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Michala Zembas

Professor Babcock

ENGL 137

4 November 2018

Disney in Waves

“The f-word,” more commonly known as feminism, is a highly debated concept in the

United States. The end goal of feminism is not to raise women up on a pedestal above men, but

rather to emphasize the inequalities that exist between men and women and work toward closing

that gap. Feminist ideologies can be seen in history as early as 570 BCE with Sappho, an author

in Ancient Greece, and continue through today (Rampton). The most notable timeline of

feminism is the “waves” of feminism which began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the

United States. The four different waves of feminism can be seen through the changing

characteristics and plots of the Disney Princesses and their movies from 1937 to 2018. The

overall focus of the feminist movement has shifted from the first-wave feminism desire to have

the same legal rights as men, to the fourth wave feminism movement to empower women and

create a more inclusive and accepting society, using social media, where women no longer have

to fulfill a traditional role.

First wave feminism was focused on women’s suffrage and legal rights and had its early

roots in the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. During this convention, about three hundred men

and women gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to rally the cause for women’s equality and the

Declaration of Sentiments was drafted here by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an early advocate for

women’s rights. This document was created to parallel the preamble of the constitution, but

rephrased statements such as “all men are created equal” to “all men and women are created
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equal.” As a result of the belief that women and men need to be equal on paper, after the Seneca

Falls Convention, there was an increase in women’s suffrage and in 1920, the 19th amendment

was added to the constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote (Rampton). First wave

feminism was a very literal progression of women’s rights, ensuring that all women and men

were equal on paper. However, despite the fact that first wave feminism proclaimed that all

women need to have equal rights, there were still minority groups like blacks, latinas, and

homosexuals that were marginalized during this era (“History and Theory of Feminism”).

According to Daily History, the 1930s and 1940s are described as a transition period

between first wave and second wave feminism, with the end of World War II sparking second-

wave feminism. During this period in history, the issues of women’s equality fell to the back

burner due to the onset of World War II, a more pressing issue than women’s rights. Women

were needed to help the war efforts by working in the factories and making supplies for the men

overseas. Some critics argue that this was a large step in the right direction for the feminist

movement, but when the men returned home around the late 1940s, the women also returned to

their roles in the house, sparking second wave feminism which began during the 1960s and went

through the mid-1980s (Daily History).

Walt Disney released his first full-length film in 1937, during the Great Depression and

this “transition period” of feminism. Heavily influenced by the stereotypical female role of a

housewife during the 20s and 30s, the first three movies that the Disney company released

showed the princesses exhibiting the “cult of domesticity”, a culture that believes women should

have domestic obligations, in roles of cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the person who was

more powerful than they.

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According to Sam Higgs, Professor at McGill University, Snow White, Cinderella, and

Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty) can be categorized as the “classic Disney princesses” (64). These

three characters all have the common characteristics of being passive, dependent and weak;

similar to the characteristics of the women that were spearheading the feminist movement, the

princesses also were all white. These characters can be seen singing and smiling while they are

cleaning, cooking and washing the dishes. Each Princess also waits for her prince to come to the

rescue because they are portrayed as weak and unable to save themselves from danger. All three

of these characters are passive and willing to fulfill the roles that are expected of them before

their prince comes to give them a better life.

The plots of these movies however, go a lot deeper than what meets the eye on the big

screen. All three of these films were written and directed by men who held strong beliefs in the

roles of women in Western civilization; needless to say, the roles were very traditional. Women

in Western civilization were also expected to marry a man; it was believed that women needed a

man to take care of, have children for, and be happy. The truth is, during this time period until

World War II, when women were desperately needed in the workforce to keep the economy

running, women were seen as inferior to men and expected to do as the man wished because he

held all the power. The cult of domesticity said that women were meant to clean the house and

wash dishes, and this was the belief that the members of society had until after World War II

during the push for second wave feminism (Brostowiz).

