Princess or Damsel by lucy

Princess or Damsel by lucy - November 2019 Scholarship Essay

As a young girl, I grew up watching Disney princess movies. I truly did have an infatuation when watching the movies and how they enchanted you with magic. In recent years, however, my whole perspective of childhood Disney movies has changed. The movies that I watched as a young girl, now make me bewildered. I do not understand how they portray women and they make me question why I watched them. All of these themes are unacceptable to place into a young growing minds. It blows my mind that people are not outraged by the dumbing down of the female character roles, negative body image, and how the male masculintie characters take over the women characters.

When of the princesses having a small petite body figure, this company sending out an unfortunate message that this is the ideal beauty image that society idolizes. Aa a result a young girl will not feel confident because they don't look like Aurora, Cinderella, or Snow White. This is an impossible reality for young girls to accomplish. They shouldn’t have to or feel the need to change the way they look because that's how Disney depicts a princess from their movies. You should be sending out a body-positive message that all sizes are beautiful not just extra small. Disney states what makes a princess which is, “The ingredients are a pert nose, thick hair, graceful manner, and some lovely frockery. And frankly, a rather drippy existence.” This image of what a princess is makes it difficult to look up to a female princess when they cant look just like them and leave young kids up-set and some metally scarred. This is not a respectable message to be sending out to young female minds; it's rather distasteful and ugly.

In all of the movies, the princesses are gorgeous but that’s all they are perceived as not their intelligence or perseverance but just their outer appearance. For example, in Sleeping Beauty the main character Aurora only had, “18 lines which took up 18 minutes of the movie that was 1hr and 16min. long.” This astonished me that the main female character only had 18 minutes in her movie, 18 minutes to make a lasting impression on young minds. She doesn't speak for herself, she is just a piece in the game, being manipulated by others. Most Disney movies will have the main character be a “female princess but they only talk for about 30-50% of the whole movie when the men in the movies speak 50-70%.” They also only have the female in the movies main characters have/do “women's job”. Such as you would never see a woman guard or any “male jobs”. Yet, they have progressed on it in recent years such as the movie Brave that is the only movie where the women speaking parts that outweighed the men.

The last way disney harms its female viewership is the female princess playing the damsel in distress. It's such a cliche, young girls don’t need to be taught to sit around and wait for a man to come and “save them” and be “taken care of”. This is a bad message to all audiences, that women are delicate and unself-sufficient. Although then again, it has gotten better in recent years, it is still the same old done to death plot. For example, in the movie Moana, The lead, a future chief, starts as a strong girl who wants more in life, to see the world. She risks her life to save her people. In the end, Mowi(the male lead) ends up saving her going back to the stereotype that women need to be protected/saved by the hero(men). If you want to send a message to your audience, show a female character with confidence, intelligence, who plays the hero. Not the damsel in distress who can't take care of herself.

Finally, yes, Disney movies are a great source of entertainment which continues to bring happiness into children's lives. But it's not fair to young girls or boys to only show females were treated as objects, non-intelics, and that if they don't have a petite body type then they are not cut out to be a princess. Disney Productions needs to change their image and start showing how strong and powerful women are, that women can save themselves and the men. Please emphasize these characters intelligence and the unique difference each princess has not just there beauty differences.