Disney Princesses Cartoon-ish Bodies

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/quora/why-is-disney-still-makin_b_4565482.html

This blog post titled “Why Is Disney Still Making Female Characters With Such Cartoon-ish Bodies?” examines the message that Disney princess’s bodies are sending to young girls.  This author believes that Disney princesses make young girls believe the only way to be beautiful is to be skinny and look a certain way.  “The interesting thing about Disney princesses is that no matter how diverse they supposedly are, they almost all have the same very thin body type with doe eyes and tiny hands and feet,” Kothari.  The blog uses modern movies such as Frozen and Tangled to compare this idea.  A Disney representative made a controversial claim that with animation it is hard to make characters look different while still keeping them pretty.  The author argues what pretty is and why Disney’s male characters can look different but the females can’t.  This article questions why Disney is making progressions within their movies but still can not change the look of a typical princess.

I agree with the author that Disney still has progressing to do.  Although they have made steps towards progression in their recent movies the princesses all still look the same, with their skinny bodies and big eyes.  Something I disagree with the author is how these Disney princesses effect young children.  Many young girls love Disney princesses and want to be them but I do not think that’s because of their looks it is because of their personalities.  Although there is a lot of pressure on girls to look a certain way I do not think that they think they have to look like a Disney princess to be beautiful.  Although this topic brings up something that I can look into while researching, do Disney princesses have a negative effect on children’s view of body image?  This also makes me question why Disney hasn’t made a change in the way they physically portray women since they are changing how the emotionally display them.  This article expands what my research will be in with my paper because I was not thinking about body image when I was thinking about the progression of Disney movies.  Maybe the new recent movies have shown progression in certain aspects but is lacking in others?  That is a question I plan to further examine with my research.

 

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20 thoughts on “Disney Princesses Cartoon-ish Bodies”

  1. Lola

    Dear Katie,
    I really enjoyed reading this response. I think you have really struck an important idea, which is society’s idea of female “beauty,” and whether the stereotype for beautiful will ever change from tiny waists, dainty hands and feet, and doe eyes. I think the article you found is really cool, because it addresses the fact that these disney princesses set a standard for beauty that is unrealistic and near impossible to obtain, and non-representative of most girls’ bodies. I think it is an interesting contrast to compare how the princesses of disney have become more independent with the fact that they still are portrayed with an unrealistic standard of beauty. I think it would be interesting if you cited more articles that juxtaposed these two ideas. I look forward to reading more!
    Lola

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  2. Kaitlyn

    Hi Katie!
    I loved this topic because growing up I always wanted to be a Disney Princess, but clearly i was too young to compare my body type to theirs. I agree with the point that all of the Disney princesses pretty much look the same, skinny with different colored hair. Although Disney claims to be progressing in their development of Disney Princesses I haven’t really seen any changes. You made alot of valid points in your blog discussing the way girls do look up to these princesses, but not based on their looks.

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  3. Megan O'Dell

    Hey Katie!
    I enjoyed reading your blog on Disney Princesses and I think your topic of the progression of Disney movies is very unique. While I think most young girls who look up to Disney Princesses are too young to realize their perfect bodies, I think it should still be changed. You bring up a good point of how there has been no progression of they body types of the Disney Characters, and technology is not a valid excuse based on all the advances that have been made. If intricate detail of locations, buildings, etc. can be made in cartoons, making the female cartoons have a little more curve should not be a problem. While I think it would be good to see differences on the Disney Princesses, it does come down to how much influence the body type of the princesses has on young children. I don’t think a child would say “I want to be Cinderella instead of Belle because Cinderella is skinnier” because since the princesses all look similar, body image doesn’t cross their minds. However, if a new movie were to come out and a character’s body type was different than the rest, I could see a little girl noticing this. Hopefully even though a character may be “more curvy,” her personality and strength through out the movie wouldn’t be overlooked. I think you are headed in the right direction based on your research on the progression on research and I look forward to reading more!

    Megan

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  4. Liz

    Some are arguing that Disney princesses such as Ariel and Jasmine are unrealistically skinny and are projecting negative body images to the young audience the movies are marketed towards. Arguments have also sprung up over whether Disney intentionally puts Disney princesses in scanty clothing, further pushing the “girls should be skinny” ideal upon children.
    Furthermore, a girl in high school has started a petition for Disney to create a plus-sized princess in favor of boosting the confidence of plus-sized girls who watch the animated films. Protesters against her case claim that creating an overweight princess is harmful, because it encourages girls in unhealthy habits. Some people walk the middle line, saying that Disney should simply create a princess that is realistically proportioned. But you know what I think?

