Disney Princess Movies' Development and Dilemmas — From a Feminist Perspective
- 1 Shanghai United International School
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to critically analyze the image of Disney princesses using a feminist perspective. The study aims to explore the positive and negative impacts of the image of princesses and how it has influenced film making as social mores have changed and women's liberation has been promoted. The study explores the ways in which women have been portrayed throughout history through exhaustive case studies, demonstrating how princesses have changed in response to the times in which they have been portrayed. This study recognizes that while significant progress has been made in portraying princesses as more autonomous and powerful, prejudices and fundamental limitations remain. By examining these issues, this study seeks to reveal that the image of the princess still needs to be improved to better align with modern feminist values. It also calls on Disney to be brave enough to break out of the current image of princesses as well as the storytelling framework, and to explore more possibilities in female characters
Keywords
Disney princess film, Feminism, feminist movement, Characterization
[1]. Stover, C. (2013). Damsels and Heroines: The conundrum of the Post-Feminist Disney Princess. Lux, 2(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.5642/lux.201301.29
[2]. Henke, J. B., Umble, D. Z., & Smith, N. (1996). Construction of the female Self: Feminist readings of the Disney heroine. Women’s Studies in Communication, 19(2), 229–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.1996.11089814
[3]. Schiele, K., Louie, L., & Chen, S. (2020). Marketing feminism in youth media: A study of Disney and Pixar animation. Business Horizons, 63(5), 659–669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2020.05.001
[4]. Welter, B. (1966). The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860. American Quarterly, 18(2), 151–174. https://doi.org/10.2307/2711179
[5]. Hu, S. X. (2020). Toxic royalty: feminism and the rhetoric of beauty in Disney Princess films. Inquiries Journal, 12(07). http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1788/toxic-royalty-feminism-and-the-rhetoric-of-beauty-in-disney-princess-films
[6]. Nancy. (2020). What is a feminist perspective? – An Overview. Sociology Group: Welcome to Social Sciences Blog. https://www.sociologygroup.com/feminist-perspective/
[7]. Alp, A. (2021, August 13). From Snow White to Moana: The evolution of Disney Princesses. The Stanford Daily. https://stanforddaily.com/2021/08/12/the-evolution-of-disney-princesses/
[8]. Analysis Of Snow White From A Feminist Perspective. (2021, Jun 09). GradesFixer. Retrieved September 16, 2023, from https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/analysis-of-snow-white-from-a-feminist-perspective/
[9]. Four Waves of Feminism. (2022, June 30). Pacific University. https://www.pacificu.edu/magazine/four-waves-feminism Timeline: Women of the world, unite! (n.d.).
[10]. https://interactive.unwomen.org/multimedia/timeline/womenunite/en/index.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3smw1pD1gAMVXxqtBh2Xjw07EAAYAiAAEgLiAvD_BwE#/1940
Cite this article
Yu,T. (2024). Disney Princess Movies' Development and Dilemmas — From a Feminist Perspective. Communications in Humanities Research,30,77-82.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).