#they came onto this subject by saying that the barbie movie is all about womens rights and they all groaned and said

[svperbitch]

Listening to knit and natterers chat some of the worst homophobia and transphobia (and ooh they're onto racism now, original) I've heard out in the wild in a long time. This hurts actually :))

[rebel-princess-rock-blog]

Reactions to Disney Princess Films

In this post I'm going to focus on that data collected by Alexander Bruce in his interviews with college students in 2007. Once again I have to apologise as I'm not sure everyone will have access to this article.

http://www.jstor.org.ric.idm.oclc.org/stable/pdf/23416195.pdf

Let's rewind a little bit to 2007, two years before The Princess and The Frog came out. Alexander Bruce published a chapter in a book with data on how college students react to the princess franchise. In the piece, Bruce brings up how disney defines their princesses in a disney book titled What Is a Princess that came out in 2004. In this book, the author defines a princess as being "kind smart and caring" someone who "likes to dress up", "is polite", "loves to sing and dance", and "is brave and ready foe fun." According to the book a princess is also "a dreamer" and "always lives happily ever after." By disney's own standards, all their princesses at the time needed to find true love and adhear to these strict guidelines.

A majority of the male students that were interviewed saw the princess films as something only for girls. Some interviewers talked about the one guy who openly enjoyed disney movies being made fun of by his male friends. The only film that breaks this "princess movies are for girls" mentality was Aladdin, many of the men interviewed owned the film and praised it. The one disney princess film with a male protagonist is preferred by men, shocking, I know.

When the students were asked to "describe a princess" the males often discussed the princesses outward appearances. Some of the comments made were "I like Ariel. She's a redhead; she looks good in a bikini." "They're all pretty. They're all portrayed as very beautiful." "They look like Barbie dolls." (They are) "very thin" "very desirable." One subject said he likea Jasmine "because she's a sexy little girl." One man even stated "They're all supposedly attractive, you know mainstream attractiveness of what an American person supposedly looks like." The male subjects made very few comments on the personalities of the princesses, the two most common being that they're "caring and selfless" and "modest and quiet." The responses show that a majority of male subjects saw the princesses as prettu sexual objects rather than valuing them for their personalities.

The female subjects had more varied responses in defining the princesses. Not as many women discussed the character's appearences, but their beauty was recognized in statements such as "they were beautiful, elegant" and "they were really pretty, they had the hair, everybody wanted them." There were seven comments made by female subjects about the princesses having strong characteristics. "They all had the cause to fight for. They watched out for other people." "They have to overcome something...either like a death or a villian. They always prevail at the end." And "they have to put their foot forward and go out there. I mean they're not being like aggressive or too much, you know, but they do have to work for what they want." Some women had negative comments such as: "they always get the boy they want." "They all get in danger...the princes save them." "I know this may be a feminist thing to say but they are all kind of pathetic because they are all trying to get the man." When asked which princesses were their favorite and least favorite, the women tended to prefer the more active princesses over the passive ones. One woman commented that her favorite princess "thinks for herself" while another woman voiced her frustrations against her least favorite who "doesn't do anything."

A majority of the men and women interviewed agreed that the princess films "advocated particularly old fashioned or otherwise outdated views on women." The majority also think that the values in disney films are not relevant in the twenty first century. Despite this, when asked to picture their lives ten years in the future, more men imagined a traditional future with a housewife and kids. On the other hand most of the women imagined having "self-directed" career paths. Although many did say they eventually wanted a family, most wanted a job and their own money first.

It seems that based on these interviews, modern men were more affected by the traditional values in disney films than modern women. Most of the men only saw the princesses for their looks. They also wanted traditional family lives as head of the household with a housewife who didn't have to work. The women on the other hand focused more on the personalities and actions of the princesses. They also dreamed if more career orientated futures with a family down the line. It's interesting to see how these students react to the princess franchise as well as what's reflected in their own desires.

I placed this post after Princess and the Frog despite the film being a more modern disney tale because I feel it still holds onto some of these traditional values more than later films. Tiana ultimately needs love more than a career. She even potentially gives up her life long goal for a man. It's interesting to examine this in comparison with newer princess movies