In recent years, Disney has been toying around with their “Princess” brand, making their popular films and characters even more marketable to children–namely, to young girls. This isn’t really new: Disney has changed the designs of their princesses to fit with market trends numerous times since the first princess, Snow White, debuted in 1937. Controversy arose, however, when Disney began retooling their princess brand for new products last summer, tweaking their make-up and outfits, and changing other, more integral aspects of their characters.
The redesigns are noticeably more glamorous and more bedazzled. Princess Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty, 1959) and Belle (Beauty and the Beast, 1991) no longer have the visually-flat hair of their movie counterparts, and are instead featured with the shimmering, flowing locks frequently seen in magazine …
On my last procrastination streak, in addition to watching dozens of videos of young children singing pop songs on YouTube, I stumbled upon a gem from my childhood – all 44 minutes of ‘Free to Be… You and Me’. I don’t know how many of you watched, read or listened to ‘Free to Be,’ as kids, but for those who didn’t, it is a movie, book, and CD created in 1972 dedicated to entertaining kids without reinforcing gender stereotypes – boys are told its okay to cry, “mommies’” and “daddies’” jobs are unrelated to their gender, and princesses travel the world and remain single. I still remember my first “feminist moment” when, at age six, my jam sesh to ‘William’s Doll’ was interrupted by my dad saying that it was …
Twilight, Romeo and Juliet and the Disney Princesses: Why Are We Looking Up To These Examples?
In light of the New Moon DVD coming out recently, I have to admit, I shrieked like a little girl every time Taylor Lautner came onto the screen. However, despite how absolutely dreamy I think he is, and how I read the books incessantly last summer, there are QUITE a few things that I absolutely cannot stand. These seemingly romantic and harmless books, are actually filled with sexism and signs of emotional and sometimes physical abuse. When I was thinking more about this, I realized that quite a bit of literature, doesn’t actually send out that nice of a message.
Relating directly to the Twilight Saga, I started reading it two summers ago, and immediately fell in love with Edward, he seemed utterly perfect. To have someone love you that …
So this long weekend I watched a lot of Disney movies, because I’m awesome, and I have to say Sarah Haskins pretty much gets it. It’s a debate that we’ve had before, about commercials and cartoons and even videos, but one I love to have since it’s a pretty basic part of most of our childhoods. Happy watching while I make up for all of my procrastination!
This morning I felt extremely lazy, so when I woke up at 11:00 I decided to turn on some cartoons. (Hey, we’re all kids at heart.) There were commercials on, but one of them was a little different than I expected:
I found this picture on feministing yesterday. Considering the response to my last post about Disney, I thought you guys might find this pic interesting.
I think the sexism they point out in the picture is legitimate as far as plot lines go, but statements like, “Her only asset, physical beauty…” and “her only asset, sexuality” get to me a little bit. Sure, I think Disney created some pretty sexist characters here. But they weren’t exactly dumb bimbos who acted without any purpose throughout the entirety of the movies.
As I recall, I actually identified with Belle quite a bit because we were both voracious readers. I’d say an appetite for literature is a pretty good asset to have. And Jasmine was totally empowered by demanding to marry only who …
