The Problem With Disney Princesses

CTCS 412: Final Paper Abstract

By: Pamela Chan

November 15, 2013

The princess culture is an integral part of any young girl’s life—yet the ‘girly girl’ culture being constantly marketed by companies such as Disney are much less innocent than they seem to be. They often go on to have negative consequences for the psychological, social, and physical development of many growing girls.

There are a plethora of problematic gendered and racial messages being sent out through the ‘pink and princess’ marketing of Disney films and products. It is important to consider how these widely-viewed and circulated mass media entities continue to influence young audience’s attitudes, values, and beliefs regarding both race and gender. There is also a great need to consider how immensely influential these various films and products are on the ideologies of their targeted viewing audience—impressionable little girls.

So how do Disney films serve as a powerful resource through which young girls develop identity and come to understand the roles that gender and race play in the real world? By focusing in on the Disney Princess franchise, this paper will take an in-depth look at the gender and racial stereotypes embedded within various Disney films throughout children-programming history.

A couple of years ago, Peggy Orenstein, author of “Cinderella Ate My Daughter” (Harper Publishing 2011), provided readers with a witty and thought-provoking examination of the gendered roles being sent to little girls through pink and princess marketing. In addition, researchers like Dawn England of Arizona State University have similarly studied how these gendered messages (such as the need for girls to look pretty and focus on their appearance over inner substance) are overly predominant in most, if not all, of Disney-produced media and merchandise.

There are a plethora of past and ongoing studies aiming to analyze the some-what negative effects of Disney Princess programming on our youth-- “A lot of parents consider Disney high quality entertainment, and in a way it is, but when you examine some of the earlier princesses more closely, you do find some of the stereotypical gendered behaviors,” England writes in a December 2011 issue of The Journal of Child Development. My paper will attempt to follow up on that research.

With the deep analysis of various animated feature films, the outcome of this paper will aim to prove that Disney’s seemingly wholesome and often too-trusted princess portrayals can, in fact, be extremely harmful to women well after they have experienced a childhood immersed in the movies. Entertainment wise, they may provide a valuable service to little girls everywhere—but it is also vital to understand that many a times, Disney Princess films may be the root cause of the abundance of identity and self-esteem issues that are seen amongst many women (and men) in society today.