Belle offers herself in order to save her father and depends on the beast to take her out of her boring, provincial town. Mulan relies heavily on her talking-dragon companion and has to transform herself into a man to get where she wants; this sends out an ideological message that only men can be powerful and Esmeralda although independent, acquires the help from Phoebus to get out of the church and falls in love with him rather than Quasimodo. In all the films portraying a more independent heroine, the protagonists are always really beautiful; this suggests to children that in order for you to get Mr Right you must be beautiful and that talents such as singing, cleaning and being able to make your own clothes are much more attractive than things such as brains.
In Disney’s earliest Classic films the protagonists were always fair-haired, blue-eyed with tiny figures. They were great at singing, helped around the house, were seen and not heard and had fantastic dress-making skills. All the most appealing traits a man could want in a woman. They usually had someone to help them in the form of a cute animal or a talking fish in the case of The Little Mermaid. The saviours of the day were prominently male and usually love interests or a fatherly figure, feminists became insulted by the messages Disney films were conveying to young girls.
Snow White (1938) was the first full-length animated feature by Disney and the first American animated feature film in movie history. It was nominated for an Oscar and won countless awards for the music and the animation. It followed the story of a young virginal girl who was ordered to be killed by the wicked queen as she was jealous of her Snow White’s beauty; Snow White is then saved by the hunter and is allowed to live in a cottage with seven dwarves in return for household chores. She is then found by the queen, resulting in the queen posing as an old hag and giving her a poisonous apple. Like the other fairytales, all Propp’s theories are present, what is there to argue against? However more recently feminists have argued that by offering to cook and clean in order for a bed, Snow White was ‘whoring herself out’ and that it sends out the wrong messages to children. It can be argued that as it was made in the 1930’s we can’t really come to the conclusion that it’s sexist as women’s roles were very different to they are now. A Woman’s role in the 1930s was to mainly care for her husband, it wasn’t until the Second World War when women had to work in the factories while their husbands fought the war, that women started to get their own jobs rather than relying on the husband. Feminists also picked faults at the music in the film, the song “Someday my prince will come” angered them as they felt it was shallow and that Snow white was made to look needy as she sat around waiting for a man to save her from her boring life. Snow White is also the first instance where the mother-figure is the villain; this became a more popular feature of the Disney films e.g. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Little Mermaid. Feminists felt that Disney was suggesting that as women got older and lost their looks they became bitter and evil. They also had another thing in common; they were all single. This sent out the ideological message that if you’re not beautiful then you will grow up bitter, evil and most importantly single. There were even connotations that Cinderella’s evil step-mother had killed her father. Another factor of Snow White that enraged a lot of women was that every time Snow White found herself in a sticky situation, she just fluttered her eye lashes and a man (or seven) rushed to her beck and call. This showed that sex sells. Over the years Disney’s Andy Mooney got the idea of bringing all the princesses together in a team to produce Disney princess merchandise. This has seen Snow white become bustier and slimmer over the years. This has ideological message that sex sells and also suggests to girls what the right image is. Bringing all the girls together seems like it conveys the right message about team work and how women should stick together, however it was also argued that all the princesses featured were all the typically naïve, beautiful and white ones. Mulan, Pocahontas, Megra and Esmerelda are not part of the group therefore suggesting that these races are considered as less important.
Due to some outrage about the lack of diversity in the group of princesses, Disney have now released their first black princess in the animated version of The Princess And The Frog (2009), this sounds like Disney have finally pleased worried mothers, feminists and all cultures however once again there is something to criticise about Disney’s choice in characters. In The Princess And The Frog the princess, Tiana falls in love with the prince, Naveen. Although Naveen is Indian, critics argued that his features were very like a white males features. People have also argued about why Disney couldn’t have had their first black prince.
In 1989 Disney produced The little Mermaid, this was the 28th Disney animated feature. It followed the story of a young mermaid called Ariel who, fascinated with the human world, saves a prince, Eric, from a storm. She then falls in love with him but realises the only way she can pursue him is to become human herself, she decides to visit an evil sea witch, Ursula to trade her beautiful singing voice for a pair of legs, the story turns ugly when she has to make Eric kiss her by a a certain time or she will die, Seeing that Eric likes Ariel, Ursula makes Eric fall in love with her rather than Ariel, Ursula then tries to kill Ariel and Eric but is stopped by Ariel’s father. She is then killed by Eric. Ariel was based on American actress and Writer Sherri Stoner, who later was the body model for Belle in The Beauty And The Beast. As predicted, feminists yet again had problems with the storyline; the first issue they had was that in the original story, Ariel dies as a result of showing lustfulness towards Eric. Although as a result of the age range, Disney couldn’t keep the original ending in, feminists felt that it wasn’t showing the right message that the first story conveyed. They also felt that as she was only 16, she was too provocative because all she wore was a bikini top, Disney argued that she was half fish so there was no way of covering her up. Not settled by Disney’s reaction, feminists found another factor to criticise, they said that it sent out ideological messages that a girl should give up everything even their talents, Ariel’s singing voice, for a man. The villain once again, was old, ugly and female, like Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty; it suggested that women who are independent, older and single turn bitter and twisted. It was described as the classic scenario of the innocent virgin versus the provocative, experienced woman. As a result of giving up her voice, Ariel can’t communicate with Eric, this has connotations of women being seen and not heard, the only way Ariel could communicate with him was through body language and her newly adopted promiscuity “Ariel : But without my voice how can I…”
“Ursula: You’ll have your looks… you’re pretty face… and don’t underestimate the importance of “bo-dy lan-guage” Haha!” This subtly suggests that men are only interested in sex and enforces Ursula’s sexuality. People even quoted Ariel as “growing legs so she could spread them.”
