How Disney Completely Aced Their Princess Movies

Satire

Clearly every children story is made for kids to have fun and waste their time. Therefore The Walt Disney Company focused on making this happen with every princess movie, because how absurd would it be to create tales for children to learn from them, in their beginning stages of life? Since it is much more important to watch films just for the sake of it. Plus, they are still children and they don't deserve the right to learn if they will not remember anything from their childhood when they grow older.

Historical Context

Pocahontas

Pocahontas, was a real twelve year old girl from the Powhatan Native American tribe when the British colonist came to the United States. It is interesting how this girl looks all grown up and falls in love with John Smith, one of the colonists, in the movie by Disney. It is a very rational story, starting by the fact that she all of a sudden is eighteen years old in the movie, and wears dresses that has been undeniably sewn together. Also, she talks to a tree for psychological help and calls her Grandmother Willow, which probably existed during that time period and is an extinct specie today.

Jasmine

Aladdin, is a story that takes place in a Middle Eastern country. Although the time period is not stated, one knows that in these places the population practice Islam. In this religion women are supposed to wear a burka, niqab, chador, dupatta or hijab because the Koran states it. According to the ABC news, "The Koran calls for both men and women to 'cover and be modest'." but that they are not obligated to fully cover themselves.

Nonetheless, this is for the modern population while Aladdin takes place Before Christ. So Jasmine was breaking the trends and making a fashion statement by showing her curvaceous body. Clearly she did not care to break the rules of her religion since apparently she was a rebel muslim girl. Normally high class people are more conservative than the rest of the population so it is funny how Jasmine could still walk around and fly in a magic carpet without being restrained by her rich family.

Idea of Women

Women have always been more respected than men. For example, they were so busy living their luxurious lives, taking care of their families and the housekeeping, that they did not need to go vote or even work for that matter. Unfortunately for men, they had to do all this boring and demanding jobs. Today, men receive major salaries than women but that is just because the feminine gender does not care about the money, since after a long day at work she has to do what she really loves, cleaning after her families mess at home.

In this situation, Cinderella is a great example because she spends her day cleaning after her stepmother and stepsisters. When little girls sees this, they picture themselves doing the same when they grow older. This is exactly what every women in this world should do and once in for all quit their jobs. It is much more pleasurable to be mistreated or demanded by someone else, like Cinderella is, than to be independant. The female young audience need to picture themselves like this as adult because there is nothing they will enjoy more than this.

Likewise, Sleeping Beauty also shows a precise idea of women. The story is about a princess who is sleeping because of a spell and that can only awake with a kiss of true love. The climax of plot is when a man kisses her causing the spell to end. Aurora waits for a long time for this man to arrive and that is what young girls do as well. They understand that only with a man by their sides, they will be successful in life. This is extremely accurate because even though women had these amazing lives where they did not have to vote nor work, they always needed a man by their side. There is no such thing as an independent successful women because in order to be successful one has to be married first.

Perception of Beauty

Media plays an important role on the perception of women's beauty. Disney princesses are the ones who portray an image of what a beautiful lady has to look like. They are all slim, perfect cutis, flawless hair and no imperfection whatsoever. Since, their young audience idolizes the princesses, they will want to be as pretty as they are, which is what they should do throughout their whole lives until they reach such standards. If someone does not fulfill every prerequisite, they will have to spend millions of dollars buying lotions, on operations and all sort of things in order to achieve them.

Furthermore, ugly people are always mean and evil, at least Disneys villains have those characteristics. For instance, in the Little Mermaid the antagonist is a fat and horrifying lady. Obviously the whole population that is overweight has the same thought process that she does, and they all most likely hate Ariel because if one fat person feels that way, every fat person feels the same.

Moreover, the generations that grew up during 1937 and the beginning of the 21st century, most likely defines beauty with caucasian looks, because the first animation Disney published was Snow White. Furthermore, not only until the year 2009, they publish Princess and the Frog, which is the first movie starred by an African-American character. Therefore, the perception of beauty created by Disney, throughout all those generations is centered in white skinned girls, which are the most beautiful ones so they most likely made the film to keep the African-American culture happy for a while.