The Seven Traditional Stereotypes In Disney Princess Movies

There are seven traditional Disney princess movies made between 1937 and 1995, and they all illustrate stereotypical gender roles (The Rhetoric of Disney). These movies include Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas. “...marriage was a natural and desirable role for a white woman… The typical portrait of the colonial woman depicts a strong, sturdy good wife, producing household necessities and plying her crafts and her plow besides a yeoman husband” (Kessler 4). The stereotypical woman characteristics as stated above, range from maintaining the household, being beautiful, to weak and powerless. These characteristics are seen in all the traditional Disney

princess films.
To begin with, one major characteristic that is seen across the board in the films is the Disney Princess image “...Such as, hair, perfect features, tiny waists, big eyes and a beautiful singing voice.” (Porter-Phillips) “Walt Disney has set forth standards for girls on how to grow up into proper women in order to find their prince.

It is assumed from the films that women are supposed to be beautiful, acquiescent, skinny, and perform all the duties of a housewife.” (Sawyer) In Sleeping Beauty, Aurora the main character is presented as a beautiful woman with blond hair, an amazing singing voice, a very thin waist etc. but it never mentions in the film her intelligence. Once again Disney sets a priority for beauty over integrity and intelligence, giving the image that young girls need to be beautiful and fit all of these criteria to be a princess, and they should only worry about their image. Beauty and The Beast is the only movie that has a female character with brains, because Belle is seen reading books all the time, she even disregards the most handsome man in town because he is egocentric and disrespectful to women. Although it does teach young girls to educate themselves, in the end it is the same storyline that we can find in every Disney movie. First, her name is Belle which means “Beauty” in French, the author could have given her any other name, but decided to go for the stereotypical feature that is expected of women. “A pretty girl with no money falls for a rich,

abusive monster. Belle submits herself to the Beast as the self-sacrificing daughter, and then yields to his every command without even trying to escape.” (Pickett) Moreover, Ariel in The Little Mermaid has the same stereotypical characteristics as the other princesses, Ariel is seen with a small waist, beautiful long hair, big beautiful eyes, etc. Lastly, when Jasmine in Aladdin is trapped with Jafar in one of the final scenes, she is seen with big breast, an extremely tiny waist, low cut shirt and pants, and she seduces Jafar and manipulates him using her body, and is overly sexualized. A young girl who idolizes Jasmine will believe that she can seduce people with her body to get what she desires.
Beauty and the beast not only shows stereotypical woman gender roles or gender characteristics, it also shows stereotypical man characteristics. Gaston is the man who every woman wants, and everyone looks up to. Gaston teaches young boys that the only way to earn respect and to attain a love interest is based on looks, and not personality or intelligence. “Say it again who's a man among men? And then say it once more who's the hero next door? Who's a super success? Don’t you know? Can't you guess? As his fans and his five Hangers On, there's just one guy in town who's got all of it down and his name is Gaston.” This is a quote from the song that Gaston sings titled “Beauty and the Beast” this song is about his muscles, strength, accomplishment, body hair, looks, etc. When young men see this, they want to be respected as well and believe that with a male stereotypical physique and characteristics they can achieve it, and they disregard their intelligence and moral values. These characteristics weather they are stereotypical gender roles, or the stereotypical image of what men and women are supposed to look like are seen across these traditional movies. For women it is a small waist, gorgeous face, big breast, large eyes, beautiful hair, an hourglass figure, small wrist, absolutely no body hair etc. For men it is big muscles, handsome, brave, and being able to acquire a beautiful woman and provide for her. When young girls or boys develop idolizing these characters, it starts to drill into their head that that is what they need to look like and act like in order to be successful, be able to find love, and this affects them mentally and physically.
Domesticism is another stereotypical characteristic that all the traditional Disney princess films have.

Snow White as soon as she enters a house in the middle of the forest and sees that the place is “untidy” she decides to clean it, and she does not know who lives in the house. In the movie she makes a deal with the dwarfs “If you let me stay, I'll keep house for you. I'll wash and sew and sweep and cook.” (Snow White) Snow white spends all of her time cleaning and cooking for these dwarfs, demonstrating that caring for men and being domestic is the only job woman should have, and it also demonstrates that women should not bother to get an education, or work to maintain themselves. Cinderella a young girl who is practically a slave, spends all her time cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, etc. for her evil stepmother and evil stepsisters. She never questions them or tries to stand up for herself, giving the wrong idea to young girls showing them that they should obey orders no matter the circumstances, and even if you are treated unfairly to always follow instructions. Next, in Beauty and the Beast, Gaston perseus Belle because she is the most beautiful in the land, and also views her as an object and not as a person. He will do anything to make him his wife, and when he sees her reading books he tells her “It's not right for a woman to read. Soon she starts getting *ideas*, and *thinking*...” This line is very sexist and disrespectful towards women, it shows how women were

treated and were supposed to act in 1991. Gaston tells Belle “...My little wife massaging my feet, while the little ones play on the floor with the dogs. We'll have six or seven.” Belle of course denies this offer, but this shows what women were supposed to do as a wife, which is very derogative.
Finally, all of the traditional Disney princess movies show that women are helpless, need protection from a man, and women need men to rescue them for a better future. Throughout the course of Sleeping Beauty, Aurora finds a handsome prince, and he is the only one who can save her later in the film from her “sleep.” Aurora is not a good rolemodel for young women because she teaches them to wait for “true love” to come save them, and shows them that a man is the only way that a woman can survive, to not even bother making a name for yourself. In Aladdin, right off the bat Jasmine she is being forced to get married to a prince because that is the law of the land. She denies this because she wants to marry for love and not be forced into marriage, which is a great message for young girls who are forced into arranged marriages by their parents, and inspires them to rebel. Even though this is a good message, Jasmine does depend on Aladdin to save her from many situations. For example, when Jasmine goes to the market and tries to steal an apple, it is Aladdin who gets her out of the sticky situation. It is also Aladdin who rescues her when she is trapped with Jafar towards the end of the movie. There is still pseudo-feminism in this movie, where young girls believe that they need a man to guide, care, and save them from any danger.
On the contrary, The little mermaid is different, because I believe her beauty is her only characteristic that is important in this movie. With her beauty she was able to attract prince Eric even though she did not have her voice because it was taken by Ursula. “Ariel trades her means of communicating and expressing personality—her voice— for the eroticism of human legs, turning her into a purely visual object of desire. Furthermore, the idea of Eric growing some gills and becoming a merman himself is never even mentioned. Because he is the dominant male, Ariel is expected to change her life for him—not the other way around.” (Pickett) Ariel was willing to give up her voice in exchange for legs, to find “true love,” this is such a horrible example for young girls, because it shows them that their voice is irrelevant, and the only thing that will get you a man is your beauty, not your voice.