Kylie Davis
AP English Composition
Mr. Fricke
27 April 2012
The Princess and the Problems:
Disney Princesses’ Negative Affect on the Body Image and Self-Confidence of Young Girls
Young girls across the world gather around cookie and tea adorned tables, dressed in
princess inspired clothing and top their heads with tiaras. Without the Disney princess industry,
dressing as princesses would be quite seldom and tea on a Saturday afternoon would seem
almost meaningless. Disney has created a multi-billion dollar industry aimed at young girls that
focuses on ideas of beauty and female standards. Disney princesses are frequently referred to as
role models and heroines for the girls that look up to them; these titles lead to an incredibly large
amount of responsibility and the Disney princesses have not set a positive example for the young
population that deems them perfect. The princess industry focuses on perfection and beauty, its
themes are based upon longstanding stereotypes, and its messages and ideas negatively affect the
self-esteem and growth of the young girls that follow their stories.
In 1937, the first Disney Princess film was released; Snow White and her seven dwarfs
were the start to the crazed princess industry. It is obvious that the ideals and morals regarding
women were quite different during the early nineteen hundreds when compared to the ideals of
women today, however, more recent Disney Princess films still hold true to the past stereotypes
of women. As the Disney Princess industry moved forward, introducing princesses Cinderella,
Aurora, Ariel, Belle and Jasmine, the gender stereotypes continued. Cinderella cleans a home
only to be rescued by her Prince Charming, a man rescues Aurora from a tower, and Ariel
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chooses to lose her voice to be loved by her prince, Eric; the theme is quite consistent throughout
the history of Disney Princess movies. The media as a whole continually pairs a woman’s worth
with her relationship to a man and the princess films continue this pattern. As a young girl flips
the page of a teen magazine she is bombarded with ways to please a boy through her clothing,
attitude, and actions. M. Gigi Durham, a professor at the University of Iowa and author of The
Lolita Effect addresses the constant pressure to please the opposite sex rather than themselves.
Durham spoke in reference to the teen magazine Seventeen, “girls would be advised to plan their
activities with boys’ tastes in mind” (Durham 158). Teaching young girls that their success and
plans should depend on their relationship with a man decreases their self-worth and inhibits their
ability to grow confidently. It is the responsibility of a brand directed towards young girls to
make them feel empowered and strong through independence and confidence, the Disney
Princess industry’s ideals do not correlate with these standards.
In addition to the princesses’ adoration and dependence on the men in their lives, Disney
Princesses seldom have human friends that are a major component of their story. Cinderella has
her fairy godmother and the mice in her home, Snow White is accompanied by her seven dwarfs
and the animals of the forest, and Ariel has her underwater friends, Sebastian and Flounder. The
films about these princesses do not create a sense of reality for the viewers, nor does it teach
children the positive aspects of relationships with friends and family. Peggy Orenstein, author of
Cinderella Ate My Daughter spoke on the issue, “princesses may confide in a sympathetic mouse
or teacup, but, at least among the best-known stories, they do not have real girlfriends”
(Orenstein 23). When young girls watch the princess films, the lack of similarities between their
lives and the princesses can create a sense of confusion. There are, however, princesses that do
teach slightly better lessons of womanhood and strength. Pocahontas and Mulan represent
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strength, and courage; their lives are filled with adventure and their success does not come from
a man. These princesses however, are not quite as glamorous as the princesses that seem to
receive much of the spotlight and they are hardly princess-like. Orenstein spoke of these
princesses in her book, “…although Mulan and Pocahontas are officially part of the club, I defy
you to find them in stores” (Orenstein 14). Mulan and Pocahontas show that their feminist ways
are not quite as show-worthy. Disney moved away from conventional ideals that surround
women only to fall back into the pattern of stereotypical norms.
From toddlers to teens and into adulthood, the media’s products fill the minds of young
girls with the underlying pressure to be perfect. The Disney Princess themes and body images
affect young girl’s ideas of beauty. The media has an undeniably large focus on a woman’s
appearance, from her body to her clothing, the media judges and criticizes every part of a
woman. Starting at a young age, girls are aware of the impact beauty has on society. M. Gigi
Durham, suggests that young girls are “overwhelmed and undercut by the visual celebration”
(Durham), it is the constant focus and pressure to look a certain way that often times degrades a
woman. The media’s focus on young girls should not follow the pattern of advertising a
woman’s body but should instead teach the audience that beauty cannot be defined by a certain
body image or by a woman’s dependence on a man. Sharna Olfman, a childhood psychologist
spoke on the Disney Princess industry in her book The Sexualization of Childhood, “their
ultrathin body types, their clothing, and the stories they tell embody a commercialized,
stereotypical image of beauty and womanhood” (Olfman 40). The animated bodies that belong
to the princesses do not represent womanhood, and their attitudes and dependence on men does
not strengthen a young girl’s view of herself or independence. Young girls have a constant
pressure to look, think, and act perfectly; they are judged on their attractiveness, their
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intelligence, and countless other areas of critique. Peggy Orenstein, author of Cinderella Ate My
Daughter spoke on the issues facing young girls today, “…be feminist and feminine, pretty and
powerful; earn independence and male approval” (Orenstein 17). Girls are raised in a society
that teaches them that having it all, being beautiful and feminine, yet strong and independent,
defines womanhood.
