When I saw this post on Facebook earlier today I immediately smiled at the excitement in this little girl's face and it brought back happy memories of my own princess phase. However, as I read the caption, "That moment when she meets her hero," my excitement faded a little. Is a Disney princess really who we want young girls to look up to as their hero?
Part of me thinks that it shouldn't matter who our heros are when we're young children because our heros are likely to change as we mature and grow up. On the other hand, we learn a lot of important lessons when we're very young, so the influences in our lives at this age do have a big impact.
I googled "disney effects on children" and my webpage immediately filled up with negative titles, such as "Top 10 Ways Disney Corrupts Children" and "The Negative affects of Disney on Children." It seems to me that the majority of articles on Disney, including the ones that we read in our class such as "Mickey Mouse History: Portraying the Past at Disney World" and "The Little Mermaid," are criticisms of Disney. If Disney is an overall negative influence, which is a much longer debate than I can cover in this blog post, then we certainly should not be encouraging young girls to look up to these princesses as heros.
However, although they are less common, there are also articles describing Disney as a positive influence. One positive article that I especially liked is "Ten Things Disney Princesses Taught Me" by Lauren Cochrane. Lauren emphasizes 10 Disney princesses and presents the positive lessons that she thinks they teach. Some of her interpretations offer the exact opposite view as those posed by critics we've read. For example, in her piece "The Little Mermaid," Roberta Trites argues that Ursula equates love to a kiss, essentially suggesting that love is just a matter of physical attraction. However, in her analysis of Aurora, Cochrane argues Sleeping Beauty teaches that a simple kiss can very powerful, which she says is an especially important message because "sex is more mainstream" in today's society. Although these two points are referring to different movies, it is interesting to see how different their interpretations are.
There is no right or wrong interpretation of the Disney films, as the interpretation will change from person to person based on what past experiences they bring to the table when viewing the films. Yet, even if you think that Disney is the upmost positive influence on a child, I think "hero" is too strong of a role for a Disney princess. I don't doubt that the Disney movies can teach children lessons, but I think the role of hero should be reserved for a more substantial role model than an animated character in a children's movie.
Do you think the Disney princess is ready to be a hero?
Ever since this class began I've been wondering whether children should be as invested in Disney as they seem to be because we've read so many articles condemning Disney and the values they teach children. However, this article that you found by Lauren Cochrane sounds like a nice change of pace from the generally negative criticisms I've come across lately and I can't wait to read it! Disney is certainly prevalent in the lives of young children, and whether it's been proven to affect the values of children or not I'm sure it would appease parents to know that there are also good lessons to learn from Disney movies.
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