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Tatyana Brown
Instructor: Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
March 30 2015
Beauty and the Beast: The Not So Wonderful World of Disney
For more than nine decades, the name Walt Disney has been preeminent in the field of
family entertainment. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to today's global
corporation, The Walt Disney Company continues to proudly provide quality entertainment for
every member of the family, across America and around the world. (The Walt Disney
Company) From this statement it is safe to say that Disney is one of the most worldwide

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recognized names. With that being said, naturally, people feel very strongly about Disney

Commented [NP2]: One of the most recognized names

in the world? Sounds less confusing maybe (to me)

whether that feeling is one of admiration or pure repulsion. Parents of young and preteen

Commented [NP3]: Maybe you should say have strong

feelings instead? Sounds less confusing maybe (to me)

children have been and continue to be the most outspoken in their opinions about Disney.
However, psychologists, scientists, and the list goes on, have strong opinions about the way
Disney influences children as well.
The qualms most modern day parents, researchers, and journalists have with Disney stem

Commented [NP4]: Before you say as well maybe you

should add psychologically or something. I know you said
psychologists already but you can say influences children
psychologically or psychologically influences children

from the earliest Disney movies and current Disney TV shows. Journalist Heidi Stevens is the
mother of a stereotypically carefree 7 year old who used to never worry about her looks and
preferred feeling free in all ways possible to play the way children do. That was until she began

Commented [NP5]: Write out seven (seven-year-old?

With dashes?) because technically, numbers less than 100
youre supposed to write out

watching TV shows like Shake It Up and Jessie. Stevenss 7 year old began worrying about
her hair and looks which made her mother worry a lot. Stevens begins asking some questions
that many parents and others who oppose Disney are likely to have asked themselves, Have the

Commented [NP6]: This is minor, but I dont really think

that you NEED some in there

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Disney gals' shiny cascades of thick, lovely tresses tangled themselves around my daughter's
psyche? Is she assigned to years of standing in front of the mirror feeling defeated? Has she
already equated beauty with popularity and popularity with power? (Stevens)
Disney has a way of assigning gender roles to children at an early age without children
noticing but many adults do.
We view Disney as a family-friendly and wholly moral corporation, one that does not
stand for anything that could offend anyone. But are we looking deep enough? While
young children may want to watch late night television and violent movies, most of the
ones with decent parents never get the chance. What they far more commonly watch are
things like Disney movies. It is from these movies that children often get their first
impressions of how men and women are supposed to act. (Castillo)
Castillo gives a vast variety of examples in which Disney movies predating the 1990s put into

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perspective the acceptable roles of how men and women should act and look. One example
came from Sleeping Beauty in which 16 year old Aurora, a beautiful good princess, is

Commented [NP8]: You should probably write 16 out

too

awakened by a prince she was betrothed to at birth. Her prince who was almost forgettable. With

Commented [NP9]: This is a fragment, but you can fix

this part by putting a semicolon after birth instead of a
period and then lowercase Her which Im sure you already
know

the exception of his handsome looks and good singing voice, nothing much is known about
Prince Phillip, a name unknown by many because his character is so flat. This movie taught
children that in order to be important a girl must be beautiful, meek, and modest. It also showed
that young boys should be the rescuers of their women and not speak much. This can be said
also of the infamous movie Snow White.
Castillo also sheds light on the fact that when female characters decide not to be meek
and modest, but instead take charge, they cause all of the trouble or are deemed villains. One

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grammar)

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such example comes from The Little Mermaid, in which Ariel, the main character, causes chaos
by going against her fathers wishes and interacting with humans so that she could be with Prince
Eric the love of her life. Also in this movie, Ursula is a very powerful witch that is said to be evil

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but if one takes a closer look, she could be good in the sense that she makes deals with people to

Commented [NP12]: who instead of that because

youre talking about a person

give them what they want. It could be suggested that the only reason she is deemed a villain is
because she is a female character with power who expresses sexuality and not a typical old

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after reason

school Disney female who needs to be rescued by a prince and does not have any power of her
own.
Parents, researchers, and the list goes on of people who are in support of Disney often
draw their attention to Disney movies from the 1990s to the present as well as shows from the

Commented [NP15]: Not a problem here because its the

2nd time, but it feels repetitive and the list goes on > etc.
or whatever you want to say

1990s to the early 2000s. That was Disneys era of embracing ones culture, strong women, and
men who were more that brutish supporting characters. Disney started making movies that were

