Disney Princesses Analysis

Many girls dream of their knight in shining armor, a perfect wedding, and a happily ever after ending. Disney princesses give them hope to find love and happiness along with emphasizing their want for the beauty and grace princesses illustrate. Authors of “Cinderella and Princess Culture” and “The Princess Paradox,” Peggy Orenstein and James Poniewozik respectively, agree that most girls like princesses. However, these articles convey differing parental opinions on lessons girls learn from princesses and the unfavorable effects this has at their young age. Orenstein describes her negative views on princesses through her experiences with her daughter and the knowledge of Andy Mooney’s business decisions on princesses. Conversely, Poniewozik

In contrast to past gender stereotypes, they argue that girls should be strong, independent, and intelligent. Orenstein takes a second wave feminism approach, meaning females are just as capable as males. She references how she commonly writes about feminism and warning parents of a “preoccupation of body and beauty” in order to pull for a change in society (327). The beauty standards give women an impossible set of goals deterring their confidence. In addition to unrealistic standards, Orenstein is alarmed by the growing popularity of princesses because she views them as “retrograde role models” (329). Therefore, she thinks princesses teach false lessons on morals, speculating less attractive girls will be bullied. Although Orenstein takes a second wave feminist approach, Poniewozik has a third wave feminism viewpoint, which states women can perform female and male tasks. Poniewozik describes various new princess movies that have a third wave feminism approach, for example in The Prince & Me, Paige chooses her career of becoming a doctor over the prince (324). However, in the sequel, she marries the prince and continues working as a doctor. He advocates for the new movies as they teach independence and prioritizing personal goals in order to demonstrate that girls can be successful going to college and getting a career. Even though

Both authors indicate parental and business opinions of princesses in pursuance of appealing to many readers. Orenstein expresses her dislike towards Disney princesses by proposing that young girls learn incorrect values from the original princess movies, since they teach women unrealistic love and beauty standards. However, Poniewozik believes that recent live action princess movies demonstrate women achieving their personal goals before seeking true love in order to teach independence and convey his supporting views of modern princesses. While Poniewozik and Orenstein want to see the next generations of females become strong, self-sufficient women that do not need a fairytale lifestyle they disagree with how princess movies in general teach these lessons to young