Disney is one of the biggest empires in the world. It is a brand that everyone knows about whether they invest in it or not. According to the Forbes Most Valuable Brands list, Disney ranks number seventeen in the world—behind popular brands like Apple and Microsoft and above Wal-Mart. The Disney Empire is a business, a brand that can be found almost everywhere, even in the Dollar Store. The brand’s accessibility is what makes it easy for children to become consumers. The consumerism of princess culture is what I will focus on in this essay, discussing the impact Disney’s Princesses have on young girls and their identity, and how popular culture discourse is beginning to fight back against the empire.
Children become consumers of the Disney brand at a young age, even without parental encouragement. Peggy Orenstein’s New York Times article, “What’s Wrong with Cinderella,” describes the experience of having a daughter in a princess culture/Disney world. Orenstein is not shy about proclaiming her opposition to the Princess brand and what it teaches girls. Orenstein also shows her helplessness in shielding her own daughter from the brand. During a trip to the store, Orenstein’s daughter “point[s] out Disney Princess Band-Aids, Disney Princess paper cups…lip balm…pens…crayons [and] notebooks—all cleverly displayed at the eye level of a 3-year-old trapped in a shopping cart.” Disney strategically places merchandise to capture children as consumers. Children buy into the merchandise and also the “fun of the films themselves and the ‘fairytale’ lives of the characters in them…[and they] come very close to, at least materially, recreating those ‘lives’ in their own living rooms” by owning these products (Lacroix 217). The material aspec...
... middle of paper ...
...enstein, Peggy. "What's Wrong With Cinderella?" The New York Times. 24 Dec. 2006. Web.
01 Dec. 2013.
Orr, Lisa. “‘Difference That Is Actually Sameness Mass-Reproduced’": Barbie Joins the Princess
Convergence.” Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 1.1 (2009): 9-30. Project MUSE. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.
Stephanie. "Reasons Why I’m Not Supporting Disney’s Frozen." Web Blog. The Feminist
Fangirl. Tumblr. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
"To Flatten A Heroine: Artist Puts Disney Princess Filter on 10 Real Life Female Role Models."
Women You Should Know. 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Wohlwend, Karen E. "Damsels in Discourse: Girls Consuming and Producing Identity Texts
Through Disney Princess Play." Reading Research Quarterly 44.1 (2009): 57-83. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Mar. 2009.
"The World's Most Valuable Brands." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, Nov. 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Disney Princess movies target children and are none other than a transfigured fairytale story in which innocence and moral virtue are questioned. In pursuit of romance and having the mindset of doing whatever it takes for love, Disney creates this magical world and targets the youth, especially young girls. Walt Disney was a creative and “radical filmmaker who changed [one’s] ...
Since Disney’s Snow White appeared in 1937, Disney princesses have been a present in pop culture. With the release of new movies frequent and re-release of decades old movies inevitable, a continuous stream keeps Disney princesses in the foreground of adolescent society. It is with the value of entertainment they have been created and as entertainment they should be viewed.
Stephanie Hanes opens up the article with an experience a woman named Mary Finucane had with her daughter. The 3-year-old, Caoimhe (Keeva), became a more passive child than she was before discovering the world of Disney Princesses, which her mother credits to be the cause. Mrs.
A little girl sits on the floor with her gaze fixed on the television screen in front of her, watching magical images dance before her eyes and catchy songs flow through her ears. Even though she had seen it at least twenty times before, she still loved The Little Mermaid just as much as she did the first time she watched it. As she watched it, she longed to be a beautiful mermaid with a curvy body and wonderful singing voice like Ariel. She longed to be saved by the handsome Prince Eric, and fall in love and live happily ever-after like Ariel did. In today’s society, women strive to achieve equality between the sexes. Despite the tremendous steps that have been taken towards reaching gender equality, mainstream media contradicts these accomplishments with stereotypes of women present in Walt Disney movies. These unrealistic stereotypes may be detrimental to children because they grow up with a distorted view of how men and women interact. Disney animated films assign gender roles to characters, and young children should not be exposed to inequality between genders because its effect on their view of what is right and wrong in society is harmful to their future.
Alexandrova, Marina. "Disney and The American Princess: The Americanization of European Fairy Tales." America: The New Society (2010): 1-77. Print.
Society cements certain roles for children based on gender, and these roles, recognized during infancy with the assistance of consumerism, rarely allow for openness of definition. A study conducted by Witt (1997) observed that parents often expect certain behaviors based on gender as soon as twenty-four hours after the birth of a child. The gender socialization of infants appears most noticeably by the age of eighteen months, when children display sex-stereotyped toy preferences (Caldera, Huston, & O’Brian 1989). This socialization proves extremely influential on later notions and conceptions of gender. Children understand gender in very simple ways, one way being the notion of gender permanence—if one is born a girl or a boy, they will stay that way for life (Kohlberg 1966). “According to theories of gender constancy, until they’re about 6 or 7, children don’t realize that the sex they were born with is immutable” (Orenstein 2006). The Walt Disney Corporation creates childhood for children worldwide. “Because Disney are such a large media corporation and their products are so ubiquitous and wide spread globally, Disney’s stories, the stories that Disney tell, will be the stories that will form and help form a child’s imaginary world, all over the world, and that’s an incredible amount of power, enormous amount of power” (Sun). Because of the portrayal of women in Disney films, specifically the Disney Princess films, associations of homemaker, innocence, and dependence are emphasized as feminine qualities for young children. Thus, children begin to consider such qualities normal and proceed to form conceptions of gender identity based off of the movies that portray the very specific and limiting views of women (...
