This, too, stems from recollections of my most recent trips to Disney parks. I’m not around children 24/7 or even 4/7 really, so I’m using the sample data I can, and I’m fully aware that it might be skewed, but.
Little girls are not exposed to princesses worth a damn, period. Sure, they could be if their parents or older siblings tried, but just look at the marketing of the various Disney princesses. Even just take the packet of coloring sheets I bought last year (I am just that awesome, and pictures of my steampunk Belle and vampire Snow White will appear some day, I’m sure): out of twenty sheets, four featured Snow White. Five featured Sleeping Beauty. Four featured Cinderella. (Exception to the rule, but Belle was on a grand total of seven.) Five featured Ariel. Two featured Jasmine. One featured Mulan, and that was one of the group shots. I didn’t even realize before that and trips to Disney parks that little girls even watched Sleeping Beauty anymore. It certainly wasn’t one of my generation’s pet movies. The princesses that still get marketed are far and away the ones who didn’t do anything.
Consider.
Snow White: Was so pretty she was banished by her stepmother. Cooked and cleaned for some dwarves. Was poisoned. Got kissed by a prince and all was better.
Sleeping Beauty: Was used in an evil bitch’s vengeance plot. Sewed some things. Poked her finger. Got kissed by a prince and all was better.
Cinderella: Was so pretty her stepmother and stepsisters hated her. Cooked and cleaned for them. Put on a pretty dress. Got kissed by a prince and all was better.
Belle: (Who I may have a bias towards because I’ve always loved her, but.) Read some books. Loved someone for their ~inner beauty~. Kissed some prince and all was better. <— See, that is at least slightly better. She was proactive. And intellectual.
Ariel: Sang pretty. Got her voice taken away by the sea witch ’cause it was too pretty. Also vengeance plots were involved. Almost died. Got kissed by a prince and all was better. <— At least Ariel was slightly spunky while being doormatty.
Jasmine: Was pretty. Was all “oh, I want to go outside” except not. Wacky vengeance plots ensued. Kissed some street urchin and all is better.
Mulan: Was tomboyish. Pretended to be a boy. Kicked some major ass. Saved her damn country. Kissed a guy who totally Twelfth Nightishly loved even boy-her and all was better. <— SEE? SEE? Eons better.
AND THOSE NOT ON THE COLORING SHEETS (some “unofficial”):
Pocahontas: Was pretty and natural. Refused to marry Kokomo. Fell in love with a pretty white guy. Saved him from death and all was better. <— SAVING, AGAIN. Somewhat acceptable.
Tiana: I’ll admit I haven’t yet seen The Princess and the Frog. So, no comment?
Rapunzel: Ditto Tangled. I’m a terrible twenty-year-old Disney fan.
Meg: (Yes. From Hercules. I completely count her, even though nobody else on the planet does, apparently.) Makes a deal with Hades ’cause of her old lover. (OMFG SHE ISN’T A VIRGIN.) Falls in love. Almost dies. Got kissed by some demigod and all was better. <— At least she’s still a liberated woman.
Alice: Fell down a hole. Had some adventures. Woke up. <— At least there’s no magic man kiss involved?
Giselle: Got tricked into falling down a hole. Had some adventures. Got poisoned. Got kissed by Patrick Dempsey and all was better.
Nala: Was a lion cub. Played around. Kissed/got kissed by her lion bestie and all was better. <— Sort of doesn’t count, but.
Maid Marian: Does anyone even still watch Robin Hood ever?
Yet who gets marketed the most? The simpering ones who wear pretty dresses all the time, do household chores, are walked all over by xyz authority figure (who is always in addition to being evil notably ugly), and then are saved by a man. And the ass-kicking epic woman of empowerment who saves everyone is… barely noticed at all. Eight-year-olds of this generation probably haven’t even seen Mulan. The generation of everyone right now ages 17-22 who truly grew up with it can still bust out a good old
Let’s get down to business to defeat the Huns!
(And then there’s also the middling issue of, y’know, that the princesses that get pimped out the most are the pretty Caucasian ones, if you want to go there. Disney has been remedying this as of late with their vigorous pimping of Tiana, being as she’s all African-American and whatnot, but good old Native American Pocahontas and Asian Mulan and, uhm. African lion Nala. They’re still in the dust. Whether or not this is intentional, I don’t know. It’s still troublesome, though.)
I give Ariel and Jasmine points for personality, even if they didn’t really do anything. Belle gets points for being intelligent and having a good moral message. Meg gets points for being potentially subversive. Snow White? Sleeping Beauty? Cinderella? Just need to go surrender some merchandise for Mulan, okay???? What sort of world are we leaving for our children where the message they get is “saving the world isn’t important. Being pretty and doing household chores and getting the guy is.”
Yeah. I’ll be letting my theoretical daughter(s) enjoy all the classics, but they will also be learning to enjoy strong women elsewhere.
–your fangirl heroine.
![bitchplz](https://i0.wp.com/i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/cinemaholicdarling/moodtheme/bitchplz.png)
Tags: aladdin, alice in wonderland, beauty and the beast, cinderella, disney, disney princesses, enchanted, hercules, mulan, pocahontas, sarcastic saturday, sleeping beauty, snow white, the lion king, the little mermaid