Please begin at the bottom with the post titled "Princess Role Playing" and continue up until you reach the annotated bibliography post.

Annotated Bibliography

Aladdin (1992) - IMDb. Dir. Ron Clements and John Musker. Perf. Robin Williams and Gilbert Gottfried. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 15 Nov. 2010. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103639/>.

            I used the Internet Movie Database to find quotes from the movie Aladdin. I was trying to convey how Jasmine felt about being married and the only way to do it seemed to be by adding a direct quotation.  The quote is the same that is spoken in the movie. 

"All the Lyrics of Disney Princess in Alphabetical Order." Lyrics Mania. Web. 02 Nov. 2010. <http://www.lyricsmania.com/lyrics/disney_princess_lyrics_42181/all.html>.

I used this source to quote the individual song lyrics of each princess. It was helpful to me to be able to see the lyrics written down instead of just half memorized in my head.  This cite is open to everyone and anyone can submit lyrics. As far as I know the lyrics were all correct. 

Bell, Elizabeth, Lynda Haas, and Laura Sells. "Somatexts at the Disney Shop." From Mouse to Mermaid: the Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1995. 107-36. Print.

This chapter of the book looks at the way that Disney’s artists portray the princesses at their “prime” age in life: at the height of puberty.  They also look at the way the villains and heroes are drawn, either old and ugly or young and strong.  The authors are professors/assistant professors of Writing, Communications, or Women’s studies.  They look at Disney’s Princesses through a feminist perspective focusing on visual depiction of characters, gender, race, and class.  This book contributed to my essay on Disney’s tendency to spotlight unattainable beauty.

Dundes, Lauren. "Disney's Modern Heroine Pocahontas: Revealing Age-old Gender Stereotypes and Role Discontinuity under a Facade of Liberation." Social Science Journal 38.3 (2001): 353-65. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Nov. 2010.

            Dundes looks specifically at Disney’s warrior princess, Pocahontas.  She dissects Pocahontas as a character and as a princess and compares and contrasts her with the other Disney Princesses.  This is different than most of my other sources because it is a close dissection of one princess not just a broad summary of all of them. This was helpful in my introduction to the princesses, specifically Pocahontas, because it helped me put together a way to reveal her as a new age warrior princess.

Henke, Jill and Diane Umble. "The Disney Myth in the Video Age." Mediated Women: Representations in Popular Culture. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton, 1999. 321-37. Print.

Henke and Umble start by briefly analyzing Disney and continue with three in depth analyses of the main female characters in The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahontas.  The main points they focus on are women’s roles, power structure, how the women shape their destinies, and how the women take action for themselves.  They look at how Disney’s females have become more assertive, but retained the same basic characteristics.  This source relates to my previous entry because it has a focus on 3 princesses instead of an overview of them all. It compares in depth these three princesses as they came about during Disney’s transition from old to new. This was very helpful with my introduction to the princesses and with my comparison of Disney’s older princesses with the newer ones.

Photograph. Fanpop.com. FanPop, Inc., Nov. 2009. Web. 18 Nov. 2010. <http://www.fanpop.com/spots/disney-couples/images/6707977/title/princess-aurora-prince-philip-photo>.

Photograph. Triplets and Us. 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2010. <http://www.tripletsandus.com/disney/beauty.htm>.

Photograph. Disney Princess Dresses. FlexSqueeze, 28 July 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2010. <http://disneyprincessdresses.net/>.

I used these three websites to help add some pictures to my blog.  I wanted to make it more appealing to look at.  Adding pictures was important to me because I think if you have something to look at while you’re reading it makes it easier.  Also it helps the reader visualize who or what I am talking about.  

 Towbin, Mya A., Shelley Haddock, Toni Zimmerman, Lori Lund, and Litsa Tanner. "Images of Gender, Race, Age, and Sexual Orientation in Disney Feature-Length Animated Films." Journal of Feminist Family Therapy 15.4 (2003): 19-44. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Nov. 2010.

            This journal article examines how Disney’s uses age, race, gender, and sexual orientation in its movies through characters.  It is an abstract overview that dissects specific quotes and examples found in the movies. This article also helped me by comparing old and new movies and how they repeatedly portray certain aspects in positive and negative light.

Wohlwend, Karen E. "Damsels in Discourse: Girls Consuming and Producing Identity Texts Through Disney Princess Play." Reading Research Quarterly 44.1 (2009): 57-83. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Nov. 2010.

