According to byu.edu, most girls can say that they’ve grown up watching princesses in classic Disney movies, especially when they were little. Most of the plots in these classics are different, but they often end with one significant scene that always shows a happy ending, a true love’s kiss with a prince. Despite often teaching good life lessons towards children, some critics point out that Disney princesses may not be all that glamorous of a role model. This ongoing debate eventually sparked the question of whether Disney princesses are really a good influence on young girls, the answer is yes.
But before knowing how Disney princesses are influential in a bad way, it’s also a necessity to first know how small children view role models as they grow up. According to holisticlifefoundation.org, young children can easily be influenced by adult role models and often look up to them. Because of this, parents need to be careful not only about what they say, but also what they do since actions speak louder than words. This applies to princesses because they’re the ones children are watching navigate their lives with specific traits, since their lives end up working out to the way they wanted, children may believe that this is how to act in the real world to become successful too. There are princesses who show good examples of traits like independence, determination, and grit, so it’s still a good idea for children to still be able to watch films with characters like them since it’s not always easy for a real life adult to always keep up with that personality.
For example, both Tiana from The Princess and the Frog and Mulan from Mulan both show their capabilities through hardwork, intense dedication and grit such as when Tiana works two jobs as a waitress to buy an old sugar mill and start a restaurant or when Mulan disguised herself as man to train in the army instead of her father, ignoring the standard rules. According to researchsquare.com, princesses like Mulan and Tiana do indeed help to inspire girls by promoting strength in their determination when doing whatever it takes to fulfill their goals. Even though they’re in different situations, they still apply the same mindset because it’s a valuable way of thinking. Also, another princess to mention is none other than Princess Jasmine from the Disney film Aladdin. From marinarose.bergbuilds.domains, Jasmine shows a level of feminism that makes young girls love her so much because she shows a more fiery side of women rather than just a sweet and gentle nature, making her inspire girls to be independent and not always need a man to save them. She’s initially supposed to marry a prince by her 15th birthday as it’s tradition for princesses her age to marry, but she refuses to marry someone just because of tradition and states “If I do marry, I want it to be for love,”, showing how she doesn’t hate the idea of marriage, she just hates being forced into one when she’s not ready yet.
Although there are some princesses who’ve been empowering feminism towards their audience, some fans point out that not all of the Disney princesses inspire kids in the right way. According to academia.edu, movies like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty show their princesses in more of a gender stereotypical way where the princes are only head over heels in love with them because of their beauty and the girls don’t actually try to solve their own problems and instead wait on a man to come take them out of their current lives. In the movie Cinderella, the prince had never even learned Cinderella’s name and was already willing to marry her just because she was much prettier than the rest of the girls at the ball that night. So, some critics may point out that this subtly teaches girls that so long as they’re pretty, with big eyes, and skinny, they’ll be loved by a man, no matter what their personality is. With films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Sleeping Beauty, websites like jaapl.org suggest that the “true love’s kiss” when someone is sleeping was inappropriate. Despite the fact that both of the princesses needed to be kissed awake, only the Prince Philip in Sleeping Beauty knew about the curse, while Prince Florian from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves didn’t. Even so, having a woman get kissed just to break a spell was debated to be an inappropriate move, since the princesses gave no consent to do so.
So does this mean that kids shouldn’t be watching princess movies? Well no, it’s still okay for children to watch Disney princess movies because according to time.com, more modern movies of Disney princesses show more adventurous sides of women rather than the “true love” obsessed side. While older versions do show more of a “helpless” version of a woman, newer Disney productions created princesses who’ve shown that they’re more than capable of handling themselves on their own. All in all, Disney movies with princesses are still a good influence on children in terms of teaching them valuable life lessons in the world, but parents should still be the main source of learning and careful about how much their child learns from a princess to make sure they don’t develop insecurities or learn the wrong lessons.
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