Analysis of Disney Princesses
PAPER IX
Throughout history, Disney princesses have had a lasting influence on women everywhere. Fairytales are a way for literature to uphold the patriarchal conventions of society. These harmless stories presented to children at a young age; establish the normalcy of the dominance of men in their minds. Social conventions and gender roles are all subtle learning’s that are picked up from everyday fairytale. This paper will focus on the contrast of character personality and social norms between two Disney Princesses, namely Cinderella (Cinderella 1950) and Merida (Brave 2012).
‘Cinderella’ Is one of the oldest most well known Disney princesses of all. She is also on of the most helpless princesses ever created. She is subjected to being a housemaid, in a house that should rightfully be hers’. (Since the death of her father)
Cinderella was treated worse than a slave in her own home, made to do the dishes and clean the house. Yet she does nothing about it. She listens and obeys her cruel stepmother. All she does is sing a song and feel sorry for herself. At no point in the story does she decide to take matters into her own hands and fight for her freedom. Cinderella is portrayed as a dreamer. She constantly wishes for a better life. One without her horrible sisters and mother. But most of her fantasies involve finding true love and getting married. She view marriage as the only solution to her problems. Enforcing the idea that a woman without a husband cannot survive. She grieves over being excluded from the royal ball, she cries endlessly and longs to go for this perverse spectacle wherein woman are paraded and judged according to their beauty. Cinderella longs to find true love and believes that the only way to do so is to attend a ball where the prince get’s to choose his bride on the basis of her beauty. Here we see women are treated as objects merely present to look pretty on a mans’ arm.
Cinderella is a dreamer, but she is constantly
Throughout history, Disney princesses have had a lasting influence on women everywhere. Fairytales are a way for literature to uphold the patriarchal conventions of society. These harmless stories presented to children at a young age; establish the normalcy of the dominance of men in their minds. Social conventions and gender roles are all subtle learning’s that are picked up from everyday fairytale. This paper will focus on the contrast of character personality and social norms between two Disney Princesses, namely Cinderella (Cinderella 1950) and Merida (Brave 2012).
‘Cinderella’ Is one of the oldest most well known Disney princesses of all. She is also on of the most helpless princesses ever created. She is subjected to being a housemaid, in a house that should rightfully be hers’. (Since the death of her father)
Cinderella was treated worse than a slave in her own home, made to do the dishes and clean the house. Yet she does nothing about it. She listens and obeys her cruel stepmother. All she does is sing a song and feel sorry for herself. At no point in the story does she decide to take matters into her own hands and fight for her freedom. Cinderella is portrayed as a dreamer. She constantly wishes for a better life. One without her horrible sisters and mother. But most of her fantasies involve finding true love and getting married. She view marriage as the only solution to her problems. Enforcing the idea that a woman without a husband cannot survive. She grieves over being excluded from the royal ball, she cries endlessly and longs to go for this perverse spectacle wherein woman are paraded and judged according to their beauty. Cinderella longs to find true love and believes that the only way to do so is to attend a ball where the prince get’s to choose his bride on the basis of her beauty. Here we see women are treated as objects merely present to look pretty on a mans’ arm.
Cinderella is a dreamer, but she is constantly