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Today I saw the preview for Disney's new animation The Princess and the Frog,
a movie that is all the buzz for various reasons,
some applauding the film while others are criticizing it. The buzz that
perplexes me most are the complaints about Princesses in general,
arguing that Princesses, particularly Disney's, promote a negative
stereotype for young girls to look up to. It is this view of Princesses
that I aim to address. While I understand such views, I feel the
writers are overlooking something of utmost importance--Disney films
are based on fairy-tales, a most ancient form of story-telling, and one
which embodies universal archetypes and symbols.
The point of a fairy-tale is to provide a narrative by which to
understand the world and what it means to be human. These narratives
resonate with innate themes--the quest, transformation, conflict--and
the characters serve as symbols of values held in high esteem--honor,
justice, virtue. Passed down through generations, our fairy-tales share
commonalities across cultures, languages, and time. Disney, then, has
only adapted universal stories, themes, and archetypes.
A few of the articles I've read argue that Princesses within Disney
movies promote negative qualities such as reliance upon a prince. True,
in some films, particularly earlier ones, the Princess does await her
Prince, but this is a classical script to illustrate a theme, such as
the quest. All of the characters, not only the women, are flat and
undeveloped because they are archetypes and symbols. In later films--Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid--characters,
both male and female, are more developed, undergo transformations, and
represent desirable or undesirable traits and values.
Regarding desirable values, Disney's Princesses are not lacking.
Jasmine is strong-willed, wanting only sincerity and humility over
money and grandeur; Ariel is independent, taking control of what she
wants; Belle is a kind, caring, and empathetic bookworm, not afraid of
standing out from the crowd.
To suggest that Princesses are negative representations of women is to
overlook these positive values. One writer worried because her young
daughter wants to be a Princess when she grows up as opposed to a
doctor or president. Another contemplated removing Disney films from
his home to ensure his daughter grows up independent and successful.
True, the characters within fairy-tales are not career women,
but children have little concept of "careers" and to make a character a
doctor or president would be to strip the fairy-tale of the imaginative
qualities through which a young child can make sense of the world
around her.
I do not have children nor do I know many. But I do know women who used
to be children, all of whom watched Disney movies and read fairy-tales
as young girls. These women did not grow up yearning for men to save
them but rather became successful and independent lawyers, journalists,
vice-presidents, teachers, and mothers with strong values and virtue.
And their success continues regardless if they have found their
"prince" or are still looking.
Rather than worry about a young girl wanting to be a Princess waiting
for her prince, one might fare better aiming to raise a confident,
balanced, and intelligent girl who can distinguish, for herself, the
difference between myth and reality. In the meantime, leave the
Princesses and fairy-tales alone and a child to her childhood.
