I had planned over the weekend that I would open the week on the blog by writing a Scholarly Analysis of the movie Brave (“an animated adventure for postmodern feminism”) wherein I would usher in all types of fairytale autopsies and name-drop Bettleheim and Cuchulain all over the place. We were going to discuss how Brave made excellent use of the three-phase Goddess by showing the Maid, Mother, and Crone in their respective roles. 
It was going to be something wonderful.
But I don’t feel like writing that piece today. (I barely feel like writing this one, but if I had to look at that bloody Chick Fil A thing one more day I think I’d paristalsys reversus all over the screen.)
This is a rant about Princesses.
When I was a very little girl I loved Cinderella. It was my favourite fairytale and my parents tried to move heaven and earth to find me an actual glass slipper. What I could never explain then and hesitate to explain now is that for me the attraction to Cinderella was two-fold; I wanted to see what an actual glass slipper looked like because I love glass and I wanted to be able to hang out with talking mice. Dancing all night in painful heels with a strange guy really was nowhere on my list of life goals and aims.
The Disney Princesses are what little girls have now. Slickly packaged and branded to the hilt, they are a group of pretty maids whose only real diversity up until recently was hair and dress colour. Painted virgins in fancy dresses, they appeal to parents everywhere as some sort of role model for their little girls, and I’m not quite sure why. But I am quite sure that the amount of money and common sense parents have thrown at this twisted dream can be measured in mountains.
Why do you want to tell your daughter that being married is the end to her troubles? That being valued for how you look is paramount? That marrying a near-stranger for his money is a totally fine thing to do? Of course no one ever tells their daughters these things straight up. No matter–the Disney Fairy Tales will do that for you. Just sit back and watch it happen.
For all its negative reviews, at least Brave turned that whole bucket of trash fish on its side. If you go see Brave you’ll see a girl decry, in the opening reel, the travails of ACTUALLY being a princess. You’ll see mother and daughter fight and strive under some of the weirdest-ever circumstances and you’ll see a story about respecting yourself and your parents.
We need more stories like this.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
Just an FYI–I was very surprised by the Barbie movies my daughter loves to watch. i was so afraid they’d be like the Disney princess, but they are not. Barbie and the Three Musketeers, for example, is three girls going against the social norm of “no girls are allowed to fight” and are taught by a strong, older woman, and of course they save the day.
I actually do love Beauty and the Beast, though. It’s much deeper than the other Disney Princess movies. She’s not interested in marrying for marriage’s sake, and she falls in love despite that but with someone whose beauty is measured by what’s on his inside. And Belle loves to read :).
That said, my daughter does love all the other princesses, but she’s not been affected by them negatively. She’s quickly moving past those movies and I see her growing and leaning toward much more intelligent choices. My influence? Maybe. I hope so. No matter what, though, when I see her out in the back yard making swords from branches I am so proud!
I liked BatB for those reasons, but like Jill says below I was more than a little bit taken aback by his abusiveness. I’m so split on that movie. I LOVED having a bookish heroine for once (that didn’t happen so frequently until that movie came along) and I loved the pure enchantment of the Beast’s castle. Still, that movie is so easy to decipher in two ways. If I’m in a positive frame of mind I see it as an allegory for Salvation and Grace–love driving the Beast out of us all, creating a New Earth. If I’m in a negative frame of mind I see it as a capitulation to abusive relationships and the canard many women tell themselves that “he’s a good man underneath and My Love Can Change Him.” I’m so wishy-washy.
Like I say in response to bridgett down below, I really think Mom has a lot more influence than Disney, even today. A good, thinking Mom can counter the subversive messages.
And really, the MOVIES themselves….they’re great. I honestly think that. With the exception of BatB that i mentioned, I think they’re all pretty positive in their own way. Cinderella works hard and is happy in her work, as is Snow White. Ariel has a healthy scientific curiousity and learns the hard way that parents have rules for a reason. And on and on. But it’s the Marketing Machine of the last 15 years I resent so much.
I would have liked to read your analysis of the archetypes. But this is good stuff, too. I hate Disney movies (made by Disney). I agree w/ what you say. Marriage isn’t the end-all and be-all. Marrying a man you don’t know for his status or money is stupid. Falling in love with an abusive beast is just as stupid. No, in real life, he’s not going to turn into a handsome prince. That’s my take on Beauty and the Beast, though many interpret it the way Kat does above. I’m probably too cynical. 🙂
The analysis is coming another day, because I feel it bouncing a ball in my brain like Steve McQueen. But I’m too chemosick today to do much other than drool.
Now that we’ve (belatedly, now that she’s a teen) taken C. to DisneyWorld, she spends much of her time in line telling me “and here’s yet another Disney movie I haven’t seen.” We just didn’t do princess movies when she was smaller. We didn’t buy the princess dresses or dolls etc. She got sufficient sidestream Disney at other people’s homes and on trips to Grandma’s, but she’s never seen most of the princess movies. It was a combination of things that stayed our video remote hand — not just the sexual politics, but the consumer tie-ins, the scariness of some of the films (she was easily spooked by movies…she didn’t even make it through “Finding Nemo” until about a year ago), etc. And honestly, she was more interested in reading than in watching movies. Now that she’s old enough to want to see the movies and is able to sit through them without screaming “turn it off! TURN IT OFF!”, we’ll watch them and enjoy them…and she’s old enough and wise enough to see the limitations of the princess archetype.
I saw all of the princess movies in theatres (except Little Mermaid). But that was BV (before Video) when you saw it. Once. And then went home and read and played pretend until the next movie came out in two or three or four years. My mother was so anti-archetype that she drummed into our heads that Marriage Is Not A Goal and Who You Are Is Not Just What You Look Like. 20,000+ hours of mom tended to beat down 10-12 hours of Disney. 🙂
And as all who know me know, I love Disney World. I’ll always love Disney World. But ever since the Marketers took over and decided to up the branding in such an obvious and sexist way (Little girls get Princesses, little boys get Pirates) I am just irate. It’s like being mad at Santa or something, so it feels weird. But putting little girls in glam makeup, teaching them to bury who they are under artiface… no.
Oh and C. has her dancing which keeps her realising the power and grace of her own body, the control and precision she can wield. She’s well able to be Herself, I think. 🙂