Tragic Stereotypes In Disney's Sleeping Beauty

Young children are unable to interpret female stereotypes in the television shows, or movies that they watch. When I was approximately five years old, until about age 13, I thought that Disney’s, Sleeping Beauty, was the most eminent movie ever. Until I reached age 14, I never noticed any female stereotypes or problems with feminism in this 1959 Disney classic. As I am growing up, and noticing more and more issues in different movies, I am beginning to recognize the issues in Disney films, especially Sleeping Beauty. The most problematic stereotype portrayed in the major motion picture of Sleeping Beauty, is the theme that physical appearances are a priority necessary in order to be successful.

In the movie, Aurora is given three gifts,

none of which are realistically helpful to being successful. The first one from the pink fairy, Flora, is the gift of beauty, and the second from the green fairy, Fauna, is the gift of song. Neither give Aurora the important qualities of intelligence, kindness, or integrity. She is given the gifts that will help her live a happy, successful life. Older aged audiences can infer that having, “hair of sunshine, and lips that shame the red of roses” are necessary components in having a successful life (Clyde Sleeping Beauty). She is given the gifts of beauty and song because in order to fall in love, and bear children, she has to be pretty and be able to sing. This gives young girls unrealistic expectations, because not everyone can sing, and not everyone has beautiful, lengthy, blonde hair. In addition, Merryweather, the blue fairy’s gift was interrupted by a gust of wind. Her original gift is unknown to audiences, but even if it was going to be a helpful gift, it was clearly not a priority that Aurora would need. The prioritized gifts given to Princess Aurora are beauty and song, as stated earlier. These gifts are also typical traits associated with females. Men are not attributed with being pretty, and while many can sing, that is not the typical stereotype given to them. Therefore, since Aurora is pretty and can sing, constitutes femininity. Even if we did not know the gender, we could guess by the gifts given to the child, that it, indeed, is a girl. Without these gifts, audiences can infer that she would not have been very successful. Although this is not a good message for younger girls to take away from the film, it is indeed knowledge that I have acquired from watching this movie.
Women that are not necessarily considered stereotypically “pretty” are always the villainous characters in Disney films.

Additionally, the stereotypical appealing, exceptional, heroines of the story are not active at all. In Sleeping Beauty, Aurora never does anything to change her future, she is always told what to do by every other character. She does not try to take control of what could happen, but rather listens to everyone else telling her what to do. Because of this, young women are persuaded to be passive and wait for good things that may or may not happen in the future. Young women in society are against being active, because in numerous Disney movies, “the most prominent, active women in the [Disney] movies, the critics note, are almost always evil” (Bruce 2). When women are shown as active and strong-headed, they almost always end up dead, locked away, or banished. Maleficent, the villain in Sleeping Beauty, is shown with horns originally, and is dressed in all black and purple. She is not, what is typically called, gorgeous. She is different that other girls, and that is seen as not tolerable, and she is not accepted in the kingdom. At the end of the movie, she transforms into a dragon to protect herself from getting murdered and ends up getting slayed, defeated and dies. From this movie, girls could easily receive the message that if they are not pretty, they will not be successful because, clearly, Maleficent is not a traditionally pretty female, and she ends up dead. This is just one of several messages that could be picked out from Sleeping

Beauty.
Aurora’s relationship with Prince Philip is one of a different nature. Aurora, in the woods, meets a complete stranger and falls in love almost immediately. However, she is persuaded by Philip that they met, once upon a dream. Before this encounter, Aurora had little to no contact with the human world. After meeting him, and being convinced that she is in love, she is motivated by that romance for the rest of the movie. She tells her fairy friends that she is so in love, and they tell her that it is impossible. Because of this response, she runs to her room, and cries for hours. This is absurd, because before the journey to the woods, she had never talked to a human being before. Another issue with this scene is that it gives girls a false expectation that, they will not even have to try to get a man to fall in love with them. Furthermore, that if they can sing and are pretty, a boy will be attracted to them immediately. It also shows that crying is a good way to solve your problems, which is extremely false. Crying is a good way to get our feelings out, however, it will not solve your problems. Her relationship is a “predictable failure”and gives young audiences false hope (Fielding 49).
Overall, the movie, Sleeping Beauty, is not a positive influence for its audiences. Aurora fulfills the stereotypes of women, and is not a good role model for decision making. Young girls watch this movie and, without even realizing it, are influenced by several different aspects of the movie. Because of this, they can try to put Aurora’s practices into their own life, and may be disappointed with the results. These points add up to the conclusion that Disney’s, Sleeping Beauty, does not have any positive main, female role models