Second Wave feminism emerged with Betty Friedan in 1963 and her publication, The

Feminine Mystique. Second wave feminism was meant to fight toward equality in “...every area

of women’s experience—including family, sexuality, and work.” (Burkett). In the 1960s-1980s,

women were literally equal to men on paper after first wave feminism, but there was still
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discrimination against women, most notably, unequal pay in the workforce. However, there were

some strides made for the “liberation” of women in the 60’s. To fight for women’s equality and

equal paying jobs, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was formed in 1965, and

contraceptives were allowed by a law that the government passed in 1965 which gave women

more freedom, more choice and thus more power (Daily History). Choice and freedom were the

driving forces of second wave feminism. After gaining more legal rights and even working in

payed jobs during the war, women wanted to take on more independent roles instead of just

staying in the house.

Many critics say that second wave feminism was a failure, but there were strides made

for the feminist movement during this era. Third wave feminism is the next wave of feminism,

and it is important to note that this wave builds upon second wave feminism just as second wave

built upon first wave feminism. Led by Generation X, third wave feminism began in the late

1980s and lasted through the early 2000s. Part of third wave feminism was being more inclusive

toward women of color, other ethnicities, and social statuses because in the first and second

waves, the female advocates were made up mostly of white women of the middle and upper

classes. Building on the idea of independence that drove second wave feminism, during the third

wave women were seen taking on roles that were always considered a man’s role and would be

“nontraditional” for a woman. The term “breaking the glass ceiling” (Matthaei), or taking on a

nontraditional role, became common during this era, but even in fourth wave feminism, there is

still a thick glass ceiling over women in the respect that women are still not represented in

certain positions such as company CEO. Matthaei also worries that if too much emphasis

continues to be placed on breaking the glass ceiling, then the feminist movement will once again
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shift, but shift toward the idea of raising women above men instead of being at an equal playing

field (Matthaei).

The group of Disney Princesses that parallel the all-encompassing third wave feminism,

according to Sam Higgs, are called the “Renaissance Princesses” (66). They include Ariel from

The Little Mermaid, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Jasmine from Aladdin, the title character

from Pocahontas, and the title character from Mulan. These movies were all created during the

1980s and 1990s, beginning with The Little Mermaid in 1989 and ending with Mulan in 1998

(“List of”). These princesses are dubbed “renaissance” princesses (Higgs, 66) because the plots

and characteristics do not completely parallel the feminist ideology that is a part of today’s

society, but at the time, they did parallel the ongoing third wave feminist shift. During this era of

princesses, Disney also created characters that were of different racial backgrounds rather than

just white, including Jasmine, Pocahontas and Mulan. These lead female characters are the first

to reflect qualities of being headstrong, active, and independent, but all of these princesses still

want a prince.

Ariel and Belle both showcase the qualities of an independent woman by choosing to

give up something in order to get what they desire. Belle gives up her freedom to save her father.

Ariel both gives up her voice and her family in return for Prince Eric. Jasmine also proves to her

father that she can love whomever she wants, despite what the palace rules say. In the musical

version of Aladdin, there is an entire song dedicated to how trapped Jasmine feels inside of the

palace because she desires to go outside and explore the world. These women were expected to

adhere to strict rules and female gender roles, that paralleled the shifting feminist society outside

of the movies in the real world, especially the concept of breaking through the glass ceiling.
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Despite the strength of these female characters, there are still aspects of the movies that

ultimately place the women back into their roles in society. No matter how headstrong Ariel is,

she does everything for a man, not for herself. No matter how hard Belle fights for that in which

she believes, no one will listen to her because she is a woman; it takes the Beast to save the day.

No matter how independent Jasmine wants to be, she still has no idea how to act in society, and

again, she does everything so that she can marry Aladdin, not because she is happy being alone.

No matter how powerful Pocahontas is in the moment that she saves John Smith, she still goes

back to the Indian Reserve to just gather food like all of the other Native American women. No

matter how tough Mulan is, after she literally saves all of China, she goes back to her family and

ends up in the same, passive female role of being the “perfect daughter” that she started off in the

film (Brostowiz).

