In this day and age, anyone and everyone (including myself), has given Disney a lot of flak for continuing to produce “anti-feminist princesses” – a damsel in distress; a weak and feeble woman; a girl who can’t protect herself. And while all that may be true to some extent, (no one wants their kid to grow up to be Sleeping Beauty) it does not make me love Disney any less.
TOP L-to-R: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle, Ariel BOTTOM L-to-R: Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel
As a child, my favorite part of the day was playing Princess. So basically, every minute I was awake. I would come home from school, lay waste to my ugly navy and khaki uniform (Ugh. Catholic School.) and immediately put on my blush pink, soft, sateen princess dress before I did any homework, or played with any toys. The worst day of my [childhood] life was the day my pink princess dress was torn and had to be thrown out. (Of course, by then it was getting small anyway, so I took my older sister’s blue one as a consolation prize.)
Playing princess for me was not about being a princess in a castle and having horses and a tower. Playing princess was not about falling in love and having a prince to save me and marry me and take care of me. Playing princess was not about being the center of attention during parties, or having more than someone else, or being better than that other little girl… Playing princess was about adventure and traveling; playing princess was about confronting your circumstances and maybe changing them; playing princess was about being thrown into a new environment and having to figure it out whether you wanted to or not, and playing princess, most importantly, was about dreaming.
All my favorite princesses, and even the ones I wasn’t so sure about, had some sort of adventure. It may have been a bit more domestic and close to home (POCAHONTAS had intruders on her land), or it was in a jungle far, far away (TARZAN’s Jane was pretty darn cool.) Jasmine got to travel all over the world, and Ariel got to travel to a completely different world. Snow White and Belle looked for the best in horrible situations (Stockholm Syndrome notwithstanding), and Kida (ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE’s resident Princess) helped change the lives of her people for the better. Megara and Tiana both allowed (albeit hesitantly) their less-than-ideal situations to impact and influence them positively, and Mulan saved her country because she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Esmeralda and Merida refused to be anyone but themselves – a gypsy with a heart of gold, and a tomboy who would rule a country by herself, and Rapunzel would not let her dreams be taken from her, even when she thought there was no hope. Anna and Elsa were the sisters who loved each other more than they could love anyone else, and even Walt Disney himself (though unsurprisingly) saw the power in Cinderella, “She believed in dreams, all right, but she also believed in doing something about them. When Prince Charming didn’t come along, she went over to the palace and got him.” Sure, maybe not every princess saved herself at the end of the day, but they did so much more.
So many people, young and old, point the finger at Disney that, “Disney is sexist and misogynistic! Disney hates women! Disney didn’t give us any feminist princesses until 2014!” but those knuckleheads seemed to have missed every other lesson our beloved princesses made available – and those lessons were not just for women. To be kind, forgiving, positive, honest, hopeful, giving of yourself to others in need, to find a dream and not let it go no matter the opposition, to stand up for yourself and what you believe in are not just lessons for little girls in pink princess dresses; they’re lessons for anyone willing to listen. Unfortunately, they’ve just been overlooked because most folks would rather point the finger than recognize that there’s more than one kind of strength.
So here it is: my long overdue thank you to Disney. While I maybe would have liked to see Ariel find another way to be with Eric rather than sacrificing her familial ties (and her fin, BECAUSEMERMAID), I will forever be indebted to you for Esmeralda’s never-failing sass and pride in who she was and where she came from.