Longitudinal Effects Of Engagement With Disney Princesse

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The article “Pretty as a Princess: Longitudinal Effects of Engagement with Disney Princesses on Gender Stereotypes, Body Esteem, and Prosocial Behavior in Children” written by Sarah M. Coyne, Jennifer Ruh Linder, Eric E. Rasmussen, David A. Nelson and Victoria Birkbeck wants to demonstrate the experimental processes, methods and outcomes of a study that intends to evaluate to what extent children’s gender stereotypical development, behaviour and attitudes, their body esteem and their prosocial behaviours are affected by exposure to the Disney Princess Media. As females are often sexualized in the media, the media has a strong influence upon very young girls and boys exposed to such with regards to gender role stereotypes and …show more content…

Criticists however note the potential dangers of negative effects for young girls who may learn to put themselves into those gender stereotyped categories due to their exposal to the Disney Princesses. Since these almost always need men to save them and are often displayed in weak and vulnerable ways with the sole purpose to fulfill only traditional gender role stereotyped types of work. Furthermore, the article explains how more recent Disney movies approach a more feminist and modern version of Disney Princesses, however the merchandise still display them as more feminine and gender stereotyped in addition to the fact that the older Disney princesses remain very popular among young girls. The article mentions several minor studies that have been conducted with kindergarten aged girls and young adolescent women with the results that an “internalization of princess culture in the early childhood can potentially affect those girls’ long-term attitudes towards gender role typical distribution of work, behaviours, etc. It is also mentioned how boys who often watch Disney movies can be affected by the gender roles in the movies, such as for instance the possible engagement in less violent forms of play that exclude weapons etc. and their greater interest compared to other boys of the same age group in more feminine plays. Due to the broad range of movie related products and toys young children are often influenced by these when playing with gendered

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