Being the Disney geek that I am this blog topic was going to come up eventually. Originally, I was against doing this as a post, but a blog post from another classmate last week that argued that the older Disney princesses (ie. Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty) “[make] little girls think beauty is the only virtue a woman needs to be a woman, and places women in this light of being disposable and only for the benefit of men” convinced me to act. This is something I disagree with, so I commented on the post and made my case. The author responded to my comment by simply repeating their original argument: all they do is look pretty, they need a man to save them, blah blah blah. Same old argument I’ve heard a thousand times before and no doubt I’ll hear it a thousand more times before I die. The more I thought about it, the more flaws I found in this argument. This argument doesn’t work because the author relies on broad generalizations of the films rather than using specific examples. While I know I shouldn’t nitpick and I should follow Queen Elsa’s advice and let it go, I simply can’t. Disney is my life so when people get things wrong, even if they’re insignificant, it makes me frustrated. Plus deep down I’m just as spiteful as Maleficent, so allow me to indulge that side of my personality.
Before I go any further, I just want to recognize that this post may be seen as somewhat controversial as I am going after an argument posted on a fellow classmate’s blog rather than one made by a professional in an accredited source. I just want to state that I hold no ill will against the original author. I’m criticizing the argument and the way it is written, not the author.
In my comment I stated that Cinderella teaches girls the value of hard work and never giving up on something they believe to be impossible. I even brought in this quote from Walt Disney:
“She believed in dreams, all right, but she also believed in doing something about them. When Prince Charming didn’t come along, she went over to the palace and got him.”
The author responded by saying:
“Cinderella had to turn into a pretty girl in a pretty dress to even be noticed by the Prince. When she took off her “pretty façade,” she pretty much had to stand right in front of him shouting “IT’S ME” to get him to notice her.”
This statement is plagued with factual errors. First off, the claim that Cinderella had to become pretty to be noticed by the Prince doesn’t make sense because in the film, the prince has no opportunity to notice her before then. They don’t even meet until the ball. If there was a sequence where they met while she is still in her servant gear and he failed to notice her, then this statement would make sense. Secondly, the “pretty façade” part of the argument fails to take into account the fact that Cinderella has to prove herself not to the Prince, but to the Grand Duke. The fact that he wouldn’t recognize her makes sense because the only times he saw her were from a distance or when she was running away and in my experience you can’t get a good look at a person in either of those scenarios. Naturally, because the Grand Duke can’t recognize her, Cinderella has to go out of her way to prove that it was her. The Grand Duke’s face also becomes very excited when he sees Cinderella walking down the stairs, indicating that he knows she must be the one. Nevertheless, she has to try on the slipper because, if we recall from a previous scene, the king has ordered the Grand Duke to try the slipper on every maiden in the kingdom.
In my defense of Snow White I pointed out that she has to step up and become a mother to the dwarfs. The state of their house before Snow White arrives suggests that they do not know how to take care of themselves, so she is filling an essential role in their lives. Nonetheless, the author labels Snow White “the ultimate male chauvinist dream” simply because all she does is wash, sew, clean, and cook and “has to be saved by a man.” Again, we need to look at the film. The witch’s spell book states that “the victim of the sleeping death can be revived only by love’s first kiss.” Given that she can’t save herself because she’s asleep and the only other characters in the film are men, of course she’s going to be saved by a man. The alternative would be her succumbing to the sleeping death and, forgive me, I think that might be a little worse than the horrors of being saved by someone with a Y chromosome. As to the concern that they don’t know each other and therefore shouldn’t be running off together, I say we saw the in-love-at-first-sight scene at the beginning of the film and in fairy tale world that is enough to get hitched. And no, I don’t think that’s harmful to young girls because kids are way smarter than we give them credit for and will know that just because something works in a movie doesn’t mean it will work in real life. The film has witches and talking mirrors, I think kids know that those don’t exist and can make the assumption on their own that this is fiction.
The author also seems to have a problem with Snow White not knowing that you shouldn’t talk to strangers. If you watch that scene again, it makes sense. Snow White’s tone of voice suggests that she is about to send the witch away right as the witch gets attacked by her animal friends. After the animals stop attacking her and the witch fakes being hurt, Snow White’s maternal side kicks in and she bring the witch inside to help her. She isn’t convinced to eat the apple until the witch manipulates her into thinking that the apple is magic. “One bite, and all of your dreams will come true” is what the witch tells her. This is when Snow White starts to sound intrigued and eventually takes a bite. Again, this makes sense because we’ve seen that Snow White is impressionable and naïve, just like every other young girl, so her trusting the witch and biting the apple is true to her character.
We return to Cinderella for the final part. The original author’s response to my comment states:
“Cinderella is prettier than her stepsisters thus she becomes Queen.”
Again, I don’t buy this. If you look at the stepsisters in the film, they’re not that physically unattractive. What makes them ugly is the fact that they are selfish and mean while we see Cinderella as beautiful because she is gentle and kind. Because of this, the moral of Cinderella seems to be that when you’re a good and kind person good things will happen to you rather than when you’re pretty good things will happen to you. I think this is something that young children will pick up on because, again, I think they are smart enough to know that real beauty comes from the inside.
