A Different Way to Look at Disney Princesses

There was a great commentary on this very subject (albeit, without the mention of sex) in an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures. The Warner Bros. (and sister!) sang a song called "The Same Old Heroine." It was a brilliant and biting slam on Disney's tired old princess genre.

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So why arent all the princesses included? like mulan the one who saved the entire kingdom and proved girls could fight just as well as the boys.....

i know that thinks arent perfect but propaganda is propaganda.

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^What about the fact that "Mulan" continues after she saves her kingdom, just to reassure us that she's settling down with an Alpha Male?
Also, what does propaganda have to do with anything? At all?

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At least Belle does the saving...

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Mulan isn't even a princess, you guys.

And Belle's only asset isn't her sexuality. She's the only intelligent princess...at least in book smarts. :P AND she's really the only princess who took the time to get to know her prince first.

I agree with the Ariel one so much though, ha ha.

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Giselle saved the prince during the climax of Enchanted, if that counts.

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if i remember correctly (and its been awhile sense i've seen the movie) the point of Belle's character was that she was more than just pretty, she was smart, capable,kind, independent, and had her own opinions. its because of these reasons that she hates gaston so much. i always thought that the beast fell in love with her because she was smart and independent, not because she was just pretty.

is there some part of this movie that i'm forgetting that would lead someone to the sexuality conclusion

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I dunno, they're all pretty pale as it is.

Except for the one that hooks up with the street rat.

Ahem.

Seriously though, get yourself a copy of the documentary "Mickey Mouse Monopoly". It's all about this kind of stuff...very informative.

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It's very sad these days that people can't even enjoy a simple love story aimed at children without politicizing it. I'm sure the picture was made as a joke and it kinda disturbs me that people are taking it seriously. At least this wasn't another article about how great it is for Disney to finally have a black princess and putting the focus solely on the skin color of the character instead of the character itself.

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These tales are intended to appeal to the basic social imprints that most of us receive, and in that regard it does its job admirably. Calling attention to the shallowness of these characters would be akin to declaring that the galaxy is "large" - a gross understatement but also glaringly obvious.

I am also finding myself nodding at the people who assert that Belle was a bit of a departure from the mold, since she did go out of her way to leverage empathy and intelligent assessment of her situation rather than "sexuality" (although our brains can certainly be considered our largest sex organs, for what that's worth) in the same "DUR HURR SHE ARE PURDY" way that some of the earlier damsel-in-distress Disney ladies could easily be accused of and indeed have been.

Not every story MUST be a paragon of progressive values regarding gender roles. In fact, it is valuable to have the opposite, especially in such a digestible format, for the very reason of illustrating the caricatures we create to embody our robotic impulses and youthful impressions of idyllic partners and worlds. Not to mention the history of humanity's rapid ascension from basic born-puberty-mate programming (even in recent times) to a higher functioning system of questioning and expansion of roles on all settings of the gender spectrum.

Getting "queasy" or disgusted or indignant or any other such reaction is extremely base and emotional, indicating that you are responding directly to stimuli that runs counter to your programming rather than making a considered assessment. It'll all be ok. Even with fancy princesses out to spoil the entirety of feminism, or whatever the frothing rage du jour is.

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I agree that it's a little off about Belle. Obviously with her there's a lot more to her character than her looks, and ultimately it's the beast who has to change to be good enough for HER--she doesn't fall in love (and I'm a bit skeeved out by the use of "sexuality" in place of "love" here) with him until he learns to control his temper and actually take an interest in her as a person (her hobbies and interests, etc). Compare that to The Little Mermaid, where Ariel changes everything about herself, including losing HER VOICE, to get her man--and succeeds. I don't think Beauty and the Beast is perfect, but I think it's comparably one of the more feminist "princess" movies.

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you forgot snow white in your list in the beginning, aurora is sleeping beauty

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I have to defend Belle here as others have. She did not use her sexuality to seduce her prince or get him. She had intelligence, bravery, empathy, and most of all love and kindness which she showed/demonstrated everyday she was with the Beast. She volunteered for the job to save her father. Through her the Beast learned to be kind and loving,since \he learned to be mean and hateful when someone else was mean and hateful to him. By the end he learned by her love that you didn't have to hate the world and blame others for your troubles.

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Another one in the camp that Belle's assessment is far off.

Though while everyone is bashing on Ariel, I have to say I always saw her as very adventurous and independent. OK, so she totally changes herself for a man, but I always thought she was infatuated with the adventure that the human world carried and that she wanted independence more than anything. Also, I may add Eric loved her just the way she was (before she lost her fins & voice). You could liken losing her fins to moving to another city/country to be with your better half. Realistically she couldn't live on land with fins so it was just a part of the moving process lol. I moved to Ireland from the US because I love it here and I ended up meeting my boyfriend here, like Ariel I don't think that makes me less of a woman... then again I didn't give up my voice to an evil sea witch to get here.

I'm probably giving her more credit than she deserves but this whole assessment of the princesses while mostly true just annoys me. To just say "Their only value is sex" over simplifies the characters as women which doesn't help the feminist cause either. While I'd love to see more strong female characters (which we're getting more now, EVE, Ellie, Mulan), I'm not going to begrudge Snow White because she didn't wake from her coma and give the Queen a roundhouse kick to the head. I mean it was 1937, I don't think mixed martial arts was popular in the woodlands then. My point is, I just enjoy the movies for what they are - fairy tales with extremely simplistic archetypes and story lines that are nonetheless very enjoyable.

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I'm all for breaking down the whole princess addiction...but leave Belle alone because that definition on the poster really isn't what the story's about! She saves him by saving him, she looks beyond his surface, gets him out of his shell, and defends him from the angry mob led by the gorgeous but seriously evil guy who only sees her as a pretty object. He respects and loves her because she stands up to him but is also kind to him even when he's still all hairy and he lets her go when he sees that she needs to take care of her father.

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