I recently read an article that disturbed me. It stated that Disney princesses is "harmful" for little girls. They are saying this in regards to body image and how the Disney princesses are girls' first exposure to the "thin ideal." There have been other articles in the past years about the princesses depending on their princes and getting saved and that's how all girls will perceive that's how their life will be.
I grew up on this so called Disney Princess Culture and I can say it was the best thing for me. It let me be creative. It let me dream a life that I could never get. Besides these movies having great, memorable music, each has a motto or a lesson to be taught to the audience. Belle never judged a book by it's cover, Mulan progressed women's equality in the army by hundreds of years just to name a few.
The section of the linked article that talks about body image issues and the gender stereotypes for girls that come from the influence of the Disney Princesses is extremely absurd to me. They state in the article, "The strict gender stereotypes can become problematic, Sarah Coyne observes, if they hold girls back. 'We know that girls who strongly adhere to female gender stereotypes feel like they can’t do some things,' Coyne said. 'They’re not as confident that they can do well in math and science. They don’t like getting dirty, so they’re less likely to try and experiment with things.'"
According to these studies, I am a rare case since I experimented with different sports throughout childhood, while in the princess culture. I never really bought into these "female stereotypes." It's more apparent that these "studies" are to show more the negative side of Disney movies rather than celebrate that kids actually get excited about something. This also sets back equality movements both gender and LGBTQ+ back about 60 years. Not only girls can love a princess movie and not all of these princesses are all about being saved and getting the guy.
I have this conversation a lot with people about this exact topic and the general consensus is that this is absolutely crazy and people should give kids a lot more credit than they are giving them.
The original article that was my inspiration for this is linked above.
