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Eva Lorenz

Professor Mary Downing

English 112

19 April 2011

The Princess Syndrome

It may come as a shock to some people that the number of eating disorders in the U.S. has doubled since the 1960s. Out of the eight million Americans with eating disorders, 90% of them are young women, and the instances of anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating are on the rise amongst children under the age of 12 (South Carolina Department of Mental Health). Is it merely a coincidence that young girls' favorite movies feature impossibly thin, big-breasted, nearly all-white princesses? How has American children's obsession with Disney princesses affected their self-esteem and body image?

There are very few twenty-something women in America today who are not familiar with Disney princesses. Many of them still know all the words to The Little Mermaid's "Part of Your World," and even more still, however unknowingly, have derived their ideas about love, their body, and women's roles from these films. Disney princess movies featuring unrealistic and sexist role models have a direct impact on the self-esteem and body image of their target audience: girls aged three to twelve.

It all began in 1937 with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, perhaps the most sexist of all princess films. Snow White, a young girl seemingly on the cusp of puberty, is almost murdered by her evil stepmother because Snow White has become a sexual threat. In the end, a prince who is only interested in her because she is beautiful rescues her with a kiss. Being "saved by a kiss" is a recurring theme in Disney films. Aurora from 1959's Sleeping Beauty is awakened by a prince with a kiss, and Ariel from The Little Mermaid gets her voice back by a kiss from a prince, as well. What does this theme suggest to young girls? Their biggest asset is their looks and sexuality (their kiss).

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Disney princesses, after disappearing from the 1960s through the 1980s, were reborn in 1989 with the release of The Little Mermaid and then Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin in the next three years, reintroducing yet another generation to the idea of what a princess should be and how she should act. Disney dominates cinematic fairy tale representation and from these films, children create their own personal ideas about what is good, bad, pretty, or ugly based on what they see (Hurley).

Although Disney princesses have been around for more than 7 decades, the infatuation with Belle, Ariel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Jasmine (the original six princesses) has reached all new levels in the past ten years. A whole new generation of girls has fallen in love with this doe-eyed, tiara-sporting brigade of damsels in distress. It was, perhaps, Disney's most brilliant marketing scheme ever to turn the princesses into toothbrushes, pull-up diapers, bed sheets, and Halloween costumes. The Disney princess franchise is now a billion dollar industry, raking in four billion dollars in 2009 alone (Orenstein).

Little girls everywhere can now dress, act, and brush their teeth like their favorite princess. That is, except without the impossible body proportions and, for children of color, skin as white as snow. Obsession with appearances is not limited to girls above 12 years old; concerns about fatness, hair color and texture, and skin tone are finding their way into the psyche of girls as young as three years old. A study from the University of Central Florida found that nearly half of its three-to-six-year-old participants fretted about being fat. This is the very same age group that most girls today will get to see their first Disney princess movies.

Young girls are not the only ones affected by these Disney films. The heroes in the princess films are always the men, although most of them remain nameless and absent from the film the majority of the time, Aladdin being the only exception. Young boys can come away from these films learning two things: in order to get a hot girl, you need to be either good looking or rich.

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How much does what they see on the television, whether it be in movies or shows, affect a child's thoughts and behaviors? Much more than many parents would ever suspect. In a famous study by professor Badura D. Ross, children who were shown violent shows acted more aggressively with their toys and peers. The same principle can then be applied to the Disney princess movies, and not just in terms of the physical characteristics of the princesses but their societal roles and relationships with men as well. In another study by Karen E. Wohlwend studying the relationship between the princess culture and children's creativity in play, the children assigned roles to different dolls and their peers and created stories and play according to what they had observed from Disney princess media. This shows that princess culture has a direct effect on children's self-image and social interactions, especially amongst young girls.

In all of the original princess films, beginning with Snow White in 1937 and up to Jasmine in 1992, the mother figure is either totally absent or evil. The irrelevance of the mother in all of the films undoubtedly has an effect on the self-worth of girls (Hall, Bishop). Every princess is rescued by a prince who falls in love with her simply because she is beautiful. Prince Eric falls in love with Ariel when she can't even speak! What a way to instill in girls that their most important feature is their looks. Each princess is as helpless as the next, and her salvation is completely dependant on a man. In later movies, like Mulan in 1998 and Pocahontas in 1995, the girls do get a little gutsier. However, Mulan only saves the day when she binds her breasts, cuts off all her hair, and pretends to be a man, as if she could not possibly be the hero while at the same time retaining her feminine characteristics. Also, although Pocahontas doesn't leave for England with John Smith at the end of the film so that she can stay with her people, she does leave her roots in the sequel and ends up taking lessons to be more like a white English woman.

These are the characters that our children are supposed to view as the ultimate ideal: princesses whose only redeeming qualities are their looks and lovely singing voices. The story line of Disney movies remains unchanged over the years, always portraying women as helpless, motherless, and dependent on being rescued in some way by men. The Disney Company might be taking a hint from the complaints of parents, though. In 2009, they released The Princess and the Frog starring Princess Tiana, their first black princess as well as the very first to sport curly hair. Princess Tiana, however, is also thin as a rail, which begs the question: can't Disney give a girl some curves?

Works Cited

Hall, Ann C., and Mardia Bishop. Mommy Angst: Motherhood in American Popular Culture. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009. Print.

The absence of a mother figure, or instead the appearance of an evil stepmother, is commented on in this book. The impossibility of shielding children from the Disney Princess culture is discussed and how it is increasingly difficult for children to choose their own role models rather than accept the princesses that have infiltrated all kinds of media. The portrayal of the mothers as irrelevant and girls as helpless negatively impacts young girls' self-esteem and body image.

Hurley, Dorothy L. "Seeing White: Children of Color and the Disney Fairy Tale Princess." Journal of Negro Education 74.3 (2005): 221-232. JSTOR. Web. 21 March 2011.

In Dorothy Hurley of Easter University's article, the affect of the cast of all-white princeses in Disney fairy tales on the self-image and self-esteem of young non-white children is studied. Analysis of classic Disney films looks at how the absence of colored characters influences colored children's psyche.

Orenstein, Peggy. "What's Wrong With Cinderella?" The NY Times. 24 Dec. 2008. Web. 22 Feb. 2011.

Author and mother Peggy Orenstein discusses the influence of Disney princesses on the self-esttem and self-worth of young girls, including her own daughter.

United States. South Carolina Department of Mental Health. DMH. 2006. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.

Statistics on eating disorders in the United States in both males and females of all ages are examined.

Wohlwend, Karen E. "Damsels in Discourse: Girls Consuming and Producing Identity through Disney Princess Play." International Reading Association 44.1 (2009): 57-83. JSTOR. Web. 21 March, 2011.

Indiana University's Karen Wohlwend examines children's writing and play practices with princess imagery, including movies, toys, and books. Disney Princess fans' gender expectations and identities are observed and studied, including whether or not they assumed leadership roles, their interactions with their peers, and the influence on the princess culture on their self-esteem and style of play. The children participated in writing workshops and the story lines the created were studied. The children assigned roles to different dolls and their peers according to what they had observed from Disney Princess media, showing that princess culture has a direct effect on children's, especially young girls', self-image and social interactions.

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