Disney,
as we all know and love, may seem like a magical and happy atmosphere
for children to immerse themselves in. However, it can be a very
dangerous place, especially
for little girls. I wanted to convey the silent catalyst of Disney that
is the Patriarchy in my photo. I place a picture of myself when I was
three years old in a play wedding dress on top of a “Disney Princess My
Perfect Wedding” storybook. I use Cinderella
to symbolize society looking down on young girls as they condition them
to follow in their footsteps; here society is preaching to young girls
that it is expected of all women to eventually get married. What is
interesting, is Cinderella’s’ non-existent reflection
in the mirror which can ultimately show that the patriarchy in Disney
is silent and non-existent like because it is glossed over by “magic and
happiness”. My three-year-old self looks directly into the camera and
smiles widely obliviously, as I just “play”
along. I specifically chose this book because Cinderella is one of many
of the princesses that explicitly shows patriarchy in all forms. To
make things sweet and simple, she gets saved by the prince and marries
him in the end. This shows a second message young
girls receive: you are not “strong” enough to fix your own life so, get
a man to do it for you. In the article “Patriarchy, The System”, Allan
Johnson explains that the Patriarchal culture is about, “standards of
feminine beauty and images of feminine vulnerability”
(Johnson 27). Disney is outright guilty of participating in this sexist
system. For one, they create a princess with a slim waist and beautiful
facial features giving the ideology that all girls need to represent
this standard. To tie it all up they then show
the princess’s vulnerability as the prince saves her from her
situation. Johnson also conveys, “above all, patriarchal culture is
about the core value of control and domination” (Johnson27). Disney,
powerful and widely known, controls girl culture and what
the overall intention of being a girl should be in the eyes of the
patriarchy. Instead of encouraging our girls it discourages them in all
forms.
Work Cited:
Johnson, Allan. “Patriarchy, The System.” Saraswati, Shaw, and Rellihan.
Introduction to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Approaches. Oxford UP, 2018.
5 comments:
From : N.
This photo compares a little girl to a fictional princess character from the very popular creators of Disney.Children are easily impressionable, and because of that once they learn something they often have a desire to copy whatever it is they see the most. It is not uncommon for a little girl to watch movies or shows about princesses and then later become borderline obsessed with the characters. In this particular picture it focuses on marriage,the girl in the dress represents how girls will often copy the want of a character. She is wearing a play wedding dress and playing the role of the “bride” and princess in this scenario to be more like Cinderella.From a very young age Disney tends to imprint the goal of marriage in young girls,so even before school age they are mentally prepared for that day. By continuously putting the image of being a princess, waiting for a man to come save them and princes ,Disney puts out unrealistic expectations. They are teaching young girls that they should expect some flawless boy to come solve all their problems,and it just does not apply to the real world. A boy will not always be handsome, be brave ,constantly save you or have money like in Cinderella , and that's what Disney always leaves out.They are leaving out the reality of life in order to sell perfection to young girls like the one in this photo.Young girls need to know that there is more to life than being some “princess”and getting married,those things are only secondary in the real world.
In this photo the little girl imitating a fictional princess character. When young children learn something they often have a tendency to cop it. Even when I was a child I would be so into these Disney films that it I would want to be like the princesses and I wanted to be just like the characters in the movies. This photo focuses on how women’s main goal in life is marriage. In the movie Cinderella it seemed as though her main purpose in like was to be rescued by a prince and get married and live happily ever after. In the photo the young girl is wearing a wedding dress. In the cover of the film Cinderella is wearing a wedding dress and the young girl is imitating her, as though she is a bride. Disney films such as Cinderella implement the idea that the ideal goal for a woman should be marriage rather than her focusing on realistic goal, like learning what her favorite hobbies are or what career she wants to pursue in the future, instead the film teaches young girls that the ideal goal for woman is marriage. They are teaching young girls that they should expect a man to come rescue them and all their problems in life will be solved. Disney’s messages that they send to young girls are unrealistic. There is more to life then falling in love with a prince that’s going to rescue you, I believe Disney should convey a message to young girls that will empower them and send a message to these kids that there is more to life than a man rescuing you from all your problems.
As little girls we look up to these princesses and model ourselves after these animations. Rather than little girls playing, exploring and learning roles from real life experiences, instead we watch these role model characters and learn to be submissive from the jump. We are not only learning that men will save us from a bad situation but we are also learning if we can clean and dress nice enough that man will notice us. Disney instead of giving young girls a powerful strong role model instead decides to show the bride as the greatest accomplishment we as little girls should have. We are taught by Disney from a young age the essence of our existence is to exist beside a man and clean up after him. One important component I see in the picture Angela made is Cinderella looking away from the camera showing modesty and a lack of power, which can show young girls everywhere that you must not be confident in yourself and a true woman does not speak up for what they want. Another important symbol in this picture is what Angela as a child is wearing, Bright white. This white dress displays the innocence that Angela has as a young child and the big wide smile on her face also symbolizes her youth and naïve traits. As a young girl Angela will blindly follow behind any theme a singing, smiling beautiful character like Cinderella teaches her and other children. In order for us to allow our children to recognize that these gender schemas are wrong we need to address the issue when they watch these films or adjust their movie selection; either way something must be done.
Movies like “My Perfect Wedding” are very problematic because young girls will always try to grow up and be just like what they see in movies like that. Little girls are conditioned to spend a majority of their lives thinking about and planning their wedding or trying to go after a man instead of following their dreams or doing what makes them happy. The pictures portray a message screaming “getting married is the way to happiness”. I typically see many women going crazy, stressing themselves out to make sure everything leading up to their wedding and their actual wedding day is perfect. For example, they created a show called “Bridezilla” which shows thousands of women being extremely dramatic preparing for their wedding. Society always seems to try and make us women look foolish because we are conditioned to care about things that should never matter like our appearance being a certain way, or our hobbies being the same as every other female. Not every girl wants to be a princess. Not every girl wants to watch princess movies, but that is what our parents choose for us to watch and that is what we tend to adapt to. In the picture, it does look like the little girl’s dress is a little more fitted around the waist just like it is around the princess that is on the cover of the movie. Not everyone has a small waist and all of Disney’s princesses and female characters have the small unrealistic waist that is not proportionate to the rest of their body.
from: Christina
This photo is a great example of how we teach little girls to see marriage. From a young age women are taught that marriage, a house with children is their main goal in life. with boys, this is not the same. we teach men that having a job or career is the goal, and a wife and family are almost a bonus, even if we don't direct say it. you can see this in the media and in the toys and games we play as children. boys play games like building, Indians and cowboys, superheros, and such. when girls play games like Princesses, house, school, and even play out the way they hope to get married. this is a huge issue for girls, because when it comes to the age in which they are "expected" to be married, and they are not, they feel like a failure, or it messes with their self worth. we need to change this. either we make marriage less of a main goal for women, or we teach boys the importance of marriage. In the end women should not base their importance in this world on whether or not you have a ring on your finger.
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