In Defence of Disney (only one year too late!)

Who is that girl I see, staring straight back at me?

I was procrastinating on Facebook not very long ago when a friend linked me to an article which exposed Disney to be a bay of sexist pigs. It essentially pointed out that all their “Princesses” from Snow White to Belle empty-headed beauties with nothing to offer men except their sexuality.

They even attacked Enchanted, one of my latest obsessions (and I assure you, not solely because of Patrick Dempsey. I don’t even watch Grey’s Anatomy, for the record.)

OUCH OUCH OUCH.

That was me taking a couple of shots for Disney. Like JKR, I will “defend the value of bedtime stories to my last breath” (CHECK QUOTE). Sure, fairytales may not suit every little girl, just as the colour pink, high heels and long hair do not suit every single grown woman. But what harm can they do?

There would have been a time when I was about, say, sixteen, when I was hell-bent on purging the patriarchy from my life. But five years have really made a difference to the way I see housewives and Disney princesses. Women ought to have a choice. Who are you to say that the life of a stay-at-home mum is any less fulfilling for any particular individual? If she’s forced into it, you’d have a good case. But just because a woman says, “I’m happiest when I’m at home with my children,” is that a sign she’s been brainwashed?

Don’t get me wrong – I nearly cried when my flatmate, who’s also in medical school, told me her aim in life was to be a housewife and that the med degree was her “backup plan” – because it seemed like a waste of the health system/university’s resources.

How does Enchanted come into this? Well for starters, everyone’s bitching about “the princess”, or Amy Adams’ character. But I’m upset that they’re completely ignoring Idina Menzel (particularly because since Rent and Wicked I’ve had a bit of a crush on her) because to me, the dichotomy between these two definitely drew me in (that, and James Marsden).

Amy Adams plays Giselle, a princess who learns to stand on her own two feet, while Nancy, a feminist’s triumph (runs her own business, et cetera) learns that there’s nothing wrong with giving into impulsivity once and awhile. One of my favourite bits of the movie was where Nancy, having just arrived in Andalasia and deciding to marry Prince Edward, threw out her Blackberry. The overarching lesson there is that the key to happiness is the middle path. As Giselle teaches Robert that it’s okay to be imaginative and whimsical sometimes, Edward teaches Nancy what happens when you’re all work and no play. I would’ve liked to see Nancy teach Edward a few things about reality, the way Robert helps Giselle grow up and fit into the Real World, but I suppose there just wasn’t enough movie time.

The only Disney princesses I dislike on the grounds of feminism to are Aurora and Ariel (nothing to do with a vendetta against the letter “A”, mind you). Aurora doesn’t really do anything except run through the forest and sing, while Ariel sorely lacks commonsense (who in their right mind would give up their means of communication?). My dislike of The Little Mermaid is intensified by the original version of the tale, which ends with the mermaid ending up in a state between life and death, a spirit “of the air” who must wait out a thousand year or something. It’s the saddest story ever (as the Pottercast team will agree) – even worse than the Cinderella version where the stepsisters chop off their feet when their mother tells them to. My friend did a 5000-word essay on how Sleeping Beauty was a symbolic warning for girls to keep their chastity, which I don’t think is entirely unlikely. But just as there are stories about rape and murder and necrophilia and alcoholism and incest and so on, these stories have a place in the very wide but not-so-wonderful world of literature.

And it’s not as if Disney is exclusively producing the most anti-feminist stories of the lot. I personally think Stephenie Meyer of Twilight fame has lot to answer for too. Now I’m going to pick out my favourites, the “princesses of the 90’s” (excluding Ariel) which I grew up with, and describe them in more detail.

Belle

• Hardcore feminists say: Persists with an abusive relationship, also something of a Mary-Sue because she is not only the smartest girl in town, she’s “the most beautiful girl in town” as well as having the ability to speak to horses (Philippe! Philippe!) and being able to sing/dance.

I love Belle because it is made clear that her greatest loves are books, family and adventure.
However, as the girl points out to everyone at the end, the Beast is no more monstrous than a man like Gaston. All the >30yr men in the movie are arrogant bastards with no clue about women.

Jasmine

• Hardcore feminists say: Needs to be married before her birthday at the start. Needs to be saved by a man at the end.

Come on, Jasmine is assertive enough to run away from her own family! She’s smart enough to manipulate Aladdin and to change tradition at the end. And may I add, she really does play a part in her own rescue (even if she has to get disgustingly close to Jafar…)

Pocahontas

• Hardcore feminists say: Very little. I think it’s very hard to criticize Pocahontas because all the men (the Chief, Ratcliffe, John Smith et al) are portrayed as idiots compared to the women (Grandmother Willow and the girl herself). Maybe the scene when John Smith sees her coming through the waterfall might be something to whine about, because the only reason he’s interested in chasing after her is because she has a magnificent figure, and her hair/body/etc are just completely unrealistic.

I don’t mind Pocahontas one bit. I mean, she shows more wisdom than all the men of her tribe put together and all the bloody Brits, she stands apart from her family, she doesn’t feel the need to follow John Smith back to the New World (until the sequel, whose existence I refuse to acknowledge), she’s headstrong, independent…what’s there not to love? Also, what is wrong with love/lust/attraction at first sight? It's not like it doesn't exist, or that it's an entirely bad thing. But there's a rant for another day.

Mulan

• Hardcore feminists say: Great start with the emphasis on brains and the jokes about stupid men, but how come the only time she has any influence is when she’s dressed up as a man?

Mulan, I think, mocks both men and women for their particular (though stereotypical) follies. We’re all superficial in one sense or another (the women are vain and short-sighted, the men are…also vain and short-sighted!) I also don’t think Mulan is designed to be the most beautiful girl on the block, like some of the older Disney princesses. And Mulan’s not even a princess, so I personally don’t quite get why people want to stick her in the “eight princesses” group. No, I think any feminist who says she can't stand Mulan probably should go watch the movie again.

So there you go. There are my thoughts on Disney girls. Feel free to disagree or agree.