Disney Helps Redefine Princess
I found this recent video produced by Disney interesting, even encouraging. It invites us – and particularly our daughters – to redefine what we mean by the term “princess.” Rather than have our daughters – and, for that matter, our sons as well! – see the ideal girl as a damsel in distress waiting for someone to rescue her, Disney invites them to imagine princesses as real girls, as strong girls, as, quite frankly, real strong girls.
There’s an irony here, of course, as few corporations or story-tellers have done more to promote – or profit by – the traditional image of the princess than Disney. Yet in recent movies like Brave and through this and other videos, Disney seems increasingly committed to reshaping the image they had such a strong hand in creating. And for that I’m grateful.
I’ve written before of my concerns about the cultural stereotypes and constraints placed up our daughters – and, for that matter, for their mothers – and I’m always a little surprised that there isn’t more conversation about these issues, as the toll such stereotypes takes on the confidence of girls is astounding. So whatever their varied reasons for moving in this direction, I’m glad to see Disney direct their considerable story-telling ability to offer our girls, our boys, and all of us a broader, stronger, healthier understanding of the gifts, talents, and strengths with which God has blessed our daughters.
Notes: 1) If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click here to watch the video.
2) Thanks to Good for drawing my attention to this video.
Interesting video.
Even better…Two of my favorite girl-empowering sites:
http://www.amightygirl.com/
http://www.missrepresentation.org/
Another one I like to read in regards to this subject is Pigtail Pals. http://blog.pigtailpals.com/
2 Thoughts:
First, a video like that means so much more to me now that I have a daughter. Almost like yeah, I could handle the toll of the stereotype myself–I grew up with it. But I don’t want my daughter to get to that point of comfort with the toll.
Second, while I find that video inspiring (yes, I did choke up), I did find my inner cynic speaking up, too: for all of its empowering message toward women being strong, powerful, and brave, it still seemed to carry a message of a certain type of girl society wants us to be: kind. Generous. Compassionate. Strong in all of these things, and courageous, yes, but strong and courageous were probably the only “masculine” adjectives used in the video. Not ferocious. Not tough. Not a warrior.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying any of those qualities are superior or inferior, or that we should be teaching girls to be ferocious or tough. What I’m saying is that the message still seems to carry a certain assumption about what it means to be female, and I think it’s important to be aware of that.