In Princessland, the only career ladder leads from baby-faced adolescence to a position as an evil enchantress, stepmother or witch. Snow White's wicked stepmother is consumed with envy for her stepdaughter's beauty; the sea witch Ursula covets Ariel's lovely voice; Cinderella's stepmother exploits the girl's cheap, uncomplaining, labor. No need for complicated witch-hunting techniques--pin-prickings and dunkings--in Princessland. All you have to look for is wrinkles.
Of course I knew that our culture values appearance above just about everything else, especially for women. But I hadn't thought about how Disney associates physical beauty with moral goodness.
1 comment:
Aw, what a load of crap.
By all means lets do away with the line of princess commodities, but on the grounds that they are poorly made and uninspired toys.
These are old stories to begin with, so let's not through out Aurora as a role model because she has to be saved by the prince, that's just the way the story goes. What bad example is she setting, that she doesn't mind being in a low income house hold? And, she can probably sew a dress together and pick berries without getting poisoned, which is more marketable skills then the author probably has.
And, what's such a travesty of the villains being the ones who covet good looks. Snow White's stepmother really just covets the position of being most beautiful. If the mirror had kept its yap shut she'd have just assumed she was better looking then Snow. She's not a wrinkley hag for a villian, she's number two in the land for beauty.
And, hey. Maybe if Dora weren't incredibly slow paced the kids wouldn't have gotten bored with her.
And, to attack Belle. She's an avid reader, fairly well versed in engineering, doesn't succumb to peer pressure, doesn't give a hoot about looks. What exactly is the author hoping from the princesses? Is she a wuss because she can't fight off 5 wolves?
I know my Disney front and back. If any one wants to waste 3 hours of their lives I'll tell them the next hundred reasons this article sucks. I think the author needs to go back to the source material.
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