This was a study conducted in a kindergarten classroom. Its focus was on young girls and how they interacted with Disney Princess dolls and how they interpreted the gender bias of their stories.  This article came from an academic journal and is affiliated with Indiana University.  The article helped shape my blog entry about girls identifying with the princesses. It also informed me of the extent of Disney’s Princess paraphernalia and how princess play is carried out with young children.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 18 November 2010.

            I used YouTube to watch videos of the songs I talked about in my blog. I also used it to embed videos in my blog.  In my first post I inserted the videos for the songs “Some Day My Prince Will Come” from Snow White and “Just around the River Bend” from Pocahontas. I thought it was important to see what was visually going on during these songs to get the full effect of their impact on children. 

Zarranz, Libe Garcia. "DISWOMEN STRIKE BACK? THE EVOLUTION OF DISNEY'S FEMMES IN THE 1990s." Atenea 27.2 (2007): 55-67. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Nov. 2010.

“Diswomen” is an article written about the Disney women of the 90s. The princesses at this time began to evolve from helpless to independent.  This article looks at that aspect and also highlights the way that even though the princesses have evolved they still revert back to the old distinct attributes that make the Disney Princesses who they are. The article comes from a magazine out of Spain and is affiliated with the University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Conclusion

In my research on this topic I learned many things about Disney, and also about myself.  I am a huge fan of Disney, but what I discovered during this project caused me to waiver quite a bit.  It is disturbing that there is so much sexism and impossible perfection in the world that all girls fall in love with when they are children.  Even though I have opened the door to all this negativity that surrounds Disney, I still love the movies and the franchise itself.  I have to believe that most young girls will look at these stories only as what they are, fairytales.

Unattainable Beauty

This topic is an issue for many.  Disney’s Princesses are no doubt gorgeous, but their looks are completely unrealistic: perfectly thick hair, never out of place, long lean limbs, waists the size of your pinky, lips full and soft, and skin so perfect and glowing.  These attributes are extremely rare on their own, let alone all together on one person.  Now, I do realize that they are just drawings and that no real girl looks like they do, but do little girls know this? 

            Disney Princesses are diverse in many aspects, but they all have these unrealistic attributes that may harbor themselves in the subconscious mind of a child and come back to influence her as she grows.  “The young heroines are typical of ‘the perfect girl,’ whose body, voice, and destiny are a ‘mesmerizing presence’” (Bell 120-121).   They are so visually appealing, with story lines that always end happily that it is so easy to get caught up in the fairytale, making it part of your reality.  It scares me that there may be girls out there buying products and makeup and anything they can that will help them attain this standard.  Even worse, they may be starving themselves, trying to reach their goal of a pinky-sized waste.  Most girls are going to have a hard enough time with body image as they get older; there is no need for it to start as early as age 3. 

            However, Disney has grown.  They have come from differences between princesses being as small has hair color, to a variety of ethnic backgrounds and changing from dreams for a man to dreams for yourself.  They have finally given girls an ideal role model in Tiana.  My hope is that some time soon they will produce a Princess who is of average size, maybe even overweight.  All girls need someone to look up to, to tell them they are also beautiful, not just the impractically perfect. 

Jasmine, Snow White, Mulan, Aurora, Cinderella, Pocahontas, Tiana, Belle, and Ariel

Finally Equal

Fig. 1 Princess Tiana

Disney has recently released the newest addition to its’ Princesses, Tiana (Figure 1).  She is the first African American princess, born and raised in the grand city of New Orleans in the movie The Princess and the Frog.  Tiana has dreams for herself.  She wants to open her own restaurant in honor of her father who passed away.  She believes so strongly in this dream that she spends her whole life trying to make it her reality.  One day Prince Naveen visits the city.  He is swept away by the culture and stupidly falls in with Dr. Facilier, the “Shadow Man”, who uses voodoo to turn Naveen into a frog per request of his jealous assistant, Lawrence.  Later, Prince Naveen convinces Tiana to kiss him, promising that he will return to his normal state.  But because she is not yet a princess, Tiana becomes a frog.  They travel near and far to try and change back into humans and along the way, fall for each other.  They marry, making Tiana a true frog princess and he kiss makes them both human again.  Tiana never gives up her dream and once they are finally changed back, she opens her restaurant. 

This movie is the beginning of a new type of princess movie.  Tiana is a great role model for young girls.  She has dreams and she is driven in her pursuit of them.  She does not plan her life around finding a man to take care of her.  Tiana is successfully independent, and works hard for what she desires.  Another difference in this movie is the role of the male characters.  Prince Naveen is handsome, charismatic, and charming, but ultimately arrogant, until Tiana teaches him to appreciate the simple things in life.  The “Shadow Man” is the evil villain, communicating with the underworld and ruining the lives of the fortunate.  And then there is Lawrence.  He is an overweight, overworked assistant who is “green with envy”.  He wants to live the life of the rich and hands himself over to Dr. Facilier to obtain it.  This is a big step for Disney.  They are finally showing young girls that it is important to dream, but to make that dream come true you need to work hard.

