Essay on Sexism in Disney Movies

Disney Princess movies are not as safe as we previously thought. We are unintentionally damaging our kids by subtly enforcing social stereotypes. This is done by using classic story tropes like the handsome knight saving the pretty, helpless princess. Along with that, it can make girls self-conscious about their bodies. This is due to all the pretty princesses all sharing the same physical qualities. This usually means being tall, thin, and pale. Disney has seemed to notice and has received some backlash in the past about all Disney princesses being pale. In response to this Disney has recently made multiple movies with the princesses being of color.

A popular example of this has been the Disney Princess, Moana, which has been received extremely well by critics and audiences alike. Moana takes place in the Pacific islands, and she is born to be the next Chief of their tribe. Her skills soon become tested, with all of their crops being destroyed. Moana assures her people that everything will be fine and that it is a one-time event. Also, she will come up with an idea to solve the problem. She comes up with the idea that she will go into the ocean and get fish to solve the problem. Her father quickly shoots down this idea. Her mother then explains why her idea is shot down by her father so quickly. One time her father went into the ocean with his best friend. They realized that the waves in the ocean were much more powerful than the ones near the island. Moana’s father and his friend get knocked off the raft and into the water, only Moana’s father survives. After this story, Moana still decides to go onto a raft and sets out. She realizes that the ocean is very dangerous. The boat eventually tips and she falls into the water. She ends up stuck under a rock, which she ends up surviving. After the incident, she meets someone named Maui. They set on a quest of her ancient ancestors, which she ends up fulfilling. The movie, Moana, is a good movie that has little to no of the problems that the other Disney Princess movies have. This also does not mean that Disney Movies are bad in themselves. They just have some problems that can be avoided if the parent is careful.

Foremost, Disney movies have always had tropes like the “Damsel in Distress.” In the article, “ The Life of a Disney Child: Are Disney Movies Good or Bad for Children?”, the author informs us that a lot of these Disney movies display sexism. This is enforced when the women always need to be saved by the handsome hero. For instance, in the movie, “The Little Mermaid,” Ariel signs a contract with Ursula to take away her voice. The author says it represents Women sacrificing their voice and opinion for the happiness of the men that are in their lives. Another popular example is in, “Beauty of the Beast.” Some of the audience believes that Belle is in an abusive relationship, and when she is released to take the place of her father in prison. Belle eventually runs away and soon encounters wolves. The Beast finds out she is gone and goes to look for her. Only to save her at the right time from the wolves. Later in the story, he fights someone named Gaston. Gaston wants to kill the Beast so he can get to and control Belle for himself. As Beast is about to end Gaston, he pulls out a knife and stabs Beast. Then Then Beast falls to the ground dying, and on his dying breath, Beast confesses that he loves Belle. To which Belle replies that she loves the Beast. Next, this causes Beast’s curse to reverse, and he becomes a regular man again. This leads to the final part, which is the normal happy Disney ending.

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Another example of sexism is described by the article, “Researchers have found a major problem with ‘The Little Mermaid’ and other Disney movies,” The Little Mermaid is one of the worst offenders when it comes to sexism. As stated before, Ariel has to sacrifice her voice. Although, in five other Disney Princess movies the women speak even less. The study was conducted by linguist, Carmen Fought, and Karen Eisenhower. They have examined these movies due to young kids watching these movies on repeat. Therefore, they believe that they should study it to see what the films are teaching about gender roles. Professor Fought tells us that girls are not born the way they stereotypically are. With pink dresses, lots of makeup, cooking, and cleaning are what we usually perceive as feminine. This is not definite as people are of different cultures and society changes. Therefore, some of these examples may be different for certain people. Somewhere along the lines, society teaches these kids a certain way to behave on their gender. This is essentially what Fought and Eisenhower are trying to figure out. What do we do that teaches our kids to act the way they act? The study is not complete at the time of the writing of that article. Although, the two were able to distinguish how women and men talked differently. Some movies like Snow White, and Cinderella are the only two movies where the talk time is about the same. Sleeping Beauty is the only movie where women talk significantly more than men. Which in itself does not redeem the movie of its subtle sexism. Most of the other movies, like “The Little Mermaid,” or “Aladdin.” Have men speak a lot more than all the women in Aladdin men speak seventy-six percent of the time. Compared to the women speaking twenty-four percent of the time. At the same time, we can’t make a full conclusion with just speaking roles alone. It does give an interesting insight into Disney movies.

Another article, “ Study finds Disney Princess Culture magnifies stereotypes in young girls,” tells us about the BYU family life Professor M. Coyne found that the Disney Princess Culture is damaging to our young girls. Preschoolers who watch Disney Princess Movies are more likely to be a part of damaging stereotypes. The behaviors are not bad in themselves, but it has been found to limit girls in the future. This means that the damage to our children from watching these movies is not immediate. The problems seem to develop over time, usually around the child’s young teen years. This damage will even draw the person closer to the princess as time goes on. Using the princess as the ideal model of what beauty is. On the other hand, in the same article, the movies are beneficial to the boys who watch them. They have shown to be more helpful to other people, along with better body-self esteem. This will cause the boys to have better relationships in life. Equally so, they will be more likable and attractive. The effects on the boys seem to determine that the princess movies balance out the more masculine media that is shown to boys. Finally, all kids who watched Disney Princess Movies were predicted to be more feminine in life.

Disney Princess movies also make young girls start sexualizing themselves. This usually starts when the child is a pre-teen. In the article, “The ‘princess industrial complex’ is inescapable - is that bad for girls?” It states what is called “princess culture,” is inescapable among young children. Kids around the age of preschoolers are especially affected by this. The author then uses a book called, “Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of New Girlie-Girl Culture.” She used this book to explain the author, Orenstein, who said that an obsession with Disney Princess culture helps younger teenage girls to self-objectification or self-sexualizing. After the Princess Culture phase, Orenstein then says it will lead to the “Kardashianization of girlhood.” This self-objectification causes girls to have low self-esteem. This can lead to anxiety, stress, and loneliness. All of this can cause a high chance of the person becoming depressed.

Disney movies are not as safe as we previously thought. While on their own the movies are not bad. As seen with the benefit of boys watching the movies. Specifically, they are more helpful and they do not have self-esteem issues. The movies have proven by research that without care, children consuming these movies can cause them a lot of problems in the future. What all these articles have in common is that they explain that parents need to only limit what they watch. Not to censor any Disney Princess movies. Most of these cases of teenagers with something along the lines of self-esteem issues are the ones who usually have an obsession with the Disney Princesses. Therefore, the only way to truly combat this is to monitor the media that your child consumes and to limit any media that they may have an obsession with. Although, this does not excuse the subtle sexism in the movies. This does not seem to be on purpose, due to Disney noticing these mistakes and fixing them with new releases of the movie. It may seem that Disney Princess culture is harmless, and popular media for our children to consume. It can be very dangerous if we are not careful. With this in mind, we cannot put all the blame on Disney. They have been trying to fix their mistakes with their newer movies. With movies like Moana, or Brave. With a strong female protagonist, and a lot of female talking roles. The answer that seems to most of this is that moderation is key. If the movies are limited the child will have no future problems from the movies.