Tangled Essay

Tangled: Breaking the princess mould or just another damsel in distress? One of my children, Ella, is 5. She loves Disney and as you know there is a lot of Disney to love. What I have been wondering though is what impact this is having. Is it harmless fun or is it actually encouraging her to be a damsel in distress? Is it worth spending thousands on private school fees and driving around from one co-curricular to another if her role models are telling her that prince charming will just be around the corner to do everything for her? I guess where I have come out is that Disney is a bit like fast food, bland, predictable, and not particularly good for you. In this blog, I will share my views with you on Disney through the prism of Rapunzel

However, it's not always easy to resist the temptation because one movie can offer hours of follow-on entertainment with re-watching, rewinding, re-singing and re-dancing to utterly predictable plotlines. Unfortunately, I fell into this trap last year when I took Ella to watch Tangled, a movie I can confidently say I have watched every Saturday family movie night since. I have also had to buy numerous Rapunzel dress-up costumes because Ella is certain that Rapunzel possesses every characteristic that any girl should ever aspire to be. Oh, and did I mention listening to When Will my Life Begin on repeat in the car? I am wondering how does this diet of Disney sit with the qualities that my daughters' school, CGGS, has been instilling in its pupils since day one? In every newsletter, I'll come across something along the lines of being an independent young woman, and every Tuesday afternoon my eldest daughter Rose will come home to report how her principal once again talked passionately about girl power in assembly. But here I am letting my youngest daughter watch a movie about a damsel in distress and driving her to Disney parties with her school

In short, he rescues Rapunzel from her tower and he returns her back to the kingdom, where she belongs, to live happily ever after… it's just a bit too familiar.

So, once again I found myself, disappointed in yet another Disney princess movie. The McFeast of Rapunzel tasted pretty similar to the McChicken of Sleeping Beauty. As a Damsel in Distress, Rapunzel was just like every other Disney princess ever invented. At the end of the day, while they could have been more creative and taken a risk with the plot the commercial risks of straying far from the typical stereotypes were just too great. Flawless skin, long luscious blonde hair, stick thin and a waist literally the width of my wedding ring is what so many Disney princesses look like, Cinderella, Aurora and of course Rapunzel. But why must every princess look like that? I admit, in my distant youth those physical attributes were everything I wanted in life and more, but I can’t help thinking that was only because that’s what society (and Disney) depicted as the ideal woman. We saw it in Barbie, we saw it in Oopsie Daisy Doll and once again we are seeing it in