So, let this be a lesson in the importance of fact checking before posting things online. Or before trying to make an argument about Disney when someone like me could be reading this. If this didn’t convince you and you are determined to hate the princesses, I’m not stopping you. Just let me watch my classic Disney movies in peace.
Angela's Wonderful World of HIST 389 
There does seems to be a love/hate relationship with princesses. Some people like the story of a girl who is or becomes a princess and all the romance and fantasy that goes with it. Others chafe at the idea of what a woman does or is subject to to achieve happiness, for a man no less. I have heard some who dismiss Cinderella as being simply lucky. Belle from Beauty and Beast has Stocklhom Syndrome. Ariel from the Little Mermaid changes herself for a man. Snow White has no common sense and talks to strangers. Sleeping Beauty marries the first guy she sees after waking up. Enough already. it is a fantasy, a story. I leave it up to the parent to help the child look beyond the story and see the real world moral.
Enjoy it for what it is. How come there are no Disney princes? One word: Marketing.
I agree that it ultimately comes down to the parents to help the child understand the importance of the story. It does anger me that all of the older princesses are bashed by feminists because they either need a man (which, since all these films are based on fairy tales, I feel like is shooting the messenger) and they aren’t as assertive as we like our female characters to be today.
I don’t particularly hate Disney princesses. Lord knows there are plenty of princesses that thrive on things other than beauty. Take Mulan for example. She wasn’t some damsel in distress waiting for Shang to save her from Shan-yu, she was a tough female protagonist. Sure, she started out confused and eventually became depressed and somewhat weak, but that wasn’t because she was a woman who was dependent upon her good looks and a prince charming to kill the bad guy and sweep her off her feet. That was the evolution of Mulan as a character. Ultimately she showed that a woman can fight for herself the same way a man can fight for himself, rather than rely on someone to save her. Hell, she saved Shang when Shan-yu was about to kill him in the climax! I think the only Disney princess I don’t like all that much is the one from Sleeping Beauty. She did practically nothing. She fell into a deep sleep, and the rest was up to prince charming. That’s the way I see it, anyway.
Sorry I think I should explain a little better what I said about Mulan being “depressed and weak.” The part in the film where Mulan is exposed by the army and is left behind in the snowy mountain is where we see her lost, confused, and upset. There was also the part in the beginning where she is upset for dishonoring her family and wonders where she will go from there. Other than that, she was mostly brave and gutsy.
As the “unnamed author” you furiously quoted I feel like I need to comment on this. Yes the moral of Cinderella and Snow White is be good and good things will happen to you. It is the karmic moral of almost every fairy tale every created. I will concede to your point that yes the Step Sisters are mean and that is why they are not “the One” for the prince. However, you cannot deny that beauty plays a large role in why these Princesses are chosen to be Queen and marry the handsome prince. Each of these stories starts off with “Princess so and so was beautiful beyond compare” or “she was given the gift of beauty” or “fairest in the land”, not “she was a sweet kind girl”. The point of beauty was highlighted, underlined, and bolded by Disney. Yes they are all good girls, but that is not the point that is pushed. To talk about your point of the Wicked step sisters, you are right they are not “ugly”, but they certainly are not Cinderella. They have physical traits that are not seen as beautiful. For example, they have round flat noses, big feet, whiny voices. They are not ugly (even though they are often referred to as the Wicked or Ugly step sisters), but they are not beautiful. The story of Cinderella has set up an idea in girls heads that pretty girls are sweet and “normal” or “ugly” girls do not get the man and are bitter and should hate “pretty girls” because they do. This is setting up girls to be in competition with each other. You cannot deny that girls see each other as competition for men. Movies like Cinderella set up women to be seen as competition. The step sisters in Cinderella saw Cinderella as competition, so they did not let her go to the ball. The evil queen in Snow White saw Snow White as competition, so she tried to have her killed. The whole reason these things happened to the princesses is not because they were “nice” or “kind” or “sympathetic” it was because they were (you guessed it) PRETTY. I am not saying that Disney made the Princesses only redeeming quality beauty ( and I do heartily apologize if that is how it seemed. I was tired), but what I am saying is that the overwhelming reason for everything they did and got was beauty.
Thank you that is all.
I can definitely agree with the argument you presented, it well-thought out and looks at early Disney girls in a different perspective. Unfortunately for most, arguing this case is more exhaustive and research-oriented and therefore not as prevalent in the debate over these films. I agree that many do not give Snow White and Cinderella as much credit as they are due, because they embody characteristics and qualities that should be admired by young audiences. Qualities like kindness and determination are easy for audiences to grasp, but can be difficult to associate with these characters at times when their judgement is weak or are overshadowed by message that their physical beauty sends. I also think that these characters were products of the time these films were produced, and are more strongly rooted in the subservient, gender-biased ideals that are closely associated with that era. The early princesses are strong in their own ways and uphold wonderful traits for others to learn from, and I am slightly disappointed that popular opinion still continues to diminish that fact in favor of generalizing the era overall.
Did my original comment not go through? I wrote something here a few weeks ago and I need it for credit.