Stephanie Hanes Little Girls Or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect

Kayla Smith
Amy Thomas
EH 101
18 September 2014
The Problems with Being a Princess
Today, “60 percent of children who use the Internet regularly come into contact with pornography” (Hanes 1). In Stephanie Hanes’ article, “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect”, she provides undeniable evidence to suggest that the culture of today’s world causes sexualization of children, specifically of females, at an alarmingly young age. This sexualization has become increasingly invasive in the past decade, so much so that parents, educators, and even more recently politicians have decided to try to counteract some these negative effects. In this article, Stephanie Hanes uses strong research with logical arguments that support this

cultural phenomenon of sexualizing young females to persuade parents into reconsidering the decisions they make that could psychologically alter their children.
Throughout the article, Hanes focuses on the effects that children suffer from who have been exposed to this “epidemic.” Hanes speaks specifically of a three year old, the daughter of Mary Finucane, who had noticed that her three year old daughter had been negatively changed through the toys that she had purchased for her daughter to express her imagination with.

Finucane’s daughter had seemingly been robbed of her creative imagination after trying to live up to the expectations of a Disney princess. Her daughter “seemed less imaginative, less spunky, and less interested in the world” (Hanes 1) after being introduced to the Disney princess line, willing herself to be just like the princesses. Young children know no better and are very susceptible to the world around them, and are very likely to imitate what they are shown or what intrigues them. Hanes was outraged at how Disney had stripped the child of believing in other imaginative creatures and activities, and was stuck on behaving as a princess. Hanes provides research in the article that supports that Finucane’s daughter is not the only one to catch the Disney princess symptoms. There is a whole book about this “diseases” as well as much research conducted on educators that seemingly all agrees that “[teachers] are unable to control the growing onslaught of social messages shaping their…students” (Hanes 1). Through her research Hanes discovered that the Disney Princess empire is a $4 billion dollar industry that leads to “self-objectification, cyber bullying, and unhealthy body image…” (1) causing problems for young girls. These “ideals” will stay with them throughout the remainder of their life, based on decisions that were made for them, to introduce such “ideals” into their minds. Hanes’ readers are most likely to be parents or adults who will likely become parents in the near future, and this article is a great introduction to the long road of making decisions that will impact the way their children think

and live their lives on a regular basis. Raising children is no easy feat, but it has grown increasingly more difficult in the past decade due to new technological advances and the uncooperative media. Parents now have to monitor and make educated choices on what to show their children and what knowledge they are comfortable with their children having. Parents no longer need to be worried about what their children are eating, but more so of what their children are undeniably being taught through certain toys or through the media.
The article compares the effects of the media on young girls to the different types of positive programs that are being actively integrated into schools and communities. Consumers purchase products based on the marketing surrounding it, generally involving a “sexy” female, which the consumer will be emanating with the use of the product. This type of marketing causes a negative self-image in young girls who feel as though they do not fit that characteristic and they will never, typically because they will never be able to be unhealthily thin, like the models and actresses are photo shopped to be. Hanes’ comparison is very strong by stating hard evidence that supports her idea of the negative effects and just how alarmingly widespread they are, followed up with an inconclusive list of programs and places that are trying to combat the spread of these harmful ideals to young girls. There is an organization in the state of Maine, “that develops girl-friendly school curricula” (Hanes 4) to improve girls’ self esteem and self image so they feel encouraged to get involved and put themselves out there in school and their social lives. There is an ever-growing group of people trying to encourage a positive influence over young girls lives, “trying to make a safer, healthier environment for girls, an ever stronger group of educators, parents, institutions, and girls themselves” (2). There is also a website for young girls to go to on which they can post about different examples of “female sexualization in the media” (5) and they feel comfortable sharing and discussing these examples. The most common negative influence in young girls’ minds is the television, because it is an American staple in the home today and it is most likely to be turned on while the family is at home, whether it is on children’s programming or adult programming. Due to the programming and advertisements on the television, young girls are witnessing sexualization at a historically younger age. Pediatricians are now recommending a very slim window of screen time for children, “only one to two hours a day” (5) of which many families fail to achieve since they are leaving the TV on. This allows young girls to be exposed to the disturbing amount of sexual references and mature content that they are incapable of understanding on the television. Due to the alarming amount of psychologically damaging things on the Internet and other media that children are capable of being exposed to, there are many programs that are now being introduced into schools in order to counteract these effects.
Hanes uses strong logical reasoning achieved through her myriad of including different research studies that only exemplify the seriousness of this problem that is increasingly growing. Hanes supports every one of her arguments with research that has been done on young girls or about young girls and the way that they are affected by outside sources. Hanes pays particular attention to some recent studies showing that parents should be even more concerned for their daughters well being than ever before because “50 percent of 3-to-6 year old girls worry that they are fat” (Hanes 2) and “one quarter of 14-to-17 year olds…reported either sending naked pictures of themselves or receiving naked pictures of someone else,” (2) proving that this is a problem between all children and teenagers as well, not just one specific group of adolescents. The problems are just different as the girls get older, seeing as how most 3-to-6 year olds do not have a cell phone or the ability to send explicit photographs of themselves. She uses this research to alarm her readers more so than for other reasons so that parents will see the need for change to be occurring in society for their children’s sake. Parents should definitely be alarmed that three-year-olds are beginning to think that they are fat and have a desire to change that mindset. Hanes also uses research to show other changes in the mindset of females due to their ideals that are in place in their minds from a young age. Many girls want to be seen as pretty, and perfect, therefore, sweating and other activities that may physically make them less attractive are not appealing to them anymore. Many girls decide to drop out of sports, most commonly, “between the ages of 11 and 17” (3) because their bodies will not look good while playing the sport. Part of the reason for this is due to the fact that some female athletes “regularly pose naked or semi naked for men’s magazines” (3) idolizing their sports and their bodies in a very sexy manner. However, these shots are altered, and the athletes are given full makeovers and more often than not, photo shopped to be as sexually appealing as possible and then some. It is not even correlated to their sport anymore, just how hot they are and girls are not able to achieve that look while playing sports. This sexualization of young girls also comes from media in ways that would be less expected. Television shows portray women as [sexy] “lawyers, politicians, [and] doctors…” (3) but they are giving a false idea to children everywhere that these are the only women that exist and it is almost completely false. There are women in these professions, but they do not HAVE to be sexy, or anything like that, but there are also many more professions out there for women that are only now growing in our society. There is an influential amount of sexualization in all forms of media today and it is reported that it “leads to lower cognitive performance and greater body dissatisfaction” (3) which is something that is completely backwards. Women should be able to successfully have higher cognitive performance with less emphasis on their bodies and their physical appearances. Hanes’ research that she exquisitely uses to support all of her strong issues with the current sexualization of young girls, looks not only at the short term ways in which girls are being affected but it also provides long term affects as well so that parents are able to understand what they are dealing with for the future.
The culture that exists today has such low social standards and such an eagerness for capitalistic nature that producers are no longer concerned at how their products are marketed or what they are teaching and encouraging of young children. Parents today have started to take a stand against what is being taught to their children. Programs have been created specifically to increase young females’ views of themselves and their personal body appearance after it has likely been lessened or even destroyed by the likes of “perfect” Disney princesses or role models in the media. It is very important to teach children at a young age about how distorted the world is and ways in which it can be manipulated to allude to one thing over another. The decisions that parents make everyday about exposing their children to the outside world can shape their minds for the rest of their lives.