Negative Portrayal Of Women In Disney Princess Movies

Disney tells stories about pretty girls and princes who meet each other once and fall in love. This indirectly implants in children’s mind that appearance and materialism does matter, which might lead to vanity. For instance, the Hunchback of Notre Dame shows us that no matter how caring and kind Quasimodo is, Esmeralda and Phoebus are one couple because they are adequately good-looking. Another research has shown that in Disney classic movies, female characters are praised for their appearances (55%) and only 11% are for their abilities; however, Disney has changed their practice as in the millennial Disney movies, women are commented on their skills and abilities more (40%). (Guo 2016) In my opinion, despite the changes, children could barely realise as my niece still wants to be Elsa or Rapunzel because they are pretty.

Disney have showed negative portrayals of Disney princesses in their films especially when it comes to their usual unattainable beauty ideal and portraying their princesses as inferior to men. There are also negative life lessons found in Disney films. Some examples are on how it’s a must for each girl to become a princess; ugly people are evil and immoral and that being beautiful is moral and; almost all Disney films would have a happily ever after which is not true in real life. With all these flaws found in Disney films, Disney princesses should be portrayed in a way that will have a positive impact on young girls. Disney has created many Disney princesses that have had an impact on young girls.

When we have a closer look at Disney movies such as "Cinderella", "Snow White" and "Aladdin", Disney 's princess portray is feeble and desperately in need of intelligent, strong savior. When young girls watch these movies, they are modelling Disney princesses on their

By this I mean, I was obsessed with becoming a size 0, wearing dresses all the time and even trying to talk like the princesses. One of my favorite princesses from Disney was The Little Mermaid. Analyzing this movie has made me realize that women have been portrayed in such a diminishing way at such a young age.

Also in both stories, Cinderella still fits into the slipper and the step-sister are caught for trying to be Cinderella. However in the Disney’s Cinderella everyone lives happily ever after. In contrast, in Grimm’s Cinderella the step-sisters do not live happily ever after instead they are blinded by the birds pecking their eyes out. Another difference between the two stories is in Disney’s Cinderella the two step-sisters try to put their feet into the slipper, but it was obvious that they were both too big, then Cinderella tried it one and it fit just right. However in Grimm’s Cinderella the two step-sisters cut their heels and toes to fit into the slipper.

Since the 1930’s, Disney has been producing adaptations of fairy tales. Disney is known for their use of stereotypical images which is prominent still in today’s society. The first Disney film emerged with the adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and soon after that came Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Since the beginning, when the fairy tale princesses were “born”, it became evident that young girls and women were trying to imitate their behaviors. Young girls and women identify themselves as these character which affects not only how they view themselves but also their future roles in society based on the girls’ unrealistic beliefs.

From its onset with its first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Disney has grown to become a worldwide phenomenon today. But over the years, various parent groups, scholars and film critics have accused Disney for creating shallow, stereotypical princesses whose ultimate aim was to find her 'prince charming ' and live happily ever after. In her article, “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” in the New York Times, Peggy Orenstein expresses her concern over the effect of princess figures like Cinderella on young girls ' perceptions of themselves and how they should behave (“What’s Wrong With Cinderella?”). However, the later Disney films have gradually attempted to break away from this stereotype resulting in stronger female characters like Ariel, Mulan, and Elsa among others. Keeping this transition in mind, this paper uses semiotic analysis of four popular Disney films, namely, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Little Mermaid (1989) and Mulan (1998) to depict the influence of societies ' changing perceptions of women on the portrayal of Disney princesses.

While many think Cinderella it is thought of a poor girl that had a good life with her parents. Cinderella had a mother and a Father at the beginning of all three versions of Cinderella. The Father figure and Cinderella had a terrible woman live with them because The Father thought that Cinderella would need a Mother figure since her biological mother had passed away, right? Well, many people think that but what if the ways the interpretation of Cinderella is about to change. The three tales of Cinderella analyzed have very similar structure and substance, themes, archetypes like the circle and of course the Godmother character deviates significantly from each other.

On the other hand, in the Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, their also may be a negative effect on the girls specially as shown in the Sleeping Beauty that the princess is very blonde and she is very skinny too and has a very melodious voice. So this may be a negative effect on those girls who are not skinny, blonde and don’t have a melodious voice. The girls who don’t has these qualities will force them to think that to get a prince, get married with a prince or to become a princess they must look blonde, they must have skinny body and sweet voice and who don’t have these qualities they will get upset, will be tensed about themselves that they cannot get married with a prince as they are black, fatty and don’t have sweet voice. So there must be equality

Although she wasn’t allowed to go with her sisters, she accepted help from her Fairy Godmother to prepare to make her way there. With her beautiful dress, she received “a pair of glass slippers, the prettiest in the whole world.” At the ball, no one is aware of Cinderella’s true identity. Despite that, the King’s son falls in love with her and she gets a happily-ever-after. Due to the different social classes Cinderella portrays to be, she is treated differently