A New Era: Disney’s Warrior Princesses

Fig. 1 Pocahontas

Pocahontas (Figure 1) is an Indian princess who lived around the time that the English came to America.  She is another princess who knows there is more to the world than the small part that she lives in.  She teaches girls to follow their adventurous side and explore their options before making life changing decisions.  Her father is the Chief of her tribe and has laid out a plan for her to marry the strongest warrior in the tribe, Kocoum.  She struggles with deciding whether or not to marry Kocoum or to follow her own path.  Once she meets John Smith, an explorer from the New World, her adventure changes.  She now spends time teaching him things about her world, falls in love with him, and saves him from being killed.  This movie has a new twist that had never been done before: when John Smith asks Pocahontas to join him in England she refuses, saying she must stay with her people.  Pocahontas is sending a message that she is not ready to give up her life for love, she wants to explore herself further.  In this movie the princess may not end up with the man of her dreams, but she does find her happily ever after.  

Fig. 3 Mulan

Fig. 2 Mulan as a warrior

Mulan is truly a warrior princess.  She is looked down on by her community because she is not as ladylike as women are supposed to be.  When the Huns invade China her elderly father is called to fight in the army.  To save him from almost certain death, Mulan disguises herself as a boy and goes in his place (Figure 2).  She trains with the rest of the new recruits, having to perform strenuous tasks without revealing her true identity.  While training, Mulan begins to fall for her superior officer, Shang.  When the army is attacked on mountain, Mulan is the one who comes up with a brilliant plan to get them out of trouble, but shortly after her secret is exposed.  Mulan is outcast for being a woman, and has brought great dishonor to her family through her actions.  Shang refuses to speak to her and leaves her on the mountainside.  It is not until the very end of the movie that Mulan, once again, uses her wits to save China from the Huns.  Shang appreciates her only after this and she is finally accepted and honored for who she is as a woman (Figure 3).  Throughout the movie Mulan is watched over by an ancestral dragon (male), named Mushu.  He is mostly a guardian, and never abandons Mulan, even when she is an outsider.  Mulan is a smart, independent girl who is not afraid to stand out.  She is even willing to put her life in danger for the greater good.

The Modern Princesses: Wish for Independence, Still Inferior to Men

Fig.1 Ariel as a mermaid

Ariel (Figure 1) is the underwater princess in the movie The Little Mermaid. She is the most beautiful daughter of the Sea-King, King Triton, curious to learn, who disobeys her father so she can discover what she does not know.  Disney, once again, casts the powerful female in the evil role with Ursula, while King Triton is portrayed as all that is good.  In Ariel’s first song, “Part of Your World”, she sings in her beautiful voice about her desire to be living on land with the people and her curiosity about all of the things they can do.  She has a will for change and for something more for herself, until she sees Eric, a prince whom she rescues during a storm.  By the end of the song her will changes from wanting to be “part of that world” to “part of your world” (Princess Lyrics) showing that her strongest desire is to be with him.  She even goes so far as to give up her own voice to be closer to him.  He meets her and falls in love with her based solely on her looks, since she has no voice to have any type of conversation with him before their marriage. At the end of the movie Eric ends up killing Ursula, and King Triton grants Ariel her one wish to be on land with Eric by giving her legs.  The movie displays men as being all powerful.  On page 325 of the book Mediated Women, Henke and Umbel state, “power over her life merely changes from her father’s rule to the prince’s rule”.  King Triton is very controlling of Ariel and refuses to allow Ariel to live on the land with the humans until he sees that she will be in the care (or under the control) of another man, Prince Eric. She is constantly under the watchful eyes of the male characters. 

Fig. 2 Belle

Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, is a beautiful young girl who lives in a small town full of “provincial” people.  Belle (Figure2) is a seemingly independent and not afraid to speak her mind, teaching girls that it is okay to be yourself not matter who is watching you.  Belle enjoys reading and is very smart, that is where she is considered an outcast.  Belle reads of far off places, creating dreams for herself and how she imagines her life to be.  She cannot leave however because of her love for her father and the care that he needs.  Belle is selfless, and goes so far as to sacrifice herself to the Beast to save her father from him, but the Beast presents her with a challenge.  He is a bitter “creature”, but she sees something more in him.  No matter how cruel or cold he is to her she keeps going back, refusing to believe that is all there is to him.  Once he lets his guard down they fall in love and one special kiss turns him from a beast into the prince he was before he was cursed.  Although Belle is a persistent and determined princess, once she falls in love with the Beast all of her dreams turn from far off places to no farther than the Beast’s castle, another example of giving up your dreams to live forever pleasing a man. 

