For those of you who know me, know the absurdity of me writing an article on anything remotely close to negativity when it comes to Disney. I have been a Disney girl since I can remember; therefore, my obsession runs deep. But as I've grown into the young adult that I am, I've done some analyzing of my own on the meanings, the lessons, the metaphors, the irony, the humor, and even the hidden characters from different movies. In my spare time, I've done a lot of soul searching in the depths of my mind to figure out why I am the way I am and why I do what I do. With all that I have collected, I have discovered three key components from Disney that damaged my adolescent mind which later molded me into why I think and act the way I do today. What I found were three reasons as to why Disney ruined me.
1. Unrealistic Beauty
The most obvious reason is the unrealistic beauty that Disney portrayed in their princess characters: the extremely small wastes, the tiny feet, the long perfect hairstyle, the big eyes, and the perfect teeth. Children are highly susceptible to the influence of anyone and anything. Never had I realized it before, but I was affected by the thin princesses and their charismatic effect to have the princes fall in love with them. I admired them. I wanted to be them. as a 11 year old, I was already making comparisons; my body to theirs, my hair to theirs, my eyes to theirs: essentially, I was comparing my life to theirs. Seeing that I obviously was not even close to their attributes made me question my identity. Being so young, I struggled with body image, fitting in, belonging, feeling comfortable in my own skin, accepting that I am different from everyone. Disney based their princesses beauty solely on the stereotypical physique of what society finds acceptable and beautiful. Even as a young girl, I was being molded into believing that girls should look like Disney princesses, more specifically by the size of their waste. To use an example, I once knew a 10 year old girl who felt fat because she too was comparing. She went home in tears out of devastation and defeat. We should not be teaching our daughters, our friends, our nieces that Disney is the model for what women should look like; we define our own beauty based on how we choose to look.
2. Princes
My man and I have had many conversations about my expectations that I have for him, regarding dates, how I should be treated, how I want to be treated, what unexpected surprises I'd like for him to do, and how I'd like for him to show his love for me. I know for a fact that in no way am I doing it on purpose, but subconsciously I am projecting what I want from him based on what I've seen and witnessed in Disney. The romance, the sweetness, and the unrealistic perfectness of these love stories make it all seem too good to not want. Of course we don't purposefully tell our significant others that we want them to be just like Disney princes, but we do somehow make it known by knowing how well Disney paints the picture for their perfect characters.
3. Defiance
Having Disney characters defy their parents is a staple for their movies. But how they portray it in the movies, is that no repercussions or punishments happen to them after the defiance is done. In the most iconic movie, The Little Mermaid, Ariel defies her fathers rules about not visiting the surface and interacting with humans. She of course does not listen and acts on her own wishes of doing what she wanted. Being 16 automatically dubs her the right to consider herself an adult, which now all of us 90's babies find to be completely laughable due to the fact that we at our age now cannot even call ourselves adults. Aside from this, her plan worked out perfectly, she got what she wanted, and lived happily ever after. In reality, the thought of defying my parents at her age struck the fear of God in me because I knew what would be coming. The unfortunate lessons that Disney was teaching us that even in the wake of defying their parents, the characters were able to get away with whatever their mission was and having nothing holding them back. Reality just isn't like that; yes, these are fictional stories, fictional characters, animation: but to a 5-12 year old girl, these stories are a beacons of hopes and dreams. The line of reality and fantasy is thin, mainly because their minds are so young and fresh, anything can be real.
Concluding thoughts being that my love for Disney has not changed, nor will it be changed. Disney brings a sense of magic to my life, even at my age.