The Disney corporation is easily the greatest empire of entertainment in the world, thanks to the creator Walt Disney and his brother. Disney’s influence has been great within culture and society and I learned how much of an influence Disney has had through our course this semester. This influence is reflected and broadcast through the many works and readings that we examine in class. The articles gave me new knowledge about Disney that I was previously unaware of.
The “disneyfication” of The Little Mermaid perpetuates negative aspects of American cultural ideals, losing the moral integrity and lessons intended to be taught from the original fairytale. Works Cited Mortensen, Finn. A.H. Hauberg. The Little Mermaid: Icon and Disneyfication." Scandinavian Studies.
Disney has portrayed women in movies by the use of animation characters for over a century since the 1900s. There has been a very big change since the early 1900’s to modern day in Disney’s depiction of the personalities of the women, their attitudes and ideologies towards men, and the way they are portrayed in the movies. This progression has had a distinct development, from passive damsels in distress in need of the help of men, to being superheroes. Therefore, the evolution of women in Disney movies will be analyzed through the use of university level feminist essays, as well as a research paper written about gender roles in Disney animation. The evolution will also be analyzed through examination of the clips of the movies themselves.
In “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect,” Stephanie Hanes covers the sexualization of young girls and women in every aspect of the media that influences children and teens. She explains that girls see media figures, movies, and sports being sexualized, and how this is causing children to associate looking and acting a certain way to being ‘the perfect women’. Hanes believes the hypersexualized media is causing girls to obtain a negative body image and it’s killing their self-esteem. The author proposes what she believes society should do about overcoming this obstacle, and how people can crush the stereotypes about women; to her everyone is responsible and should aid in fixing these problems. She explains that the media
Presently, Disney known for its mass media entertainment and amusement parks technically bring warm feelings to many children and some adults. Personally, Disney elicits magical fantasies that children enjoy and further encourages imagination and creativity. For decades Disney has exist as an unavoidable entity with its famous global sensation and reach. Furthermore, Disney is a multibillion dollar empire with an unlimited grasp on individuals and territories. An empire per se, since they own many media outlets, markets, shops, etc., you name it they got it. However, the film Mickey Mouse Monopoly presents an entirely new perspective on the presumed innocence projected in Disney films. This film exposes certain traits Disney employs and exclusively portrays through its media productions, specifically cartoons for directing and nurturing influence beginning with children. Mickey Mouse Monopoly points out camouflaged messages of class, race, and gender issues in Disney films that occur behind the scenes intended to sway viewers towards adopting Disney values.
Disney princesses are fun for all ages, but their target audience is young children and “as children grow and develop, they can be easily influenced by what they see and hear”. Therefore, what they see and hear in Disney movies leaves an impression on them. The first princess, Snow White, was created in a time where each gender and race had a specific role in society. Recently, many believe that Disney has come a long way in regards to gender and race since Snow White, as several multi-cultural protagonists have been introduced subsequently, and gender roles do not appear to be as stereotypical as they once were. However, many of the apparent innocent messages about race and gender in these movies, can be exposed as otherwise. Despite their mask of progression, Disney princesses still have the potential to corrupt the minds of young children through sexism and racism.
Some people might say that these movies provide entertainment and transport families into the lives of princes and princesses. Many critics have said that the films have amazing soundtracks and have detailed and interesting plots. Still, however entertaining the films may be, the way women are viewed and treated outweigh any enjoyment that a viewer could have. The subliminal lessons young women learn from these films have lifelong repercussions and negatively affect the female
Each Disney princess has different positive attributes that make her unique, the most recent Disney princesses are especially fitting in today’s society. In Jena Stephens’ analysis of the three most recent princesses, excluding Anna and Elsa, she describes Rapunzel by saying, “Her forward thinking, desire to prove she is just as capable as a man, and realistic dreaming make her a great role model for young girls”. Whether it is to become a princess and marry her true love like Cinderella or open a restaurant like Princess Tiana, all of the Disney princesses have aspirations. Jena Stephens says, “The words that Tiana sings about the necessary hard work it will take for her to reach her dream stand out as a message to young viewersone that does not covey that love is the only thing that will make girls happy”. Not only do Disney princesses have dreams but they make their dreams come true with hard work. As Liz Gumbinner described her trip to Disney World with her daughters, “The princess luncheon led to a great discussion later in our hotel room, in which we told our girls that it is okay to be strong, smart, hardworking and still dream of marrying a prince”. Disney princesses carry themselves in a humble and confident manner. The princesses are beautiful but they are not conceited. Lastly, they are never stuck up but rather loving and independent which makes their character so
Do Rozario, R.,C. (2004). Proquest. “The princess and the magic kingdom: Beyond nostalgia, the function of the disney princess”. Women's Studies in Communication, 27(1), 34-59.