The official Disney princesses, as seen on...everything!An interesting debate on CBC’s Q today (I HEART Q!) for those who missed it: The Princess Phenomenon – or in other words, why are we bombarding girls with Ariel, Snow White, and Cinderella, and what does this say to them?
The debate comes at a time when pink, princesses, of course, prince charming are at an all-time high in girls’ culture. The Disney Princesses began to be packaged as a group in 2000, years after they made their individual respective debuts in classic Disney movies like The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. Since then the persistent princesses have become a four billion dollar a year business, being marketed to young girls on everything from pillowcases to Halloween costumes. In other words, the profitable princess empire will keep Disney pumping out more hourglass-shaped maidens in the coming years.
In fact, their newest princess – not officially launched until December – has already garnered a fair bit of media attention. Princess Tiana, the lead character in The Princess in the Frog, may share elaborate gowns and crystal tiaras with her fellow princesses but she is a first in at least one important way. Tiana is Disney’s first black princess, the result of ongoing critique of the company for usually choosing the fairest of them all – literally – as princess material. It won’t be until later in the year when we see how Tiana fares in the fairytale world.
True, there was Mulan and Pochahontas, as Cecil Castellucci, one of the Q debate guests and author of the graphic novel The Plain Janes, points out. These two women were groundbreaking characters in terms of their non-white status, however, they are excluded from the official princess merchandising line, which includes Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Belle (Beauty and the Beast), and Jasmine (Aladdin). All official princesses are “as white as snow”, except for Jasmine, who is Arabian.
The meat of the debate is, of course, is there really a problem with all this princess paraphernalia?
The answer is, well, yes and no. Speaking as a total girly-girl (I was the kindergartener in fancy dresses everyday and loved all things girly from Lady Lovelylocks to Barbie) I see no problem with girls enjoying playing princess, and having fun doing it. The problem is the “all princess all the time” phenomenon, as the other Q guest, Peggy Orenstein, characterized the trend. In other words, girls need to see more than just princesses in animated movies, and right now that isn’t happening.
Orenstein, who penned the 2006 NYT Magazine article, “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” and will be releasing a new book next year titled How Cinderella Ate My Daughter, has been an active critic of the princess trend, but noting that her own daughter adores them. The first experience that many little girls have with popular culture is the Disney princesses, Orenstein argues, and because of this we need to be critical of “the princess effect.”
Research does show that children are very perceptive about race and gender in movies, however, it is obviously difficult to establish direct links between what children watch and their future attitudes and values. And there are always women like myself who lived in pink dresses as children (I still have a penchant for pink frocks, I admit!) but grow up to have a strong feminist consciousness.
But representation has been a key issue in the struggles against both sexism and racism. Having strong women, girls, and minority representation in popular culture that challenge stereotypes still seems like a necessary step that shouldn’t get pushed away because of the false notion that feminism is over and equality has been achieved.
Susan from Monsters vs. Aliens
It’s not only Disney who prefers to arm girls with magic wands rather than swords. Both Castellucci and Orenstein talked about the lack of girls in other animated movies. Pixar movies, for example, rarely have lead girl characters, and when female roles do pop up, they are supporting the lead roles of men and boys. We also still see stereotypical female roles - the character of the mom (who often dies at the beginning of the show, mind you), or even sometimes, “vampy” female characters, like the “slutty sloths” in Ice Age, as mentioned by Castellucci, but these representations do little to break down stereotypes.
So, what’s a girl to do? Well, there’s Susan, a popular character from Monsters vs. Aliens, who got the thumbs up from the Q panel for being spunky and adventuresome (albeit, perhaps a bit too skinny). And there’s Dora the Explorer, although her recent “make-over” in the hopes of attracting the tween crowd has made her resemble a pint-sized fashionista, irking some parents. There’s also the possibility for girls to identify with boy characters, which according to Castellucci, happens frequently. It appears that girls may not have trouble identifying with male characters because male characters still remain the norm (in academic terms, women are still “the other” to the perceived normality of the male.). But it doesn’t work the other way – boys, it seems, have trouble relating to girl characters. Interesting.
So, what can we do to give girls a little more real choice in popular culture – rather than have them choose between Belle and Jasmine? Take girls to see movies where there are girls in non-traditional lead roles is a start, as well as getting more women into the production of these movies. The Q panel also talked about looking towards Japanese anime movies, where girls rule the screens and are shown in a variety of everyday roles, as inspiration. Any other ideas? Or are the princesses really the best of what’s out there?
Check out the Q website to hear the podcast of the debate.
So, I’m curious: Are you a princess fan? Would you buy your daughter/etc princess-themed stuff? Or, do you have another favorite girl character that you think rocks?
xo, jessalynn
Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 05:02PM 
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