Why My Little Princesses will Grow Up on Disney

When I was in junior high I had a teacher that insisted Disney was evil and that we shouldn't watch the Lion King because there was a song about The Circle of Life, which she told us was about reincarnation.

Since then I have heard a lot of arguments about why we shouldn't let our kids watch Disney, especially Disney Princess movies. "They're unfeminist!" "They teach our daughters they need a guy to save them." "Beauty and the Beast promotes Stockholm Syndrome!" "They tell girls they need to be perfect, that outward appearance is everything!"

You know what? No.

I grew up on classic Disney movies and I don't have any of these problems. I am pretty feminist, I don't think I need a man to save me, I don't suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, I don't feel the need to be perfect, or that my outward appearance is the most important thing about me.

You know what else? The Circle of Life isn't about reincarnation.

If you actually take the time to listen to the lyrics it's about how everything is connected... like the cow eats the grass, the humans eat the cow, etc. And that's just facts. Nothing wrong or evil about that.

So what about the princesses? As far as Beauty and the Beast, I don't think it has anything to do with Stockholm Syndrome... it just doesn't. If you really want to see that I see how you could get it, but that's really not the message of the story at all.

In fact, the message is that outward appearance is NOT the most important thing. The whole point is that Belle takes the time to see past the Beast's gruff exterior, and helps him see the good in himself. So there's three points for Gryffindor: The girl is saving the guy, no stockhom syndrome, and outward appearance isn't as important as the kindness that is in someone's heart. The movie even celebrates her being different (ie she's kind of a nerd), and that and her kindness seem to be the focus of the movie, rather than her outward beauty. Other than the mention that her name means beauty, no one seems to really care about that.

As far as any other movies go, there are a lot I haven't seen in a long time, but all the things I can remember about them are good. Sure there's often the prince saving the "damsel in distress" but I can't really think of any movie in which the princess doesn't also save her prince. This is most obvious in movies like Pocahontas and Mulan, but (as in Beauty and the Beast) I think there is an emotional rescue of the princes by their princess in pretty much every movie as well.

Besides that, there are other good messages in the movies. Disney princesses tend to be kind, charitable, and passionate... all qualities I would hope to see in my children.

As far as all of the princesses being pretty... aren't most movie heroines? I don't think that's a problem with Disney. Frankly, they're all pretty in their own different way. There's not a singular face or hair type that they all have.

I've also seen a lot of shade coming from the "they're all white!" genre. Let me tell you a thing... first of all, their not all white. Between Tiana, Jasmine, Mulan, and Pocahontas I think that argument is another example of seeing what you're looking for. It's true that there are more white than POC princesses. And there's a good reason.

All Disney princess movies are based off of fairytales and legends. Therefore the princesses are based off of what the princess would have been like depending on her origins. For example, Merida is from Scotland... of course she's white... reaaally white. Because the story comes from Scotland. Sleeping Beauty is French... at the time in which is was written (and the story is set) it is more than logical that Aurora would be white. Alladin comes from The Arabian Nights, therefore it is very logical for the characters to be Middle Eastern. And so on and so forth for every Disney movie.

The only movie in which takes any liberties with the ethnicity of the main character is the Princess and the Frog... and frankly they took a LOT of liberties with that story line... I was quite disappointed, to tell you the truth. The only way I justify this is that I'm sure Disney was getting a lot of shade for not having a black princess. There is a version of the story that comes out of Sri Lanka, although it bears little to no resemblance to the original story, nor Disney's version at all.

So there you go. I think all movies have problems/send messages we don't want our kids to hear if we look for them hard enough... and I don't think Disney movies are any worse than others. In fact, I think they have a lot of good messages, we just have to make sure that we are pointing out the ones we want our kids to learn rather than fretting about the things we don't want them to learn.