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