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more than the average all white cast of characters who were very similar to previous Disney
movies. For once Disney started becoming less static and there was finally variety and diversity
in both gender roles as well as ethnicity.
In the past Disney movies were the biggest reason parents and other adults did not like
Disney. Disney must have listened because their movies improved drastically. Even giving lead
roles to Disney males. An example of movies giving male characters more than just flat

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thinking
Commented [NP21]: I think you should say They even
started giving. . . or They even started to give. . . to fix
the sentence fragment

supporting roles comes about in Tarzan and Aladdin where they are the main characters. The
only issue is the main male characters still continuing the idea of overly aggressiveness,

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impulsive thinking, and overall boys will be boys mentality. However, Disney made at least

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one movie with a male character of depth and substance, the Hunchback of Notre Dame. In many

Commented [NP25]: I think this should be a colon

because that was the end of your sentence, and even though
its not a list, I think it should be there

aspects he is the antithesis of the stereotypical Disney princess. He is ugly and his love goes

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unrequited even in the movies end but he is very kind and intellectual unlike almost every other

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Disney male.
Nani, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, and even a not so recent Pocahontas and Mulan are
excellent examples of strong female characters whose assertiveness helps others as opposed to
making chaos. Nani raised her sister without the help of a man after her parents died. Tiana was a
female lead who worked hard and in the end it paid off when she was able to open her own
restaurant with very little help from the man she marries at the end of the movie. She also was
his rescuer instead of the other way around. Rapunzel took charge when Flynn Rider entered her
home and although it is debatable, she essentially saved herself from the tower. She also saved
Flynn at the movies end another example of breaking Disneys gender role stereotypes.

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Pocahontas and Mulan did the same, with Mulan going the extra mile and saving her entire

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population. Merida was a movie praised by many feminists because she refused to even get a guy

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and just did her own thing.

A woman named Sarah Coyne, a faculty member of School of Family Life, decided to
look into Disney and gender roles as she kept her three year old daughter in mind and did
research on how modern Disney princesses affected gender stereotyping, body image, pro-social
behavior and aggression in early childhood. Modern Disney princesses such as Tiana, Rapunzel,
and Merida aided in the results that she and her research team received. Along with those Disney
princesses, a few of the girls had been exposed to the older Disney princesses such as Cinderella
and Sleeping Beauty so they still showed typical signs of what women are stereotyped as.
However, the results also showed that girls exposed to Disney princesses had better body image
and more pro social behavior, meaning they are kinder children, than other girls their age. With
all that was found in her research studies Coyne leaves this message for other parents and adults,

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I would say watch princess shows in moderation like not more than once a week. It is
important that parents discuss the content with their daughters, and this should also help mediate
some of the negative effects (Bailey)
Disneys past that went unnoticed by the generations who were the first to grow up with
it is a lot to recover from as modern generations still have access to it. However, it is noticeable
that Disney is working hard, in movies at least, to right their past wrongs. Every time Disney
introduces a strong female lead in a movie they gain a very appreciative audience. It would be

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wise for Disney to soon do the same with making better more intelligent and well-rounded male

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characters. Disney also needs to work harder on fixing the television programs that come on their
channel which can be argued by both those who oppose and are for Disney. One such mistake

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Disney made in recent years was having a character, who happened to be a model, say you guys
are so cute I could just eat you up, you know, if I ate and then play it off like a joke. That
comment received so much backlash for promoting negative body image. Comments and shows
like that are the reason many parents no longer even let their children watch Disney Channel.

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Regardless of how anyone feels about Disney, it is ultimately up to the parents to make
the final call on what their children can and cannot watch. Jon Stewart says it best, "You have an
arrangement with the parents of America. Our job is to make sure the children are sitting in front
of the screen. Your job is to raise them right. If you keep teaching them the wrong lessons, then
we're going to have start doing it ourselves. And that's not cool." (Stevens) Disney may not
always be good for children, and should be held partially accountable for influencing young
children but it is up to the parents to raise them right and steer them away from lessons about

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gender and other stereotypes that the do not want their children learning about.

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Works Cited
Bailey, Kennedy. "Disney princesses have mixed effects on children." The Digital Universe
(2013).
Castillo, Paul. "The negative effects of Disney on children." Sundial (2006).
Stevens, Heidi. "Brush with Disney can change a girl's priorities." Chicago Tribune (2013).
The Walt Disney Company. About Disney. n.d. 30 March 2015.