I don't think anyone could properly deny the quality and magical nature of Disney films. The moral messages of each film enrich the lives of thousands of children each year, and they still enrich my life today. I mean, with the environmentalist message of Pocahontas and the message on inner beauty imparted by Beaurty and the Beast, who couldn't be enriched? However, I am beginning ot realize that I have also been negatively impacted by Disney- and not by a lack of quality, or a lack of morals, but by the visuals presented in the films. Pocahontas, Belle, Ariel, Cinderella, Snow White, all of these female characteres were drawn with figures that are hardly healthy goals fo young girls to have.
Recently, I was trying on a prom dress and I pulled the sash way too tight, as I generally do in an attempt to achieve a female figure that was ingrained in my mind since childhood. My childhood idol was Pocahontas, and I wanted her shape and long tresses, so that I, too, could be beautiful.
While I was struggling to breathe, I pondered things like social influences and pressure, and how my need ot be typically beautiful could very well be derived from things that seemed harmless when I was a child, like Disney movies and the ever-lovely Barbie. How much of my low self esteem could be blamed on the barrage of subliminal messages on how a woman's body should look?
You may have realized that this effect can hardly be liited to the Disney corporation. There are commercials and cartoons and other media that have the same effect. Which is why I motion that media begins to portray more accurate descriptions of people in real live, before another generation is poisoned by subconcious societal expectations regarding their bodies.
Judging by her TV show, Ugly Betty, Salma Hayek agrees with me. I want the number of women suffering from anorexia and bullemia to begin to dwindle. Not everyone can look like the Little Mermaid.
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The reason these characters were slim were they're easier to look at and far easier for girls to want to be. If you saw a plumply drawn chick with warts, you would think shes secretly evil or going to transform in the later.. You dont have to be anorex to look like that, you just have to be unglutonous( and genetically inclined). They're not pressuring everyone to be like the characters image, disney is more about wanting you to share the characters mindset/perspective, as well as those intertwined in the story, they sort out the world into right and wrong so people can do it themselves and not become the evils in the scenario. A.k.a gaston the arrogant ignorant hunter meathead, or evil selfish people like the ersela in the mermaid who is self centered and ruins others lives for her goal(like our imperialist government).. its not about image, that was just left up the the drawers, who when they thought of a sweet nice girl that every guy in the town wanted did not cast an overweight one.. Just be who you are, and stop blaming the world for favoring an image, you are who you're meant to be, dont be bothered by or afraid of that.
Everything, you have done, and will do, is chemically predisposed by matter, even the fact you are reading this message. You make no choices, only perceive a given reality.
Thanks for commenting. What i meant to bring out in my post is not that disney did this purposely to brainwash all girls into thinking they should look a certain way, but at five years old, i was impressionable, and i'm realizing now that i don't have to look the way i've always thought i should. some people don't get that same epiphany. i just think that there are way too many things that negatively influence our opinions of our bodies before we even need to think about such things. it's time to be a little more proactive and think about things like that, you know? for the children! lol.
at least disney princesses were not not portrayed as brainless bints, or i don't know where i'd be!
it's not just cartoons, though. it's also the picture perfect people we see get cast in movies. something i think is changing, bit by bit.
Disney has a major influence on young children. I personally hate the fact that most of the women portrayed are weak and need a prince to come rescue them. I mean the only women who are strong are evil. This is why my favorite disney movie is Mulan. She defied the this idea of needing to be saved and saved her man instead. Also Disney puts a lot of political asspects in their movies especially the Lion King. I am sure you've heard something about that right?
yeah, i've heard about that. i think its important that we think about these kinds of things when it comes to future generations. They take in a lot more than we think they do.
The only underlying themes in Lion King that I knew about was that it is based on Hamlet. I am curious about the political themes now.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tricia0711
...about the political themes, but The Lion King (and any Disney film, really) is chock full of racial stereotypes.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
You know, I've never really though of the disney princesses in that way. And I think you're definatly right about kids be unintentionally brainwashed about the look of the princesses, but I don't think that's the strongest thing that comes across to kids. I think the morals and their strengths are what kids notice first. Whereas something like barbie, is just like a doll that wouldn't really even be able to stand if she was real because of how she's porportioned. I think dolls actually give a worse impression on kids because they don't have the same morals and problems as the characters in disney have. I think too with disney, a lot of the problems that the characters face in the movies are unrealistic, yet they relate to things that could really happen in real life. Like in Beauty and the Beast, a man can't really turn into a beast and a girl isn't going to get lost in the woods and happen apon a mansion with talking furniture and other objects. But, the general ideas, such as in that one the moral is that you should love yourself however you are, and appearences aren't everything.
I do agree though that disney should make a movie with a princess who doesn't have a perfect body. I'm not saying have a fat or ugly princess, just someone who is not genetically skinny and who is set bigger than other girls.
and i agree with you about barbie. i wish i could tell every little girl out there that barbie does not = woman. barbie does not = sexy. you don't have to aspire to this. they probably wouldn't get it until it's too late. i think it's more of a subconcious thing... at least it was for me. i do appreciate the morals of disney. they're still some of my favorite films. i just think that on the whole, society should be a little more accepting of the differences in human body types and genetics so that we can become more accepting of ourselves.