As a little girl, I distinctly remember watching all of Disney’s princess movies in complete awe. I saw these princesses as perfect and astonishingly beautiful women, whom I desired to grow up to be. Never once until I matured, did I begin to realize the representation of women in the movies, and how our generation would repeatedly continue to adhere to these expectations and types of standards.
The first Disney princess movie, Snow White came out in 1937, almost a century ago. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has since become iconic in many childhood memories, including mine. She most definitely was a vividly cool princess with a sweet character. In the story, the evil queen becomes so envious of White’s beauty that she poisons her, and in turn Snow White can only be awakened by a kiss from a prince. This got me wondering why she needed to be saved by a man. This trend in Disney has been visible for a long period of time. Portraying women as needing to be rescued by a man is discriminatory—why couldn’t she save herself? Secondly, why must it have been by a man? What makes him so much more qualified than her? Disney has had this flaw for a while, and with sexist and unempowering themes, it sends a bad message to younger audiences. Although these older Disney movies were a staple to many young children’s childhoods, it has become a poor trend that the protagonist was frequently in need of rescue, and that could only be fixed by a man.
Following, in The Little Mermaid, Ariel longs to be part human. She develops this wish because she falls in love with a prince whom she hopes will love her back. She is left to trade part of her identity, specifically her voice, to have a chance with a guy. Not all women have these desires and it is very stereotypical to make that sort of assumption. Emotional distress should not signal a fault within an individual, and nor should it mean a male needs to jump in the picture to “fix everything.” Most younger audiences don’t quite understand these complex themes and messages, but they are wrong and should not be promoted regardless.
Mulan however, in which Disney presents an excellent female empowerment film, is quite the opposite. Mulan, a fictional female character lost in a traditional and patriarchal society, finds the courage to disguise herself as a man to join the other soldiers preparing for war, and bring honor to her family. Sexism is addressed in this film by showing the capability of her character as having more strength than a man, as well as being able to save her friends in addition to defeating the Huns. This movie was quite inspirational and vitalizing to the mind. But it is concerning that this is one of the few Disney princess movies that doesn’t abide by traditional gender roles. It is disappointing that there are so many to this day that present the prince as the hero of the film, instead of the protagonist. However, there is no wonder why all these older movies present women as idealized: it could be argued that it is because they were designed specifically by men and for men.