As the Disney Princess industry progresses through the years, the princesses continue to
have abnormally slender figures, rarely, if ever, do they stray from the stereotypically beautiful
female body. University of Central Florida psychology professor, Sharon Hayes, and a doctoral
student, Stacey Tantleff-Dunn, conducted a study on the effects of young girls watching and
using Disney princess products. Hayes spoke on the issue of the female bodies depicted in the
films, “overall, media aimed at children clearly depict an unrealistically thin ideal” (Hayes &
Tantleff-Dunn). As the Disney Princess industry has aged, the waistlines of the characters have
become increasingly thinner. When children, young girls in particular, see the princesses’
disappearing figures it undoubtedly sends the message that these bodies are healthy, and worse,
that these bodies define beauty. The continual correlation between slender figures and the idea
of a princess, a character that seems so perfect and heroic to a young girl, is detrimental to the
minds and bodies of young girls. Hayes’ and Tantleff-Dunn’s study of how these bodies affect
children also indicated that “increased media exposure is also related to children’s preference for
thinner adult figures” (Hayes & Tantleff-Dunn). With the combination of thinner bodies in the
princess films and a consistent pattern of historically inaccurate stereotypes, the audience has an
increased chance of believing the stigmas that are launched upon the television screen. The
research findings in this experiment support the idea that the media, the Disney Princess industry
in particular, does influence young girls’ ideas of body image.
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In addition to the princess figures that fill the shelves of toy stores and the television
screens with animated characters, Barbie, a figure aimed at a similar age group has seemed to
have a negative effect on young girls. Recently, a student at Hamilton College created a lifesized Barbie, she stands about six feet tall with a thirty nine inch bust, eighteen inch waist, and
thirty three inch hips. She is made of wood, chicken wire and papier mache, and is dressed in a
size double zero skirt. The creator of this real life Barbie battled anorexia, she said “I’m not
blaming Barbie [for my illness] – she’s one small factor, an environmental factor” Slayen said,
“I’m blond and blue-eyed and I figured that was that I was supposed to look like. She was my
idol. It impacted the way I looked at myself” (Marsh). M. Gigi Durham, a professor and author
of The Lolita Effect commented on Barbie’s influence on women, “…the Barbie body is pretty
much unattainable for most girls without borderline starvation and plastic surgery, yet studies
show that adolescent girls see media bodies as realistic ideals to strive toward; as the media
scholar Renee Botta found in her research on high school students, girls ‘look toward people they
see on television to define what their own bodies should look like’” (Durham 132). With such
unattainable figures, the young girls that long for the “Barbie-like” appearance will more often
than not feel inadequate when their bodies do not mirror the bodies of the princesses and Barbie.
It is evident that these animated and plastic icons create an unhealthy desire for bodies that are
often not realistic. Dr. Stacy L. Smith and Amy D. Granados conducted a study on the gender
roles in the media and found that, “…31% of girls responded that they are scared of being fat”
(Smith & Granados). Constantly viewing images of unnaturally thin women, Barbie, and Disney
Princesses with bodies that are nearly impossible to actually obtain begins to play a role on the
way young women view themselves.
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An evolution of female body types has taken place, and now, despite health concerns,
thinner is better and curvaceous is more often than not considered overweight. In just decades,
the sought-after body has gone from Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren’s voluptuous, womanly
figures to the ultra-thin figures of models and television characters across the world. It is
estimated that if Marilyn Monroe were to live in today’s society, she would wear a size eight,
which is considered heavy by today’s outlandish fashion standards. As time progresses forward,
the media’s representation of the female figure has become increasingly thinner. The Disney
princesses have followed in the absurd pattern. In the past eighty years, Miss America,
supposedly American children and women’s role model, “has added only 2% in height but has
lost 12 lbs in weight” (Sordi 136), according to a Thomson Wadsworth psychology book.
America must not endorse and support women with unhealthy body types; it teaches those who
look up to Miss America, actresses, and in young girls’ cases, Disney Princesses, that being
beautiful equates to being thin.
Researchers at Harvard University created an experiment that involved television and one
of Fiji’s islands. Historically, bigger was beautiful in Fiji’s culture, a rounder figure signified
wealth; that one was able to feed themselves. The researchers studied Fiji’s culture, one in
which television and the media were not part of. Eventually, they introduced television to the
people of this island and studied the impact. Just a few years after the introduction of television
to a province of Fiji’s main island, it was recorded that eating disorders, once nearly unheard of,
were on the rise. The study found that, “girls who said they watched television three or more
nights a week in the 1998 survey were 50 percent more likely to describe themselves as 'too big
or fat' and 30 percent more likely to diet than girls who watched television less frequently”
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(Goode). This study reassured researchers that the media does indeed play a role in the female
body image.
Diversity in Disney Princess films is quite minute and until recently, it was almost
nonexistent. The ethnicity depicted in the princess films is not relatable for many girls.
