Young children sing and dance to their songs, dress up like them, and desire to be just like them.
The Disney Princess franchise is one of the most recognizable forms of media. It includes twelve animated films beginning with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 and continuing up to 2013 with Elsa and Anna in Frozen that feature a female character in a leading role. With translated versions of the films, dolls, toys, and other products, these princesses are well-known and admired all around the world. However, these fictional characters are also the target of harsh criticism.
Walt Disney Animation Studios is constantly called out for depicting the princesses with traditional gender roles and unrealistic body standards. They are consistently animated as slim figures, with light skin tones, and lacking in diversity.
I recognize that not all of the princesses we know and love are perfect, but I feel as though Disney has come a long way since 1937 and has made significant progress in crafting princesses that represent modern women and their roles in society. Looking at the timeline of princesses, I realize their flaws, but I also take notice of the qualities that each of them individually possesses that makes that princess admirable and appropriate for anyone to look up to.
The first era of princesses include Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty who come off as passive, weak-willed, and incapable of making their own decisions. Snow White and Cinderella worked as servants for their guardian under abusive circumstances. Snow White was stripped of her royal title as princess and forced to wear rags. In the latter half of the film, she resides in the cottage where the seven dwarfs dwell, cooking and cleaning for them.
After her father’s death, Cinderella was robbed of his fortune by her stepmother and two stepsisters. Later, Cinderella rushes to their aid at the ringing of a bell and willingly abides by every one of their demands. Neither Snow White nor Cinderella puts up a fight or attempts to flee from the servile conditions they live under.
The main criticism Aurora receives is that she only had 18 lines of dialogue in the movie and was asleep for most of the film. Furthermore, like Snow White, she dreamed of a prince to take her away from a life of boredom. In addition, upon meeting a stranger in the forest, she doesn’t hesitate to dance and sing with him without any regard for her safety.
Why do these princesses seem so helpless to today’s modern women? Maybe because all three films were released during time periods (between the ‘30s and ‘60s) when the only societal role many women held was that of a homemaker or housewife.
To me, though Cinderella and Snow White did not have the strongest roles, they both displayed admirable qualities such as generosity, humility, and resilience. They both maintain hope that one day their lives will change for the better and that their dreams will come true.
In the case of Aurora, when she is not under the sleeping curse of the villainous Maleficent, she makes a conscious decision of choosing the man she met while dancing in the forest over a stranger prince she had been betrothed to since birth, which proved to be an action that was well ahead of her time – even if it turned out the man she met in the forest and the prince were the same person.
After 30 years of abandoning Disney princess films after the commercial failure of 1959’s Sleeping Beauty, between 1989 and 1999 – now known as the Disney Renaissance – ten animated films were released with female heroines who were ethnically diverse, who broke past the traditional gender norms, and who exhibited qualities such as independence, intelligence, and courage.
Ariel in The Little Mermaid kicked off Disney’s Renaissance. Ariel desires to learn about the world above the sea and speaks her mind when she feels overwhelmed by her overprotective father and his wishes. Rather than have a prince sweep her off her feet – rather, her mermaid tail – she is the hero when she rescues Prince Eric from drowning.
Belle, who followed in 1991’s Beauty and the Beast, is intelligent, with her head usually in a book, and speaks out against other people’s judgments. She sacrifices her freedom and dreams to save her father and becomes the hero of the story, saving the Beast from his fate, not just through love, but through mutual understanding and support.
Aladdin’s (1992) Princess Jasmine left an indelible impression on audiences even as a secondary character. With her wits and confidence, she consistently rejects her status as a princess, refuses to let her father, advisors, royal suitors, and even Aladdin decide her fate, and actively protests the law that requires her to marry a prince, preferring to marry out of love. One of her most famous lines in the film is, “I am not a prize to be won,” which shows the incredible evolution of the Disney princess.
To me, the most athletic and tactful heroines are Pocahontas and Mulan, who debuted in their respective films in 1995 and 1998. Pocahontas is in constant control of her fate, and though her main goal is to keep peace between the Native Americans and the Europeans, she is still willing to defend her own people against the savagery of the Europeans who want to steal their land.
Mulan’s courage and strength turn her into a powerful warrior when she disguises herself as man – even though it is a violation of the law punishable by death – and takes her ailing father’s place in combat. Mulan ultimately proves to be equal to her male counterparts with quick thinking and impressive skill.
The Princess and the Frog was released in 2009 and ignited the Disney Revival, playing a crucial role in the studio’s subsequent string of acclaimed animated films after a decade of failures. The film was made using the traditional form of animation, which was praised for being a “return to form”.
It reestablished musical fairy tales, the classic formula of storytelling the studio is famous for, and introduced the first African-American princess, Tiana, who knew hard work was the only way to reach her goal. Following Tiana in the Disney Revival are Rapunzel from Tangled (2010), Merida from Disney/Pixar’s Brave (2012), and Elsa and Anna from Frozen (2013), who are all progressive female heroines.
In November of this year, Disney will release the film Moana, which will introduce an adventurous Polynesian girl who sets out on a journey to help her family.
Disney has revolutionized the princess, transforming her from a victim who needs to be saved to a hero who often saves others. These princesses have evolved from Snow White, whose name represented her porcelain complexion, to women of color, who fight for what they believe in and work hard to pursue their dreams.