When I’m Big I Want to be a Pwincess

I think I may be having a mid-youth crisis.  Having suddenly realised that I am inching ever closer to 30, I have suddenly found myself in a desperate bid to reclaim my idyllic childhood by gobbling through endless plates of jelly, flicking through photos of family fun days out (what was I wearing) and stocking up on Disney films.  I realise that as a feminist, this poses a problem.  Behind all the sparkle, magic and catchy tunes lurks a negative message and that is that girls and women need men.  We need them to help us to escape from whatever hardship life has thrown at us and to elevate us to a position where we will never have to worry about evil stepmothers, poverty or wicked witches ever again.  All we have to be is beautiful, feminine and charming.  Things that the “average” girl or woman doesn’t believe that she is or can ever be, which leads to low self esteem. 

Sooo...this leads to a conundrum, particularly for a feminist.  On the one hand, these films are well put together, beautifully crafted masterpieces that offer some escapism in dreary times.  Yet, on the other, they peddle a belief that a girl’s sole ambition should be to marry a prince and become a princess.  Not exactly a teaching that is in line with feminist thinking, which centres around a woman being independent, self sufficient and appreciated for her capabilities and achievements rather than her physical beauty.  After all, most girls and women are not Disney princess material so what do they do?  Oh that’s easy.  We go to university, study hard and get jobs as doctors, teachers, solicitors, librarians, journalists, business leaders and scientists.  Some of us may even get married/ enter into civil partnerships and procreate.  Others may adopt, cohabit or remain single.  We may have once dreamed of being Ariel or Belle but life, common sense and lack prancing ability intervened and we decided to try and be something more sensible, such as meteorologists, estate agents and call centre workers.  No longer can we envision jamming along with singing crabs and happy woodland animals (not without a ready supply on hallucinogens and my employer tends to frown on this sort of thing).  True, some facets of the Disney experience have carried through into real, adult life.  There are still evil villains (otherwise known as the Conservative party) just begging to be defeated and lured into a fiery pit.  However, many of us have already come to terms with the fact that there is no handsome prince to rescue us from the drudgery of everyday life and that even if there was, he probably wouldn’t be interested in us.  Sigh.

Are we disappointed?  Obviously, I can’t speak for every woman ever.  I am guessing that most women are probably not too disappointed in the lack of a two dimensional poser with a blinding Colgate smile.  Furthermore, those princess dresses look tight and uncomfortable.  Such a far cry from our comfortable dungarees and summer dresses! 

So is Disney harmful?  I really don’t know.  Certainly, the message that in order to achieve anything in life a woman must be beautiful, is harmful.  We live in a world where beautiful women are celebrated over and above women who have contributed to fields such as science, politics, art, literature, law, business, technology, sociology and medicine.  If you don’t believe me, try this simple test: ask a random sample of people who Marilyn Monroe is.  Then ask the same person who Anita Roddick/ Harriet Harman/ Anne Lister/ Constance Briscoe/ Rita O’Grady/ Marie Curie/ Emily Davidson are.  I can guarantee that more people will be able to tell you who Marilyn Monroe is, whilst comparatively few will be able to tell you who the others are.  This is despite the fact that these are all women who have contributed immensely to their own field and to the wider world.  Furthermore, these are strong women and examples of people who we should want our daughters to emulate.  Yet, they are not celebrated as they should be.  As children we look for people to look up to and emulate.  We can only look up to those we know about.  Young boys have their male role models in footballers, business leaders and politicians.  Young girls have models, actresses and Disney princesses.  That is it.  Every other female role model is kept away from them or ridiculed as being unfeminine and unnatural.  Therefore, young girls look to those examples of womanhood that are accepted and celebrated in the hope that they too will be accepted and celebrated.  I would argue that the existence of Disney is not harmful in itself.  However, when you combine it with the severe LACK of representation of strong women within society, you do have a very dangerous situation indeed.