Fig. 3 Princess Jasmine

Jasmine (Figure 3) is the princess of the city Agrabah in the movie Aladdin.  Her father, the Sultan, is forcing Jasmine into marriage.  Jasmine does not want this.  She wants to be independent and free, telling her father, “Please, try to understand. I've never done a thing on my own. I've never had any real friends…I've never even been outside the palace walls” (Internet Movie Database).  Jasmine is asking for her father to comprehend that his plan for her life is merely suffocating her.  However the Sultan is allowing Jasmine to choose her prince, which is not customary.  This gives Jasmine little freedom, but she is still obligated to marry.  Also in this Disney movie, the men may possess the power, but they are not all powerful.  The Sultan is a man who controls the city of Agrabah, he means well, but he is rather spacey.  Jafar is the power hungry advisor to the Sultan, who spends the whole movie scheming about how to take over the Palace, but ultimately fails.  Aladdin, the title character, falls for Jasmine’s beauty and attempts to become her prince through lying and trickery, but gets sidetracked by the appeal of the power that comes along with becoming Prince of Agrabah.  Jasmine’s story shows young girls that only you know what is right for yourself.  Although her father has good intentions and wants only the best for Jasmine, she ultimately has to make the decision that will shape her destiny. 

The Early Princesses: Old Fashioned

Fig. 1 Snow White and Prince

            Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first Disney Princess story.  It was released as a film in 1937 and was an instant classic. In this Disney movie the villain(ess) is Snow White’s evil stepmother.  Out of jealousy, she tries to have Snow White (Figure 1) killed for being too beautiful.  Snow White spends the rest of her time in a small cottage in the woods with seven coal mining dwarfs.  She uses her days to clean the dwarfs’ cottage, cook their meals and tidy their rooms because she wants to be a decent, helpful person.  She is the epitome of what a “good” mother and housewife should have been, and back in the thirties that is all most any woman was ever expected to be.  When the wicked stepmother learns that Snow White is still alive she tricks her into eating a poisonous apple.  Snow White lay sleeping while the dwarves weep until her Prince awakens her with a kiss.  Snow White is a helpless princess and literally waits around for her prince to find and save her, doing nothing for herself. 

Fig.1 Cinderella and Prince

            Cinderella (Figure 2) is a young woman living happily with her parents until her mother dies.  Her father remarries and Cinderella’s new Stepmother is evil, forcing her into being the house slave.  Sadly, Cinderella falls right into this role, not defending herself and weakly submitting to the wishes of her Evil Stepmother.  The other non-title female characters are placed into the antagonistic roles of Cinderella’s stepsisters.  They are cruel, taking advantage of her services and hackling her.  When the Prince of the town is to choose a bride all eligible bachelorettes are invited to the castle.  Cinderella, not owning anything worthy to attend, decides to make her own dress, which is later torn to shreds by her jealous stepsisters.  Cinderella is visited by her Fairy Godmother who makes it possible for her to attend the Prince’s ball.  In the end the Prince chooses her to become his bride, saving her from her evil mother and stepsisters, and whisking her away to his castle to live happily ever after.   Cinderella does little more than Snow White, biding her days taking orders from an evil woman in a powerful position, until she is saved by the masculine prince, the only solution to her hardship.

Fig. 3 Princess Aurora and Prince Philip

Princess Aurora (Figure 3) is exactly what the title of her movie is: a Sleeping Beauty.  She was pricked by a cursed spinning wheel and is cast into a deep sleep until she can be awakened by the kiss of her true love.  The one who cast the spell on the spinning wheel is, once again, a powerful woman portrayed as the Evil Sorceress, Maleficent. Aurora has very little screen time and spends the majority of the movie sleeping in a tower waiting for her true love, Prince Phillip, to come to her rescue.  Disney made this movie with a very sexist perspective.  The woman in the story is evil, attempting to take the beloved princesses life.  Aurora’s protective fairy godmothers were unable to keep her safe and Maleficent successfully captures her in a deep sleep.  Her fate is left in the hands of Prince Phillip, the manly hero, who can fix all of life’s problems with a simple kiss.