These women are also looked at as odd by the rest of society, because they are different

in some way. One of the lines in Beauty and the Beast is, “Look there she goes, the girl is so

peculiar, I wonder if she's feeling well. With a dreamy, far-off look, and her nose stuck in a

book, what a puzzle to the rest of us is Belle.” (Walt Disney Productions). This statement implies

that Belle is different because she likes to read and because she is different from traditional

female roles. She is considered to be strange and bad. The same thing happens with Ariel; she

needs to keep all of her “human stuff’ hidden from her father because she knows he will not be

accepting of her passion, which is essentially learning more about a different place than that

which she is currently familiar. Again, this was something that women were not necessarily

praised for doing. Education was seen as a man’s role for a long period of time, because men

were seen as the powerful people in society. It was believed that women did not need an

education to fulfill their duties (“History and Theory of Feminism”); a belief that quickly
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changed with third wave feminism. Finally, after Mulan literally saves her whole country, the

character Chi-Fu says to her: “So it's true! I knew there was something wrong with you! A

woman! Treacherous snake!”. Again, this is implying that women are bad and Mulan is “a

treacherous snake” because she defied the gender rules and broke the glass ceiling that was

placed on her by the beliefs and ideologies of women in Chinese culture.

The glass ceiling is still over many women, but today’s fourth wave feminism, which

began around 2010 proves to be the peak of the ongoing feminist shift that began in the late

1800s. Fourth wave feminism encompasses each of the three prior waves of feminism, and builds

upon their ideologies to empower women and uses social media to give women a louder voice.

Today, women have the same rights as men, women are viewed as equal to men, and perhaps

most importantly, feminism is allowing women to bring issues of discrimination and inferiority

to the forefront because fourth wave feminism is bringing these issues back to the immediate

public discourse (Rampton). Fourth wave feminism is the most inclusive wave, recognizing that

there is a large amount of intersectionality between feminist discrimination and racial, sexual,

and social status based discrimination, whereas in the first three waves, wealthy white women

were rallying the cause for themselves and blind to other races and socioeconomic statuses

(Munro). This current wave of feminism is focused on female empowerment and using social

media to rally the cause. No longer do women have to travel to Seneca Falls, New York; no

longer do women have to stay a home and clean all day; no longer do women feel as though they

cannot speak out because they are powerless. This ideology can be seen through the #MeToo

movement that has blown up over the past year. These women are no longer afraid to speak out

against men because they no longer feel powerless, but empowered; they are using social media
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to get their stories told and to gain a following of people, and that is the basis of fourth wave

feminism (Dorey-Stein, Caroline, et al).

The “Revival Princesses,” (Higgs, 68) are the most recent movies released by Disney and

these movies parallel fourth wave feminism and the idea of female empowerment. These movies

are: The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Brave, Frozen, Maleficent, Cinderella, Moana, and

Beauty and the Beast (“List of”). During this era, Disney tried to make the names of their movies

less feminine, as can be seen in Brave, Tangled, and Frozen, but of course, the classic and

renaissance princess revivals had to keep their original titles. During the Revival Princess era, the

lead female roles have shifted from the typical stay-at-home female to the female that is

independent, strong willed, and determined. These women do not need a prince to come to their

rescue, unlike the other eras of characters. The storyline of The Princess and the Frog is based

on Tiana, the main character, and her desire to open her own restaurant. She works two jobs, she

needs money, she fights for herself, and she works for what she wants. Merida from Brave is also

another example from this era that shows the feminist shift. She does not want to conform to the

stereotypical female role of Scottish royalty; she wants to defy those roles and change her fate.

Maleficent is another movie in this category that Disney used to illustrate the feminist shift.

Maleficent was never perceived as a “good” character before this movie; she was always the evil

queen who tried to kill Aurora. In her title film, the audience learns that the king used Maleficent

for her powers and then stripped those powers away from her; this scene was actually made to

parallel women who are drugged and raped and need to find the voice to speak out against it.

