Disney’s “Princess Problem”, a.k.a. Redactive Marketing?
So, lately, especially since the Frog Princess first came to light, there’s been all this talk about Disney’s “princess problem” and how they’re setting up their movies in an attempt to reverse that mentality. So of course I am sitting here, being an animated Disney movie fan myself, and marvelling on the bizarre nature of mob mentality and marketing.
Apparently the “princess problem” is the perceived view that Disney encourages little girls to wear pretty dresses and marry a handsome prince. Let’s start this off by addressing that concern, specifically. Namely, why is this a bad thing? I was pretty much a tomboy when I was young. I hung out with the guys, I played sports, I climbed trees, I went hiking and camping, blah blah etc.
But you know what else I did? I played Pretty Pretty Princess and loved it. I played with Barbie dolls. I played dress-up.
There is nothing wrong with allowing little girls to be little girls. Not everyone has to break stereotypes all the time. It’s okay to be a girl who likes playing soccer and wants to grow up to be a construction worker or a doctor or a police officer. It’s also okay to be a girl who likes pretty dresses and romantic princes. It’s even okay to be both.
But okay, fine. Let’s assume the portrayal of girls as wanting to wear pretty dresses and fall in love with their true love who happens to be rich/a prince is a problem. When has Disney actually portrayed this in their movies?
(crickets chirping)
Okay, a more interesting example. (Let me mention that I have not seen every single Disney animated movie in existance and that this is all by memory with no reference notes.) How many movies don’t portray that view, and possibly even portray the opposite?
(These are in no particular order)
Lady and the Tramp: First, it’s about dogs. Second, the main character (Lady) is a member of quite the well-off family, and the Tramp is… a tramp. A stray. A dirty mutt. That’s quite a “Prince Charming”.
101 Dalmations: Moral of the story? MONEY DOES NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY. Family does.
Aladdin: Main character is a conniving manipulative street rat with a heart of gold who wins the love of a princess and becomes the heir to a Sultan. Said princess is an independent spirit who rebels against the restrictions of culture, cast, and gender stereotypes.
The Lion King: The plot of this movie is, while technically rooted in issues of royalty, so far removed from the “princess problem” that it renders it entirely irrelevant to its existence.
Beauty and the Beast: Belle is a highly intelligent and independent female who falls in love with what is, to all external appearances, a monstrous beast. He just happens to turn into a prince. You know she doesn’t care that he’s a prince.
The Little Mermaid: Okay so she wants to marry the prince. But she’s also a REBEL. She defies her father’s wishes and runs off on her own. She also has a really cool but kind of geeky collection habit.
The Fox and the Hound: If you don’t know the story/moral behind this, then just go watch it. Otherwise, you get why this is here.
The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under: These movies are all like, ACTION DETECTIVE kind of stuff. With an underlying romance between the gorgeous Bianca and the adorable-like-a-cute-puppy Bernard.
The Great Mouse Detective: HE WANTS TO BE SHERLOCK HOLMES. Nothing more needs to be said.
I could go on and on and on and on. The point is, not only do the vast majority of Disney movies have nothing to do with princesses and pretty dresses at all, but even at least half of the characters who are actually portrayed as the “Disney Princesses” don’t conform to that supposed cliche.
Which brings up the most excellent point: where did this “Princess Problem” idea come from?
Answer? Marketing.
Disney’s lovely marketing department grabbed this “Disney Princess” idea and started selling paraphernalia with pictures of the princesses in their pretty princess dresses plastered all over it.
That’s it.
I would rather they ignore this so-called “Princess Problem” entirely and just started making movies of the quality they used to. Screw the marketing department. NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOU, DISNEY MARKETING. GO AWAY.
Amen! I get so tired of marketing departments, and I get tired of people saying girls dressing up as princesses is somehow wrong. If it appeals to them and they enjoy playing ,make-believe games in costume, where’s the harm?
Great article. I was nodding all the way through as a I read it.
Wonderful read, and rooted in something that’s been pulling at me for a while now; an apparent ignorance to just how much media, marketing or otherwise, can have on a society and the individual person.
You know what’s sad, is that I think the result of this complaining about this “Princess Problem” is this odd mix of different mediums ‘one-upping’ each other in shock value by slipping further and further down the censorship bar, and this strange form of elitest thinking, to hate what most like simply because it shows pseudo-individualism.
I couldn’t make that last sentence more convoluted if I tried, but I digress. Thanks for the read.
Exactly! I mean I wish the marketing department would lay off because there are so many great Disney movies. Like Mulan and Aladdin and The Princess and the Frog and Beauty and the Beast. I think the problem stems from the pushing of Disney’s other, more passive princesses (also most of the older ones).
Sleeping Beauty really was nothing but a plot object to be acted on. (The fairies & Maleficent were really the only ones with personality in that movie though.)
Snow White literally would not be alive if the prince hadn’t decided she was worthy. And she was clearly locked into a female gender role, cooking and cleaning for the male earners.
Cinderella couldn’t free herself, so instead she out prettied everyone else thanks to magic and the prince rescued her.
But these movies are old, reflections of an time we’ve (mostly) moved on from. As we changed, so did the kind of movies Disney made, not that they were only making princess movies to begin with. But yeah, the product line is completely different from the movies themselves.
Hrrm. I hate, hate, hate the Princess marketing, because I see it attached to little girls who are being encouraged, not to be “pretty princesses” and dress up, but to be spoiled rotten little divas. Marketing.
I won’t go into my other issues w/ Disney, because you like Disney. But yes – there is nothing wrong with girls wanting to be pretty & dressing up. If that’s all the princess thing was, it would not be a “problem.”
That’s really what bothers me the most; it’s the product line, not the movies. They should be addressing such issues with, if anything, changes to their products and marketing.
Not by messing with their movies and risking screwing them up by giving them a marketing agenda.
You know who’s the most prolifically merchandised perpetrator of this encouraging girls to be divas/brats problem?
She’s not even a princess. She’s Tinkerbell. And her retconned history ends up making her a Tinker Fairy, which means she’s also a geek. It’s just the marketing that encourages the attitude.
And, well, people buy it up, so props to marketing. :/