The Disney Princess Effect Today’s society is overrun by media, therefor one of the easiest ways to capture a young person’s attention is through the television. Movies provide a powerful audio-visual experience for its audience. Exposing children to media at a young age has a giant impact on them when teaching basic beliefs and values of the society that they live in. Many children’s films portray real life dilemmas and common themes in our culture. This exposes young kids to relatable characters, problems, and stories. Because children are still developing cognitively and socially, they are extremely sensitive to these types of messages that are reflected in films. Most films portray their characters more enhanced and “perfect” than what …show more content…
They fall in love with the idea of royalty. The first thing the Disney Fairytale culture teaches young girls is not that they have to be strong, talented, creative, or smart, but that they must be the fairest of them all (Orenstein). The Disney princess culture teaches girls that their worth is more about beauty and appearance rather than intelligence (Sternberg). Young girls also get it engrained in their head that they should meet their one true love, marry them, and live happily ever after forever. The first released animated Disney princess film was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow white says to her mirror “mirror mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” When the mirror replies and says nothing less than “of course, you Snow White”, she finds instant pleasure and demands to hear it again. This right off the bat in teaching young people that in order to succeed you must be “the fairest” or the greatest of everyone. Dr. Hardstein theorizes that traditional stories like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella to promote the idea that if a girl is pretty enough and has fancy clothes and shoes; she will find love and popularity (Wellman). Also every time you see a female character her features are enhanced and “improved” to make her prettier. In Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Gaston says “Belle is the most beautiful girl in town, and that makes her the best.” This clearly presents the idea that Beauty comes before anything