Princesses: Not Just for Decoration Anymore

The current module assigned reading is an essay by Jack Zipes entitled, "Breaking the Disney Spell", in which the author discusses his views on how Disney "ruined" the fairy tale.  One of the biggest issues I have with fairy tales, whether they are Disney's or someone else's, is that the female protagonist characters are frequently portrayed as weak, or needing a man to succeed, or having to rely on her beauty.  I was surprised that while Mr. Zipes mentions this phenomena in his essay, this was not one of his bigger criticisms about the ruination of the fairy tale.  According to Zipes, "The young women are helpless ornaments in need of protection, and when it comes to the action of the film, they are omitted."  See, "Breaking the Disney Spell", by Jack Zipes, p.349.

The weak, helpless girl whose only purpose is to be beautiful so she can attract a prince to save her is really disturbing to me as this could lead to self-esteem issues if girls and women today adhere to these principles.  I much prefer stories where the heroine is allowed to possess spirit and bravery, and exhibit intelligence and self sufficiency in addition to being beautiful (it is a fairy tale after all).

Someday My Self-Esteem Will Come

While looking through some old emails, I came across the cartoons below:

As you can see, they focus on how much attention and focus is given to the princesses' looks rather than other qualities. 

Is this something for us to truly be concerned about?  Are young girls basing most or all of their ideals regarding self worth on these cartoon characters who have no greater purpose than to be beautiful?  Yes, some of these girls are brave and attempt to live their lives on their own terms but somehow they still end up needing a man to fall in love with them in order to achieve their greatest desires.

I admit, I got a chuckle out of these cartoons when I received them, especially because some of the princesses have annoyed me more than others over the years for being too weak and simpering (actually I once wrote a series of satirical story poems I called "The Fractured Fairy Tales" where I re-wrote the stories of various princesses to paint them in a slightly less saintly light).  I do recognize though that some girls, rather than be annoyed by the characters, might think this is what we are supposed to strive to be in order to be successful as women which, to me, is disturbing.

I am not saying you shouldn't want to be beautiful.  I also see nothing wrong with wanting to stay home and take care of your family by cooking and keeping house.  I just don't like being objectified or cornered into one particular role as what I "have" to be, and I hope we are teaching our young girls that they do not have to be limited either.

The Fairest of Them All...Please No!

I recently read the original version of the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves for the first time in many years.  I had forgotten some things like the fact the the Evil Queen was Snow's mother, not her step-mother, originally.  Other things have carried over no matter the version, such as the fact that I have just never been a fan of Snow White because her weaknesses bother me. 

What I realized for the very first time though with this reading was I am guilty of a sort of reverse stereotyping of these fairy tale heroines.  Many fairy tale princesses (in many versions) have to rely on someone else (usually the prince) to step in and save the day and I have never been comfortable with the idea of waiting for some knight in shining armor to come riding into my life and tell me not to eat the poisoned apple. 

Somewhere along the way, I began mentally equating these beautiful heroines with weakness and just wrote them off as useless and what I did not want to be.  Unconciously, I was equating beauty with a negative trait and struggled with wanting to be beautiful, but not wanting other people to tell me I was beautiful because that would mean I was weak. 

I realize now that while it is good I did not want to be weak, being beautiful has nothing to do with whether you are weak or not and I am sure now that I am aware of what I was doing, I can work on correcting it.