Disney Princess Stereotypes

2297 Words10 Pages
The act of reading and watching fairy tales as a child has the ability to negitavely affect our lives. Many of the Disney princesses often depict ideal female qualities and characteristic behaviors; male and female characters are portrayed differently in Disney films, indicating distinct ideas about gender, social behaviors, and norms. The fairy tales that children read and watch daily are very one sided. They are constantly showing the weakness of women and the power men hold over them. In these stories, women always need a man to come and save the day. This, at one point in time was a relevant and realistic idea of how the world worked. Women were viewed as delicate and needed a man to take care of them. Now things have drastically changed.…show more content…
More recently the public has begun to discuss how the media, television and Hollywood portray men and women. “Men are depicted as physically aggressive, non-expressive, and as heroic saviors, particularly of women. Women are portrayed as beautiful, dependent on men, and engaged in domestic responsibilities” (Towbin et al. 35). Young girls idealize the princesses they see in Disney films and the characteristics they posses. To be a Disney princess she has to have a slender neck, demure shoulders and a defined waist. She must have long legs that connect to her waist, completely eliminating the need for hips. Then she has a White-European style face with huge sugar cookie eyes that have pupils that never seem to dilate. All of these characteristics are extremely unrealistic. It is basically a child’s face on a teenagers body. Since this is a how beauty is being portrayed young girls start to think that is how they are supposed to look. It is causing more harm than good to show all women on TV as a size 0. These features create the illusion that beauty is defined by these distinct qualities. Girls who were consistently exposed to such images as children are more likely to experience intense dissatisfaction with their own bodies in the

More about Disney Princess Stereotypes

Open Document