    All these arguments are literally pointless.

    Excuse my French, but it’s all a waste of time. Disney does not give girls unrealistic body standards, and I’m here to tell you why: Disney films are just cartoons, nothing more than animated drawings made to look like characters in children’s movies.
    Now before some people get up in arms saying “Disney was my entire childhood!”, I’m not saying that the Disney movies aren’t magical or that they don’t mean more to us than just good movies.
    But here’s the thing: cartoons aren’t supposed to look like real life people. Artists bend the rules of proportions to suit a more stylized way of drawing and animating. That’s what makes them fun to watch, and that’s what differentiates them from watching TV in which actual people are filmed. Obviously, real people’s figures aren’t outlined in black pencil, and even the more realistic-looking CG Disney characters don’t look like real people, not because they are misproportioned, but because they are JUST CARTOONS.
    If you would like to point out something that’s hurting girl’s self-esteem, look towards the media: Airbrushed models, photoshopped bodies. The differences between these and the Disney princesses is that the models on magazine covers are SUPPOSED to look like real people. They are supposed to look like these are real, untouched women who are naturally skinny and fabulous looking. They are setting an unrealistic standard because magazines want to sell you the false image that these women are actual, real women, and this is how their bodies look naturally. It’s how they sell diet pills, makeup, and cosmetic surgery. But the thing is, many girls don’t realize that these “real” photographs of women are really altered to sell products, and even if they do, they hold themselves to the unrealistic standard that was created just to sell products, because the magazine-cover women are fake, but they are created to look real.
    But Disney’s princesses aren’t SUPPOSED to look like realistic women. They’re supposed to look like stylized drawings (or CG models, depends on how old the movies are). Disney isn’t selling the image of Ariel as a standard that all girls should be able to achieve. They’re not selling diet pills titled “Look like Princess Jasmine in 3 weeks!”. The princesses are acting out a story, not selling a body product. They’re not trying to make the princesses look as real as they possibly can be, because if that were the case, why would they go through all the trouble of animating characters when they could just hire people to film? They’re an ANIMATION STUDIO. And as imagination-driven as many kids are, if you were to hold up an image of Ariel and a photoshopped model in front of them and asked which one was the drawing and which one was the photograph, they’d point to the model as the photograph every time.
    And as for the clothes, there has been argument that the clothes on Disney princesses are too scanty. The main two subjects are Ariel and Jasmine, who brandish not much more than bras. But let’s just look at where these princesses live: Ariel lives in the ocean. No one is going to wear a long-sleeved shirt in the ocean. Her shell bra is supposed to resemble a bikini. It’s why none of the mermen in the movie were wearing shirts, because it’s supposed to model the fact that guys generally don’t wear shirts swimming. As for Jasmine? She lives in an Arabian-themed world, where it is very HOT. And let’s take a look at our newest Disney princess, Anna from ‘Frozen’. She wears a floor-length dress with long sleeves and a collar up to her neck because it is COLD where she lives. This isn’t about setting unrealistic standards for girls, it’s about what’s appropriate for the character.
    But let’s just pretend for a moment that Disney DOES set unrealistic standards for girls. What about the other movie-making studios out there? Disney isn’t the only company that makes movies. Are we going to start ragging on every single studio that makes proportions that deviate from realism? There are tons of other images that portray men as big and strong and women as skinny and little, but at the same time, there are also many cartoon images that deviate from the norm. There’s a range.
    My point is that cartoons are supposed to be just that: CARTOONS. They’re not supposed to sell unhealthy images to girls. They’re not supposed to look like real people. They’re supposed to look like drawn (or CG) characters that play out stories in children’s movies. So please, save your rant about unrealistic body images for the media, because I’m sick of it, and I’m sure there are others who are sick of it, too.
    I’m not saying that Disney can’t make more diverse body types. I’m not saying that the studio can’t improve. I’m just saying that this blaming of Disney for unrealistic expectations epidemic needs to end.

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  5. dani ramdani

    nice.. ini adalah film yang banyak di sukai oleh anak-anak wanita di negara saya bagaimana dengan di negara mu ?

    Reply ↓
  7. sardar

    Disney isn’t selling the image of Ariel as a standard that all girls should be able to achieve. They’re not selling diet pills titled “Look like Princess Jasmine in 3 weeks!”. The princesses are acting out a story,

    Reply ↓
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    Hi there!

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