In the article “The Trouble With Disney’s Teeny, Tiny Princesses” by Philip Cohen examines the reason why Disney princesses are so tiny compared to their male counterparts, and what impression it put on the general population who watch many disney movies. Disney has been known to show stereotypical women and men. The damsel in distress, and her knight in shining armor. Some people have called them out on this and they responded with some female empowerment movies. Like Frozen and Brave that do not focus on romance.
This constant fixation on physical perfection has created unreasonable beauty standards for women, ones we cannot possibly achieve on our own. Such standards permeate all forms of popular media, particularly fashion magazines and advertisements. Women are bombarded with the notion that we must be thin in order to be desirable. These images project an
James Lull defines the term hegemony by stating that it “implies a willing agreement by people to be governed by principles, rules, and laws they believe operate in their best interest, even though in actual practice they may not.” The portrayal of hegemony is achieved through the use of mass communication tools, such as magazines, television, and internet. For example, in the movie Mean Girls, teenage girls are portrayed as dramatic and unintelligent individuals who strongly care about their physical appearance and enjoy to gossip and backstab other girls. The film points out the importance of physical appearance by showing the concern of Regina George, one of the members of “The Plastics,” about her body weight as she strictly monitors
Many people believe Disney princesses can alter a child’s perspective about his or her self. The way princesses act and what they wear both affect children’s state of mind. The essay “Girls on Film: The Real Problem with the Disney Princess Brand” by Monika Bartyzel claims that the image of Disney princesses changes the way both children and society feel about women.
Moreover, Body Image, Media and Eating Disorders states that 30% of children are dissatisfied with their body image due to being overweight and 15% are dealing with obesity (Derene & Beresin, 2006). This demonstrates that the number of children watching television and the number of overweight, obese children are involving their selves more into the media rather than more crucial events. Correspondingly, the average model is 23% thinner compared to 25 years ago (Ravelli & Webber, 2012). Today’s media has an impacting effect on how women should appeal themselves to others in society. This guides them to behave a certain way and not truly be themselves.
Logos creates a sense of urgency in the reader’s head that they need to monitor their child’s behavior. One of the credible sources Hanes uses is from a University of Central Florida poll, which found that, “50 percent of 3-6 year old girls worry they’re fat” (*). Hanes argues this statistic could be stemmed from the Disney Princesses image. The princesses have a particular shape and size that has created a standard for body image. The author uses these facts to show her audience that if parents continue to allow their children to view these images, their child will desire to be just like the Disney Princesses.
Everyday females are exposed to how media views the female body, whether in a work place, television ads, and magazines. Women tend to judge themselves on how they look just to make sure there keeping up with what society see as an idyllic women, when women are exposed to this idea that they have to keep a perfect image just to keep up with media, it teaches women that they do not have the right look because they feel as if they don’t add up to societies expectations of what women should look like, it makes them thing there not acceptable to society. This can cause huge impacts on a women self-appearance and self-respect dramatically. Women who become obsessed about their body image can be at high risk of developing anorexia or already have
Across the world, little girls and little boys are being raised on gendered norms that determine how they will behave for the rest of their lives. Exposure to various types of media during their formative years instruct children on how they should look, feel, and behave. Consequently, adult women strive to emulate the fantasies they were exposed to through the Disney Princess films they were raised on. Disney Princesses offer a mold for what a successful woman looks like in terms of size, color, and physical sexuality. In modern society, countless marginalized groups are seeking equal representation in the media to accurately reflect how diverse the world truly is.
People of all ages throughout the years are very familiar with the concept of Disney movies. Some notable classics of Disney are “Beauty and the Beast” which was released in 1991 and “The Little Mermaid” which was released in 1989. Among the children, the Disney princesses left a good impression on them like Cinderella from “Cinderella”, Pocahontas from “Pocahontas”, and Mulan from “Mulan”. However, many believe that Disney movies serve as a good influence to young audiences but people should know that Disney also has its flaws. Disney have showed negative portrayals of Disney princesses in their films especially when it comes to their usual unattainable beauty ideal and portraying their princesses as inferior to men.
Gender roles have been noticeable in Disney films especially the Disney Princess series. Women are typically portrayed as a princess, homemaker, or queen while men are portrayed as strong, dominant and authority characters. The portrayal of the prince or knights in the movies usually highlighted with the strong and powerful characteristic, whereas the Disney princesses are weak, vulnerable and being protected. According to Tiffany, gender stereotypes and behaviours illustrations are very common in Disney culture and their depictions have become sophisticated over the years especially those of female characters.
From an early age, we are exposed to the western culture of the “thin-ideal” and that looks matter (Shapiro 9). Images on modern television spend countless hours telling us to lose weight, be thin and beautiful. Often, television portrays the thin women as successful and powerful whereas the overweight characters are portrayed as “lazy” and the one with no friends (“The Media”). Furthermore, most images we see on the media are heavily edited and airbrushed
In today’s modern culture, almost all forms of popular media play a significant role in bombarding young people, particularly young females, with what happens to be society’s idea of the “ideal body”. This ideal is displayed all throughout different media platforms such as magazine adds, television and social media – the idea of feminine beauty being strictly a flawless thin model. The images the media displays send a distinct message that in order to be beautiful you must look a certain way. This ideal creates and puts pressure on the young female population viewing these images to attempt and be obsessed with obtaining this “ideal body”. In the process of doing so this unrealistic image causes body dissatisfaction, lack of self-confidence
The media portrays these unrealistic standards to men and women of how women should look, which suggests that their natural face is not good enough. Unrealistic standards for beauty created by the media is detrimental to girls’ self-esteem because it makes women feel constant external pressure to achieve the “ideal look”, which indicates that their natural appearance is inadequate. There has been an increasing number of women that are dissatisfied with themselves due to constant external pressure to look perfect. YWCA’s “Beauty at Any Cost” discusses this in their article saying that, “The pressure to achieve unrealistic physical beauty is an undercurrent in the lives of virtually all women in the United States, and its steady drumbeat is wreaking havoc on women in ways that far exceed the bounds of their physical selves” (YWCA).
So when people look and see that they don’t look like they’re favorite super-model it can put a downer on their self-confidence. This causes many girls feeling that they aren’t good enough in society, society won’t accept them because they aren’t perfect and they start to not like their body. When for many females they can’t lose as much weight as their friend can just because of their genes and how they were born. “The lack of connection between the real and ideal perception of their own body and firm willingness to modify their own body and shape so as to standardize them to social concept of thinness…” (Dixit 1), being focused on unrealistic expectations can cause women to lose themselves and change their attitude on how they view their body, and not for the better.
According to the Straight/Curve website, about 70% of teenagers think that the ideal body type can be found in fashion magazines, while only 5% of women naturally look that way and about 91% of women diet to achieve what they feel is the perfect body size. Influence of mainstream media on the beauty standards Johnson (2016) stated that from television shows to commercials to magazine advertisements to celebrity culture, mainstream media has a big influence on how we understand beauty. That 's why media including films, spend money in order to cast for good-looking actors and actresses to trick people into setting up their belief on what beauty standard should be expected. Female characters in Hollywood films Films have the power that moves far beyond pure entertainment. In particular, they can sway our collective imagination and influence our perceptions on crucial issues related to race, class, gender, etc., but the extent to which they reflect real-world situations is bleak, particularly in regards to women.
