projects. It’s not a bad thing for them to do this because they’re making a large profit off these projects. Princess fairytale stories and movies are surprisingly popular today. Poniewozik claims that we have come a long way from the girls-kick-ass-culture of just a few years ago (Poniewozik 666).…
Hanes’ purpose is to provide reason to believe that little girls are becoming involved and corrupted with inappropriate ideas of how women should behave and look. Young girls are convinced that they should become a Disney Princess and mothers have found that this idea can lead “down a path of self-objectification to cyberbullying to unhealthy body images”…
Beautiful, pretty, good-looking are all the adjectives that women and girls aspire to be or encouraged to strive for in their life. From the first years of a young girl’s life, she’s told to wear dresses and comb her hair so when she looks into the mirror, she’ll see beauty reflected back at her so that consequently this shallow image of beauty is adopted by her consciousness. Yet as the years pass, she comes to a point in her life where the very aspect of her being is put into question because of what she’s seen on television or heard on the radio so that as a young woman she constantly feels the need to conform to a patriarchal society’s standards of beauty in order to be accepted. Now let’s look at this transition in a young female’s life through the eyes of an African-American girl who grows up being told to wear this and to do her hair like this in order to look pretty. At such a young age, she may not have been affected by the demands and expectations of beauty that was put upon her, but as she grows and develops a deeper understanding of the images around her, she will realize that the images of beauty presented before her do…
For the past seventy-eight years, Disney has been creating disney princess movies, a phenomenon that has swept the world, with worldwide gross of up to six hundred million dollars. Little girls from the age of two watch and enjoy these chauvinist movies, spending hundreds on outfits so that they can resemble their most idealized princess. The official disney princess line-up includes Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Merida. While a single caucasian girl’s dream is blossoming, dreaming about the multiple princesses she could grow up to be, an african american girl’s is falling to pieces, with only a single idealized role model to chose from. While a child yearns for a prince to sweep…
Disney is a very popular company. Many of us grew up watching their movies and shows. Many of us don’t see what they are doing until we have grown up and become exposed to how women are not treated equal. Disney has many movies with showed many things be seen as stated here, “the author cited numerous examples of both sexism and racism in the films, specifically noting the heroines’ extremely pale skin tones, small waists, delicate limbs, and full breast. (England 556)” They have the image of women to be light skin, skinny, and mainly be more attractive to men. Disney shows that women need be the person to get the help, not them helping themselves. In many movies you will see the ‘princess’ will be confronted with some problem that…
I do agree that Disney does follow a lot of the Gender stereotypes. In Disney, Women have to be really skinny and white to be beautiful, which is not true they focus on outer beauty and not inner beauty. They are teaching little girls beauty is being white and skinny that is resulting in an image and standards set for girls. I totally disagree with that and think Beauty should vary and not be just be white and skinny. In "The little Mermaid" many stereotypes are involved involving Ariel and her prince. They teach the idea of changing who you are to be with someone and not following the idea of "being yourself". They teach the idea that women are submissive. I think symbolically it even goes deeper to say that women give up their voice to be…
Considering the images Disney films created in their production. Heroes were muscular, handsome, and tall in size. Heroines were skinny, beautiful, and generally some were sexy. Anyone with an image of short, overweight was either villain or someone being laughed at. Girls that were overweight, or have large nose, small eyes that made…
As Peggy Orenstein’s three year-old daughter entered the “princess phase,” Orenstein became increasingly frustrated. As a feminist, she worried about the negative effects the princess obsession would have on her daughter and other young girls in their futures. In “Cinderella and Princess Culture,” Orenstein sets out to discuss these effects. She discovers that although it seems as if this princess craze is creating negative gender stereotypes at an early age, maybe princess enthusiasts are really benefitting from their obsession.…
“Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” is an article by Stephanie Hanes which touches on the princess phenomenon many young girls are obsessed with. Stephanie Hanes concludes that the Disney Princess craze is linked to self-objectification and the growing sexualization of young girls. Although she provided numerous facts the argument was unsuccessful because it was weak and confusing. Her own personal opinion on why she blamed the Disney Empire for sexualization amongst young girls was rarely voiced. Lastly the main idea of the article gets masked by controversial expert claims that are not linked to the topic.…
I agree that the Disney princesses have a negative effect on how the young girls think and act, a point that needs emphasizing since so many parents devote their children’s time to watching these films. In many of the films, these representations of female gender roles are given to young female viewers. Actually, there are innumerous researches that have been conducted in different elementary schools, children between…
However, most of them highlight the negative impacts of the ‘Princess Ideal’ left on young children’ mind; especially on the young girls. Snow White’s fair and white skin color don’t only attract more boys, but it also becomes a dream for girls trying to look like these princess’. Consequently, girls with the dark skin lose their confidence. In this regard, the animated fairy tales are prime example. Snow White, being one of the favorite Disney princess' of children these days, has changed a lot in the last twenty years. Intentionally or unintentionally, the Disney princess is teaching young girls that all the value is of their beauty; and with this beauty, they can dream of having a handsome prince. Paradoxically speaking, this thought does not give any good reason to the less beautiful girls to love themselves as they’ve fear of not being able to attract any prince charming. Hence, beauty is invariably prominent and…