Beginning with Snow White, Disney created an animated Caucasian character, but rather than
continually adding different races into the scheme of Disney Princesses, more and more
Caucasian princesses were added to the clan. Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, and Belle continued the
trend. When, however, a princess was created that changed the standard, it was noticed that her
appearance was more Caucasian-like than any other race. Jasmine, the Arabian princess was
created with slightly darker skin but still had the same features of the other princesses. Sharna
Olfman spoke on the issue, “…when Disney released the Aladdin movie there was an outcry
from Arabs…both the hero and heroine were lighter skinned with more Caucasian looking
features, while villains were drawn with more stereotypical Semantic features” (Olfman 42).
With audience members as young as those who watch Disney Princess movies, and a group of
viewers that look to these princesses as role models, it is incredibly irresponsible to continually
show the same races, and falsely represent others. Libby Brunette, Claudette Mallory, and
Shannon Wood, writers for the New Haven Association for the Education of Young Children,
studied the racism and stereotypes involved in popular children’s movies and spoke about the
popularity of Caucasian princesses when compared to the princesses of other races, “although
Disney has rolled Mulan, and Asian character, and Pocahontas, a Native American, into the
princess brand, they take a backseat to the white princesses- mainly Belle, Cinderella, and Ariel”
(Brunette, Mallory, and Wood). It was not until 2009 that the first African American Disney
princess was born. The young girls who watch the films are at a critical point in their
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development and the lack of diversity in these films can easily decrease their self-confidence.
According to Olfman, “Disney Princess retail sales reached 3.4 billion in 2006, with over 40,000
licensed items for sale” (Olfman 40), with such prevalence in society, Disney must take
advantage of its popularity to better the self-esteem of young girls around the world.
Disney Princesses do have a plethora of positive attributes, especially those who engage
in more contemporary lives. In order to move in a positive direction, the princess industry must
incorporate more modern ideals into their historically stereotypical films. Peggy Orenstein wrote
an article entitled What’s Wrong with Cinderella?, she spoke on the positive aspects of the
industry, “I see girls expanding their imagination through visualizing themselves as princesses,
and then they pass through that phase and end up becoming lawyers, doctors, mothers or
princesses, whatever the case may be” (Orenstein). It is possible that princesses may actually
open children’s eyes to something larger than a ball gown and a prince, but Disney must
incorporate more positive female messages into the films loved by many. It is not the princesses
that are destructive to body image and self-esteem; it is the aspects the films focus on that
negatively affect the young girls that seem to adore them. Disney does not need to incorporate
dependency on men, a lack of friends, and an underlying obsession with beauty to create a multimillion dollar film, young girls can still enjoy a movie that is filled with empowering female
messages.
Disney Princesses are an undeniably large part of many young girls’ lives; from films to
clothing, the industry has filled nearly every crevice of a child’s life. Disney has done an
inadequate job of positively influencing the lives of young girls across the world. Through the
heavy focus on beauty and appearance and the lack of diversity in the princesses, girls are facing
issues relating and a lack of understanding the idea of strong womanhood. The historical
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stereotypes of women infest the films and continue to do so in more recent films. The Disney
princess industry must move past the stereotypes that infest their many films and begin
incorporating positive messages into the films adored by many.
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Works Cited
Brunette , Libby, Claudette Mallory, and Shannon Wood. "Stereotypes & Racism in
Children's Movies." NHAEYC. n. page. Web. 3 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.nhaeyc.org/newsletters/articles/Racism_in_Childrens_Movies.pdf>.
Durham, Meenakshi. The Lolita Effect. New York: The Overlook Press, 2008. Print.\
Goode, Erica. "Study Finds Tv Alters Fiji Girls' View of Body." New York Times. 20 May 1999:
n. page. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/20/world/study-finds-tvalters-fiji-girls-view-of-body.html?src=pm>.
Hayes, Sharon, and Stacey Tantleff-Dunn. "Am I too fat to be a princess? Examining the effects
of popular children." Wiley Online Library. 28.2 (2010): n. page. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/026151009X424240/pdf>.
Marsh, Lisa. "Life-size Barbie gets real women talking." MSNBC. MSNBC, 14 Apr 2011. Web.
27 Mar 2012. <http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42595605/ns/today-today_people/t/lifesize-barbie-gets-real-women-talking/
Olfman, Sharna. The Sexualization of Childhood (Childhood in America). Westport, CT: Praeger
Publishers, 2009. Print.
Orenstein, Peggy. Cinderella Ate My Daughter. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers,
2011. 4-183. Print.
Orenstein, Peggy. "What's wrong with Cinderella?." New York Times. (2006): n. page. Web. 28
Feb. 2012.
<http://www.michelepolak.com/WMST100fall10/Weekly_Schedule_files/Orenstein.pdf>
Smith, Dr. Stacy L., and Amy D. Granados. "Gender and the Media." National PTA. (2002): n.
page. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.pta.org/3736.htm>.
Sordi, Michele, ed. Psychology Concepts & Connections. 9th ed. Belmont: Thomson
Wadsworth, 2005. 372-373. Print.