We all recognize the beautiful group of cartoon women at first glance. These women have been with us throughout our childhood entertaining us with their magical singing and daring adventures. Their main fan base is teen girls who grew up with them or little girls just learning about them as we speak. What could possibly be flawed in such a perfectly drawn person? Well, there are people out there who look down on Disney princesses and everything they stand for. These people argue that these movies are anti-feminist by showing women as helpless and dumb, teaching little girls that they need a man and need to do anything in order to get him and fill our minds with the incorrect notion that happily ever after is real and we need to reach it. As you may have guessed, I do not agree with these statements and I’ll tell you why:

First of all, let’s look at the anti-feminist argument. Alright, when you use a subject like "Snow White" or "Sleeping Beauty," then I guess yes, those movies are a little anti-feminist, because Snow and Aurora don’t really do anything for themselves. However, let’s look at Belle, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Pocahontas or even Tiana. Belle saved her father from a horrifying beast knowing that she might die. Jasmine didn’t even want to be a princess but instead wanted to escape and explore the world. Rapunzel, who also didn’t really care about being a princess but just wanted to explore, beat Flynn up the first time they met and then proceeded to give her magical hair up to save his life. Pocahontas saved her tribe and Tiana worked her whole life to make a successful future for herself. All of these princesses worked for what they wanted and just happened to stumble upon their one true love (except we all know that Pocahontas’ real story didn’t include falling in love with John Smith but that’s beside the point). And I know what you’re thinking, “Also Mulan! She saved her country!” Stop. Stop it. Mulan was not a princess. Shang was not a prince. She was a warrior. He was a warrior. No royalty involved. Warrior does not equal prince/princess. So, no.

Secondly, do you really think little girls believe these things? Yeah, they think princesses are real, but most 6-year-old girls with half a brain realize that people don’t have ridiculously long magical hair, and that princes can't turn into animals, or that a mermaid traded her tail for legs or that you can ride in a pumpkin. Wait hold on, remember that news story about that little girl who thought, “Well, Belle found her one true love and he was a beast. So I’m going to go into the woods and make a beast fall in love with me”? No? That’s right because it never happened. Little girls are smarter than we give them credit for and their not going to absolutely fall for everything you put their way.

Lastly, everyone knows that happily every after is not real. If you haven’t realized this yet, well I’m sorry. It’s sad but it’s true. Life is pretty awful and we kind of all wish that happily ever after was real. That’s why we have these movies, to distract us from our terrible lives and focus on someone else’s perfect life. These movies are an outlet for us when we need some hope and happiness. If you want to take this away from us, well then okay Ursula.