Environmental Influences In Disney Princess Movies

For the past seventy-eight years, Disney continued to create Disney princess movies, a phenomenon which swept the world, with a worldwide gross of up to six hundred million dollars, with young girls adoring each and every movie. Girls from the age of two watch and enjoy these chauvinist movies, spending hundreds of dollars of their parents’ money on outfits so the little girls can resemble their most idealized princess, which include but not limited to Snow White, Cinderella, Tiana and Mulan. However, the stories of the Disney princesses and the princesses themselves do not cater Both detrimental influences on young girls, the official Disney princesses promote light skin over dark and reliance on a man through explicit and implicit means in their allegedly inspirational movies.

A common issues, racism proves prevalent in many Disney princess

movies, though not obviously explicit. Of the 11 Disney princesses, Walt Disney only created three heroines who do not have light skin. Thus, darker children desire to change their hair and skin color to match the Disney princess demographic, as shown in an experiment performed by Dr. Sharon Hayes. Showing girls Disney princess movies, she then asked them which skin tone they preferred. More than 80% favored white skin, and when asked why, most thought it would be easier to woo the prince (Newsweek). Imbuing more than half of the Disney princesses with flawless pale skin, Disney shows young girls at an influential age an easily seen implicit theme: girls with light skin have a higher chance at becoming a princess. As princesses normally equate kindness and beauty, many girls will be brainwashed to prefer light skin over dark skin. Dark skinned girls will see the plethora of light skinned princesses and view their own skin as hideous. Particularly, in Beauty and the Beast, Disney presents Belle as the magnanimous beauty and Beast as the dark grotesque monster. Indeed, Beast does transform into a handsome prince once Belle falls in love with him; however, he turns into a light skinned prince. He evolved into someone kind and beautiful only because he was light on the inside. Infortuanteky, dark girls do not have a second skin to shed, thus causing them to believe that, similar to Beast, they shall be cursed with ugliness forever, a thought detrimental to their dignity.
Admittedly, Walt Disney has created ethnically diverse princesses, including Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, and Merida. In addition, many of these Disney princesses explore and embrace their native culture, such as when Pocahontas displays the beauty of nature to John Smith in the song “Colors of the Wind”. However, these princesses are not actively displayed as official Disney princesses, except for Jasmine. The classic Disney princess line-up only presents Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Ariel, Belle, and Cinderella, with Jasmine’s copper skin lightened dramatically. When a dreaming child who loves Tiana looks up at a Disney princess poster, but constantly fails to find her favorite princess, she could believe Tiana cannot be a true Disney princess. Compared to all the other pale beauties, Tiana, with her chocolate skin, could not possibly be among them. Considering Disney princesses normally equate perfection in a child’s mind, if a favorite princess that resembles the child does not prove to be a “real princess”, then the child’s self esteem over her own physical appearance will lower dramatically.
Recently, however, Disney has created a new Disney princess poster, which usually features all eleven Disney princesses. While adding all the princesses, no matter which race, may seem a step in the right direction, the new designers lighten Jasmine's and Pocahontas’s skin, utilizing white highlights, making Tiana the only true dark-skinned princess. Surrounded by fair princesses, a dark-skinned child would feel left out, her dream of becoming a princess far out of reach. Despite the alleged growth in America’s policy toward diversity, Disney seems to refuse to follow, still setting for the same explicit message of light over dark skin, detrimental to the self esteem of most colored girls who admire the Disney princesses.
In addition, all of the Disney princesses have altered clothes which make them seem like objects to be sheltered instead of role models to be admired. For instance, Mulan dresses in an imperial kimono, with a bejeweled obi and shimmering skirt. She embodies a perfect Chinese princess - exactly the opposite of Mulan’s masculine characterization. Mulan centers around the titular character trying to empower women through casting aside traditional female roles. The first scene and song “Reflection” entails how Mulan despises fancy dresses and arranged marriages. Her new design overturns all her character development, showing the most sickly feminine aspect of Mulan. Girls who admire Mulan’s courageous willingness to fight against tradition will feel dismayed and discouraged seeing Mulan’s new outfit, which seems to prove that Disney princesses cannot be true princesses without the proper degrading princess attire.
Nevertheless, Disney still considers Tiana a princess, displaying her in their complete Disney princess line-up. Surely, one ray of hope to the poor child will allow her to continue her dreams. Perhaps, she could start her own restaurant, just like Tiana. However, only reason Tiana successfully started her business was because of her rich husband, Prince Naveen. As shown in the first few scenes of Princess and the Frog, Tiana works long and hard hours, trying to save up for a building to start a restaurant. Unfortunately, she never accomplishes her goal because of her shortage of money, and complains to the stars, when she meets her prince frog. While not explicitly shown as a damsel in distress, Tiana still adheres, no matter how loosely, to the stereotypical Disney damsel in distress, showing that, no matter how hard a woman perseveres, the secret to success will always be a man. A detrimental influence on aspiring young girls, those who desire to go into business will see how Tiana, beautiful and kind, would have failed without her man.
A similar pattern runs through all the few seemingly powerful princesses. Disney illustrates this standard in Mulan, when she saves her father from dying in the army by enlisting herself, truly a noble act. However, she must dress as a man to do so. People might argue the Chinese culture forced Mulan to dress the way she did. If Disney desired to create a film set in a Chinese dynasty, Mulan must adhere to standard traditional Chinese laws, as the Chinese gave limited rights to women as a rule. Indeed, for a decently realistic movie, Mulan must act in accordance with ancient Chinese law. However, this argument does not explain why, near the end of the movie, Mulan refused the emperor's generous offer of allowing her a place as his advisor, a position of significant power. She turns down his offer to go back to her family, because a woman belongs to her family, and a man, as Shang soon comes to visit her. Relating to family life, Mulan’s decision fundamentally translates to refusing a high ranking job to care for one’s family and wait for one’s man. The world needs women in upper class jobs; the country needs to stop being entirely patriarchal. If most of the women who watched Disney princess movies as a child refuse to continue working, then America will have difficulty reaching a balance in gender roles.
Ultimately, each of the Disney princesses either wait to be rescued by a prince, like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, or they work hard but cannot accomplish anything without a man, such as Tiana.

Thus, impressionable girls will not expect to go far in life, believing that as long as they catch the attention of a handsome rich man, they will live a life of happiness and luxury. Unfortunately, there seem to be a lack of wealthy men on the prowl for damsels in distress. On the other hand, girls who do not desire to get married, those who wish to work for themselves, will see the failures of independence as a woman, and might lose confidence in themselves. If a princess, with looks, kindness, and intelligence could not succeed, then the poor girl should, by rights, have no chance. Disney weaves these messages into uplifting movies so completely, all the little child receives is the faint impression of anti-feminism. If children constantly receives the same detrimental; theme, the information will become ingrained in an unconscious part of their mind, so when they desire to succeed, they must overcome their internal ideals

first.
Clearly, Walt Disney impressed the singular beauty of white skin and the dependence on men in young children’s minds, slowly expanding their place through each movie, toy, and dress they create. With Disney’s worldwide demographic, their film prove one of the most prominent influences in the minds of children and young adults. Their movies could be a powerful tool to create positive female gender role ideals, empowering women without a negative subtext. Yet, with all their prestige, the Disney princesses continue to indoctrinate rosy-eyed children, prying open their minds and carefully placing detrimental images, a little at a time, until the child devolves into either a lazy manhunter or a disheartened dreamer.