Yes we all love them and their magical stories. From being trapped in a endless slumber to being attacked by an evil witch, these young women have been instilled culturally into our lives. At an early age most children watch Disney movies and learn to sing and dance to all the songs by memory, and then as we grow up we will still watch an occasional film just to feel like a kid again. When watching one of these movies you see an innocent girl get stuck in a sticky situation and has to get prince charming to save her in the end, they get married and blah blah blah, happy ending. So what are these movies teaching young views about society? Many times in a Disney film the princess has a makeover, making the assumption our world’s social structure is based on beauty. They become better dressed and have makeup on. The Princesses are the sing and the signifier is that they are beautiful, wealthy, and have a big fluffy dress. This image argues that young girls should try to live up to a certain standard. I grew up with these movies and loved every minute of them, but as I break down the films I realize that our social norm is to strive to be beautiful and wealthy.
This is super interesting because I actually wrote a speech on this in my public speaking course. In the speech, I looked into all the classic Disney Princesses and found what they say about our society and what we are teaching our children through them. I found that they all set gender roles that do not match up with our society today. I also found that young children watching these movies became more concerned with their looks and with where they belonged in society. A very interesting read on culture.
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