Postfeminist Princess Paradise

I think our class came of age at an interesting time, Disney-wise. We got all those second generation Disney Princess movies without the Disney Princess "line" rolled out in front of us everywhere we went. While the merchandise certainly existed, I guess it wasn't as ... branded as it is now? (Technically, are Mulan and Pocahontas really part of the line? I feel like we don't usually see them, which is probably less of a race issue than the fact that they don't ever wear fancy princess dresses. Actually though that just made me think of the last time I went to Disneyland ...I saw this group of girls together, and each one had a T-shirt with a different Disney princess on it that said "you can't sit with us!")

Anyway.

Growing up the classics available on tape as well as the new films being released, I think we were given the option showcased by the advertisement shown in class: you get to choose what type of princess you want to be. Are you a soldier, like Mulan? Are you an explorer, like Ariel? Do you find more fulfillment in a homey space, like Snow White? Are you sporty, like Merida? etc, etc. As a kid I didn't watch Snow White and think "OH BUT SHE'S SO OPPRESSED." Mostly I thought "what an incredibly annoying singing voice." I've read some of what Mr. Giroux's written on Disney, and I have to say I disagreed with a lot with it. (Justified partly, I felt, by some simple factual inaccuracies.)

While I can appreciate the discussions and thoughts that this sort of inquiry presents, I did feel a little skeptical of the slide that said "what messages are children REALLY learning?", with the pictures of the princesses and snarky captions that were found to describe their stories. I have to say I really strongly feel mostly, those are not the messages children learn from these films. These are messages thought up by snarky students.

Excuse me while I geek out a bit:

-Snow White: She is the only one of the classic princesses who faces an overt sexist (Grumpy). How does she win him over? Kills him with kindness.

-Cinderella: I don't think there's anything wrong with a heroine who hopes. Her qualities may be traditionally feminine (kind, patient, gets along with animals?, generally demure and non-argumentative), but I do find the historical context of the film interesting. It was in development directly after WWII, when women were being encouraged to go back to the domestic sphere. Here is our heroine, forced into domestic labor and trying to be as cheerful about it as she can. When the opportunity presents itself for her to stand up for her rights, she does. She is dignified. Her goal isn't to get married or find a prince, per se. It's just to get out.
(Ella Enchanted is of course a beloved take on the Cinderella story, and the change it puts into place is that the title character has been cursed from birth with an inability to defy direct orders. That's why she withstands the abuse. Ever After makes her a bit more physically hardcore, I guess. But actually Cinderella III - which I have seen and have no shame admitting it - gives Cinderella a bit more to do without drastically changing her original personality. It's a pretty fun movie.)

-Sleeping Beauty: Granted, Aurora is not a particularly well-developed or inspirational princess. But as far as the narrative-being-progressive goes, I think it kind of fits. The prince literally does nothing except kiss her. That is his only contribution to her rescue. The three good fairies do everything else for him. FEMALE POWER. (Seriously, though, I know they're not marketed and that's kind of the point of the presentation, but I think it's kind of cool that the movie's protagonists are middle-aged/older ladies.)

-The Little Mermaid: I understand the "but she gave up her voice for legs, HELLO" argument, but I'd like to take it a bit further by adding that it's the villain of the piece who encourages her to do this. Yeah, Eric is the impetus for Ariel becoming human, but I think the movie builds up a solid enough reason for her to want to go to shore anyway- she loves this culture. And when she gets above ground, you see her exploring and having fun. She is active and interactive. She gets her voice back (which incidentally, is what the Prince fell in love with at the start).

I won't go into the rest, except to say that I was a bit disappointed when Pixar released "Brave," and I realized that their default for their first-ever female-led story was about a princess who didn't want to be a princess. What always set them apart from Disney was their diverse types of stories and characters and atmospheres. I really do think the movie's a bit of a mess, but the mother/daughter message was a nice surprise.

Frozen is amazing. I think my favorite thing about it is that the princesses' gender is never a big deal. It's a good message for girls to hear that even though Belle ("It's not right for a woman to read!") and Mulan ("She is a woman! She will never be worth anything!") and Merida ("A princess doesn't [x,y,z]) were told to act/behave a certain way because of their genders, they defied those stereotypes and were able to succeed. But I like that in Frozen, there's no "look what she did in spite of her femaleness!" They are allowed to just exist as characters. No soapbox. It kind of reminded me of a Sarah Silverman quote going around: "Stop telling girls that they can be anything they want when they grow up. I think it's a mistake, not because they can't, but because it would've never occurred to them that they couldn't." Let's try to move past that.

tl;dr: Disney is subjective, and that can make studying it difficult. Personal favorite of their feminist icons: Miss Bianca, from The Rescuers. I think Zooey Deschanel would approve.