I am a Disney princess

I see people blow Disney princesses a lot of crap for being antifeminist and
unrealistic.

I distinctly remember a conversation I had with a teacher who had two little daughters.

“Who’s their favorite princess?” I asked.

“Oh, I don’t like Disney movies,” she said. “I find the female characters just aren’t strong role models.”

I’d heard this before, and I have puzzled over this conversation for the better part of the last few months. I’ve finally realized my issue with this kind of thinking.

Disney princesses and Disney movies are not contextualized with the time period — not a fair basis of judgment used with most other movies, books, plays, etc.

Compared to today’s standards, of course Snow White and Sleeping Beauty aren’t strong female characters. They were written in the 1930s and ‘40s. It’s not exactly like women were really running and gunning in mainstream media back then.

And they were progressive for their period. They’re all watered down versions of grotesque European fairy tales.

Feminist characters run rampant in Grimms. They were just appropriated for their respective audience.

Cutting a child off from a classic Disney movie just because you can’t see the immediate benefit means you cut them off from a lot of other culturally significant

Disney movie moments, and each story in its own way has a lot to teach a little kid.

The princesses were my girls.

It’s one of the most cliché things I’ll ever admit to, but I really did see myself in them.

Not just in the fluffy dresses, but their actual characters. And I learned lessons from how they overcame the challenges before them.

More than that, their influence is too tangible to be ignored. You can’t expect a child to grow up and not see, at some point in her life, “The Little Mermaid.”

A lot of significant artistic movements happened such as reference film, filming a stagnant background and the idea of animation in general because of Disney.

And the princesses themselves are not bad. Some of the ideas in the movies might fall flat today, but that doesn’t mean the story and character are throwaways.

So, my recommendation to parents who are afraid their daughter’s feminist spirit will be lost when they watch a princess — just let them see the movie.

Disney movies are one of the best parts of growing up.

­— ewenning@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Emma Wenninger on Twitter @EmmaWenninger.