Disney's princesses’ beauty

Students: Alvarez, Gilda and Giribaldi, Mariela


When we were a little girls we used to spend hours watching TV. At that time there weren’t so many cartoons as there are nowadays since cable TV wasn’t really popular so our mothers used to buy us movies that, according to them, were appropriate for us. Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are some examples. We could stay in front of the TV for hours, watching those beautiful princesses. We remember that we wanted to be just like them, and we didn’t understand why we couldn’t. Why none of those women look like us or like any ordinary women? In fact, they do not look like any real women at all. We didn’t understand it then, but we do now.

All around the world millions of girls grow up watching this type of films, just like we did. They may not be aware of it, but these series of movies, coincidentally all from The Disney’s company, portray the physical characteristics a woman should have for society. Furthermore, their female protagonists are a clear reflection of the stereotype of women socially accepted.

Throughout its history, Disney has accommodated to the beauty standards accepted in society at different times. There may be some variations between the movies used to be shown a few years ago and nowadays, but they still have the same pattern. The princess and the frog (2009), for instance, portrays a girl from an ethnicity different to the white protagonists people is accustomed to see on this type of films. But, even though Disney has incorporated a black protagonist in order to show social integration, this ‘new’ princess still follows the beauty standards accepted by society; a slim and stunning figure, perfect faces and gorgeous hair.

There is a wide scope of variety when talking about discrimination and it can be due to different factors: religion, ethnicity, social position, nationality or physical aspect among others. The message this black princess, Tiana, transmits is integration and no discrimination. But discrimination is still a subliminal message: not ethnical but physical. All the princesses created by Disney have the same characteristics : beautiful and outstanding faces, perfect hair and skinny bodies are common ground for them, independently from their origins and skin colour. Some examples are Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) or Jasmine (Aladdin), among others. For this company, a fat or an ugly princess is unthinkable.

At different times, beauty in women has changed according to society. That’s how it is possible to notice some differences between the protagonist of Snow White from the original version and other princesses from later films like Tiana (The princess and the frog). While the first one seemed to have a healthier figure according to how women were considered at that time the second one shows an extremely slim figure impossible to get for any real woman. Although it is the desirable figure expected to be shown by the audience.

The pattern Disney follows has been the same since its beginnings and it will probably continue because that is what society expects to see: what is socially accepted, especially, when talking about physical appearance. The most important point when watching these movies is to be really aware of this hidden message and to rescue the real importance of each person. It doesn’t matter what a person looks like. What really matters is how this person nourishes our lives.