Once again Ariel has the help of some cute creatures to think for her and decide what the best thing to do is. At the end her ‘Daddy’ also comes to her rescue but when Ursula turns him into a polyp, Ariel turns to Eric for help, who drives a ships mast into her thus killing her. Once again a damsel in distress is saved by a man, in this case two.
This caused Disney to take action by making a princess independent; this came in the form of Belle in Beauty and the Beast.
Beauty and the Beast (1991) is the thirtieth animated feature Walt Disney produced. In 2002, Beauty and the Beast was added to the National Film Registry; it also won two academy awards and is also the only animated film ever to be nominated for an academy award for Best Picture. Beauty and the Beast is about an intelligent, beautiful and independent girl who is forced to live with a beast in his palace in order to free her captured father she even rejects the town ‘hunk’ as he is dense, she even slightly mocks him when he asks her how she can read a book if there’s no pictures as she replies ‘well, some people use their imaginations’ highlighting how she can stand up for herself and also how the strong, powerful man is the naïve one and not her thus challenging the usual representation of a Disney Princess. Disney even chose acclaimed Broadway actress Paige O’ Hara to voice Belle, this was a wise choice as Paige was seen as innocent therefore heightening the innocence of Belle. This all sounds like Disney have finally produced a princess that represents women fairly; however this doesn’t seem to be the case. There are many factors of Belle’s personality that go against her; she can be seen as quite needy and childish at times. This is shown through her constant need for approval from her father and how she has to impress the beast by teaching him to read in order to feel worthwhile. Throughout the film Belle wears a plain blue and white smock-style dress hinting that she’s simple and doesn’t really care about material possessions, like all the other princesses at first. However, like every other damsel in distress in the fairytale land, she finds herself experiencing a drastic makeover to unveil a beautiful woman in a pastel-coloured ball gown dripping with diamonds and jewels from head to foot. This common iconography of the fairytale genre has become one of the main points that feminists use to argue that they’re suggesting that girls need to transform themselves to be beautiful. Belle, like so many of the other princesses, is also seen as fragile. For example, when the Beast announces she has to live with him; a close-up of an open-mouthed look of despair reflects the exact same pose in a close-up of Snow White when she sees the hunter about to kill her.
After the success of these films, more princesses became more independent and sexual these were Jasmine, Aladdin (1992), Pocahontas, Pocahontas (1995), Esmeralda, The Hunchback Of Notre dame (1996), and Megra, Hercules (1998). They all wear revealing clothes and a perfect hourglass figure is more apparent. They all ooze sexuality, especially Esmeralda and Megra. Megra, voiced by Susan Egan, is sarcastic, rude and has a provocative voice, she also betrays Hercules which suggests that women use their sexuality as a weapon. It also suggests that independent women are evil as she betrayed him. Although, strong-minded, she too gives up something in order to save a man; her independence.
Esmeralda’s independence is also portrayed in a negative light; she wears revealing clothes and uses her body as a way to get things, when captured she is even changed from a skimpy top and skirt into a long white dress, this connotes that she has been purged of her sexuality. Another criticism of Esmeralda is that she chooses the handsome soldier over the kind, deformed bell-ringer.
Pocahontas, although independent and a peace-keeper, is criticised for having the same cliché “Happy ever after” by falling in love. Along with the very independent Mulan, these girls don’t cut it to be part of the Disney princess gang.
Jasmine however is part of the gang yet maybe for a good reason, she is one of the most childish girls out of everyone; she needs Aladdin to save her, she uses her body to save Aladdin and can’t marry anyone without the permission of her father. However there are two things to take into consideration; she rebels against everyone by escaping the palace and also favours personality over looks and wealth. ‘How dare you? All of you! Standing around deciding my future. I am not a prize to be won!’
There is a positive factor they all have in common; they are all of different ethnicities. However it is argued that they all have Caucasian features.
In conclusion, although pretty much adapted word for word from the original tales, I feel that Disney represents women quite unfairly as they are represented as either; young helpless virgins, independent sexual objects of desire or old, single, evil women who take their jealousy out of these fresh virgins by making sure they never see their happily ever after.
