Disney Princesses As A Role Model For Young Girls In India

The famous quote in Cinderella says that she didn’t ask for a prince, she asked for a night off and a dress.

Over the years, Disney has moved away from depicting its princesses as refined and demure.

The late Eighties noticed a formidable mermaid Ariel defy her dad to gain her dream of becoming a human – even if she did sacrifice her voice for a man. Belle in Beauty and the Beast and Jasmine in Aladdin had an impartial streak, while Mulan showed women ought to fight simply as nicely as men – if not better. In 2009, Tiana grew to be Disney’s first black princess and 2012’s Merida from Brave confirmed off an adventurous spirit and a love of archery. Despite no longer being reliable Disney princesses, Frozen’s Elsa and Anna have been praised for inserting sisterhood at the coronary heart of their happiness. And Disney’s newest lady heroine Moana used to be depicted with a common body kind and barring a love interest.

But can modern-day women choose up something from the likes of Disney’s 80-year-old Snow White – who cleans up after a bunch of men and needs a prince to store her? Even when girls do play the lead, they regularly reify tired adages about women. With Pocahontas (1995), for example, Disney showed that now not even cartoon female can “have it all”. The Indian princess must select between success in the public sphere and joyful romantic life.

Indeed, studies have located that in all of the princess videos produced by using Disney between 1989 and 1999, male characters have three instances as an awful lot of dialogue as woman characters. Unlike superheroes, who use their superpowers to do suitable for society, cartoon princesses have a tendency to focus on non-public issues, now not public service. Mulan is a daring Chinese warrior, respected and accompanied by using her people…all of whom assume she is a man, due to the fact she has deceived them by using reducing her hair. The point here seems to be that to come to be an appropriate leader, a woman has to seem to be and act like a man. Lessons in lady leadership

What have we learned?

1. The Leader is male.
2. Women are higher leaders when they look and act like men.
3. A successful public existence interferes in a woman’s non-public life.

When ladies get emotionally involved, they lose rational thought, and their leadership potential fails them. A slim figure, housework skills, and the need to be rescued via a man are some of the attributes regularly related to the Disney princesses. But behind the clichés, the characters can also reveal determination, compassion, ambition – and fearlessness.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: This article is written by Riddhi Dhamanwala, our intern.