Disney's Songs and the Messages They Send

            With each Disney movie there is a princess, and with each princess comes a song that she sings.  These songs can tell the princess’ story or hardships she is facing, or a love that she is longing for.  The songs are usually upbeat and melodic.  The words are easily memorized and can get stuck in your head; you will find yourself singing the song without even realizing it.  But are these songs a good influence on children? Are they sending the right message to our youth?

            Snow White is the oldest of the Disney Princesses.  Her best known song is titled “Some Day My Prince Will Come”.  Even the title suggests that no matter what she does her prince will find her.  It does not teach independence or help push young girls to go out and get what they want, but that just waiting and wishing can bring you anything.  In the song she sings, “Some day my prince will come, some day we'll meet again, and away to his castle we'll go to be happy forever I know” (Princess Lyrics).  This is another way of telling a girl that once she finds her perfect man she will go away with him to live the materialistic life of the rich, and only then can she be happy.  There is little emphasis on the fact that any man can be considered a prince, as long as he treats a lady with respect.

            Somewhere in the middle of old and new we find Belle from Beauty and the Beast. The song titled “Belle”, obviously named after her, is about how the people of her town find her beautiful, but strange.  They sing:

Look there she goes that girl is so peculiar
I wonder if she's feeling well
With a dreamy, far-off look
And her nose stuck in a book
What a puzzle to the rest of us is Belle (Princess Lyrics)

The townspeople are sending a message to young girls that being interested in reading books is a negative attribute to have.   Belle is determined to learn more than what is just her little “provincial” town.  The people talk about her being dazed and distracted because she has dreams of something better.  She has determination and knows there is more to life and she wants to know what exactly it is that is out there.  But the stories that Belle is reading is of far off princes who are searching for love.  It is another example of Disney teaching young girls that finding a man is the most important thing they will do. 

In contrast, there is Pocahontas’ song, “Just Around the River Bend”.  In this song Pocahontas sings about how she is fascinated with searching for what life has in store for her.  She knows that she has the right to choose what path she will take in life.  Pocahontas sings about looking forward to the future “where the gulls fly free” (Princess Lyrics), and she needs to decide if that is something she wants for herself.  Her other option is to settle down with the man her father has chosen for her, “A handsome sturdy husband who builds handsome sturdy walls” (Princess Lyrics).  She is debating with herself whether or not it is worth it for her to choose the man over her dreams, knowing that once she chooses the path that has been laid out for her, her life will no longer retain its mystery, and she will have to give up her dreams of something more. 

Princess Role Playing

The Disney Princesses are role models for many young girls.  They are involved in the lives of these girls through movies, music, books, toys, clothes, decoration, kitchenware and much more.  Their stories and songs are memorized and harbored in the minds of children as how they are supposed to act and what their lives will be like: perfect and beautiful, with a happily ever after.  

In the storylines of the early Disney Princess movies the princesses always seem to be “women-in-waiting”.  Sure they have small problems that need to be dealt with, but there is nothing too big that a cheerful song can not fix, and the grand solution to all problems is Prince Charming.  The movies show that all a girl needs in her life is a rich man to make her happy.  Her purpose is to wait around until he finds her, and spend the rest of her life fulfilling his needs.  This can be a problem for young girls of the 21^st century.  The target age of Disney Princess merchandise is ages 3-5 (Wohlwend, 1), which is a very impressionable age.  This merchandise (Figure 1), or “Princess Culture”, includes everything from Snow White eating utensils to Pocahontas bath soap.  It can be very confusing for girls to have an influence as strong as Disney in one ear preaching dependence on men and money, and having the entire modern society in the other ear telling them they can be independent and just as powerful and influential as men.

Fig. 1 Princess Merchandise in The Disney Store

Princess culture also influences how young girls interact with one another.  Using toys or just “playing pretend”, princess play can instigate a sort of social hierarchy among children.  Disney makes all of their princesses unrealistically beautiful, thus causing young girls who want to play to choose only the prettiest/cutest girl as the lead role, the role of the princess.  This is most often the best and most prized character, and it gives whoever is chosen a sort of power, even outside of playtime.  Many times young kids will start a game, or scenario, that will last for days.  A girl who is cast as the princess can become the most popular little girl in the group, the one whose hand all the little boys want to hold.  This leaves the other girls roles such as the “ugly stepsisters” or the “evil stepmothers”.  Even after the game is over it is pretty unlikely that the popularity positions will change.  Those who were chosen as princesses will continue to be princesses in the next game, and so on, and the girls who are not so popular will be pushed to the wayside, ignored, or picked on.  Sometimes just playing pretend gives an outcast child a not-so-happily every after.