This incident made Maleficent all the more powerful and strong because she never wanted to be

taken advantage of again, thus exhibiting the quality of empowerment and not feeling inferior.
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In October 2018, Disney actors Kristen Bell and Keira Knightley spoke out about their

own opinions of some of the classical and renaissance princesses. Bell, who played Princess

Anna in Frozen, said that she does not allow her daughters to watch Snow White because she

takes food from a stranger, she works for seven little men, and the prince kisses her without her

consent. Knightley does not allow her daughters to watch Snow White (for the same reasons as

Bell), Cinderella because Cinderella needs to be rescued by a man, or The Little Mermaid

because Ariel gives up her voice for a man. According to Bell and Knightley, they approve of the

other movies because of the way the female characters are presented as strong and independent,

including the female characters in the movies in which they have acted (Khoo).

The revival era of princesses includes some stories that have already been told -

Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. Despite the fact that these stories are based off of the

classical and renaissance princesses, these movies directly parallel the fourth wave feminist

movement of the present day. Cinderella in this movie, does everything she can to get away from

her evil stepmother and there is also a strong family bond presented in this version of the tale that

has been told nearly a thousand times. For the Tale as Old as Time, Emma Watson played the

lead female character of Belle. Watson is a feminist and activist for female education; she has

worked as an ambassador in the English government to fight for women’s rights since 2014. Due

to her passion for equality and female empowerment, she wanted to retell the character of Belle

in a different way from the original, passive Belle because even though the original movie was a

breakthrough at the time, “a lot has changed in 25 years” (Condon qtd. in Furness). One of the

character developments for which Watson strived, was to give Belle a backstory because she

“had to have something to do in her spare time” (Watson qtd in Furness). It was presented in the

original movie that Belle was shunned because she liked reading, but that was not a good enough
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reason for Watson, instead she wanted to make Belle a strong, independent woman who was an

inventor like her father, and just happened to fall in love with the Beast, not because she needed

saving (Furness).

The magic of Disney is created by people and the inspiration that these script writers and

directors get, comes from their imagination, but it is shaped by the ever changing world around

them. Disney is in the process of recreating some of the earlier movies, which proves that the

original stories were not created with the purpose of delivering negative messages about weak,

passive women; the plots were just inspired by the issues occurring in the real world. Now that

the feminist movement has shifted to be more empowering, using social media as a platform, the

Disney princesses reflect these characteristics. In December 2018, Disney is releasing Mary

Poppins Returns, and within the next year, Disney is planning on releasing Frozen II, a remake

of Aladdin, and a live action Dumbo. In 2020, Disney has plans to release a live action Mulan

and a sequel to Maleficent, two of Disney’s most powerful female characters.. Disney is making

strides toward casting a different light on some of the older eras of princesses, and as the feminist

shift continues in waves, Disney will continue to parallel these shifts in their movies.

Works Cited

Brostowiz, Kathryn. "Disney Movies Affect Feminism in Society." University Wire, Oct 19,

2011. ProQuest, .

Burkett, Elinor. “Women's Movement.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica,

Inc., 2 Aug. 2016, www.britannica.com/topic/womens-movement.

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Daily History. “What Was the Second Wave Feminist Movement?” What Was the Second Wave

Feminist Movement? - DailyHistory.org, 2018,

dailyhistory.org/What_was_the_Second_Wave_Feminist_Movement?

Dorey-Stein, Caroline, et al. “A Brief History: The Four Waves of Feminism.” Progressive

Women's Leadership, 27 Aug. 2018, www.progressivewomensleadership.com/a-brief-

history-the-four-waves-of-feminism/.

Furness, Hannah. "Emma Watson the feminist takes on a tale as old as time; Actress to portray

Disney heroine as an inventor in updated remake of Beauty and the Beast." Daily

Telegraph [London, England], 17 Nov. 2016, p. 3. Global Issues in Context,

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db=ufh&AN=118191998&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 23 Oct. 2018.

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Matthaei, Julie. “Feminism and Revolution: Looking Back, Looking Ahead.” Feminism and

Revolution: Looking Back, Looking Ahead, June 2018,

www.greattransition.org/publication/feminism-and-revolution.

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Studies Association (PSA), www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus/feminism-fourth-wave.

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watson-belle-lyrics.