Womens Issues

How Messed Up Lessons From Disney Films Affect Us

A startling look into the lessons embedded in Disney films.

By 

Renaissance 1989 – 1992: It took 30 years for Disney to release another cycle of Princesses. When they did, they were praised by many who saw Ariel’s rebelliousness as the antidote to the subordinate, dreamy Princesses of the past (despite the fact that she gave up her home, friends, and fins, to get married to a fickle Prince, at age 16). This was followed up with Beauty and the Beast (where she falls for her captor) and Aladdin (where he keeps saving them from her f*uckups). However, the core focus of these scantily-clad Princess’s stories was, ultimately, to be sexy and win a wealthy husband — at any cost.

How Messed Up Lessons From Disney Films Affect Us

Ariel waves goodbye to everything she’s ever known, at age 16.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s only two options in life are the ones her father has laid out for her. An older, overweight woman (obviously, the villain) convinces her that to be sexually attractive to men, she should drastically change her physical appearance — so she does. The price is that she can no longer speak or sing (and singing was her greatest joy). No problem, as she has nothing of value to say, and the Prince clearly doesn’t care anyhow, since he decides to marry the mute Ariel.

So, in the end, she’s yet another tale of a girl being saved by a Prince. This time the Prince has a wandering eye (which he, of course, is not to blame for). The moral of the story is that giving up her family, home, biggest talent, and everything she knows was totally worth it because she is now owned by, and totally dependent on, a man (ie. –yay– happy ending). After all, it’s not as if he would have ever considered living under the sea with her.

Before Ariel trades in her voice for a pair of legs, Ursula sings a song to convince her to give up the goods. This gem of a verse seals the deal:

You’ll have your looks, your pretty face
And don’t underestimate the importance of body language, ha!
The men up there don’t like a lot of blabber
They think a girl who gossips is a bore!
Yes, on land it’s much preferred for ladies not to say a word
And after all dear, what is idle prattle for?
Come on, they’re not all that impressed with conversation
True gentlemen avoid it when they can
But they dote and swoon and fawn
On a lady who’s withdrawn
It’s she who holds her tongue who get’s a man.”

Beauty and the Beast: She saves a Prince’s life — not with her wit or strength (because she doesn’t have either of those things), but with her only asset: her sexuality. Proving that appearances don’t matter; what matters is what’s inside your heart. Unless you’re a girl, of course.

How Messed Up Lessons From Disney Films Affect Us

Good thing a man is on his way to save her! (Nice waist, BTW)

Aladdin: As a 15-year-old girl, her only worth was her marriageability, and the longer she waited to marry whomever her father demanded, the more trouble she caused. She ends up enslaved by a powerful man and is only saved by marrying a shallow and possessive man pretending to be rich (who refers to her as a prize to be won, and repeatedly assumes she must be shallow). “A liar who agrees that I am only a rich, hot prize to be won? GO JUMP OFF A BALCONY! Oh, you have a magic carpet? Never mind, let me hop on that!”

Lesson: Give up everything and make your life revolve around marrying a rich man. Then, the rich man will give you money and therefore fulfill your dreams. Oh, and always wear bikini tops to be sexy.

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Avatar of Hilary Rowland

A writer, artist, and designer since she was young enough to put pencil to paper, Hilary taught herself code and created Urbanette when she was a teenager. Currently, she lives in Monte Carlo, but spent the past decade living in NYC, still considers herself a New Yorker, and visits regularly. She's always traveling, looking for hot new topics, destinations, and life hacks to bring to Urbanette readers.

Reader Discussion: 124 Comments

  1. Avatar of Hannah Banana

    Hannah Banana

    A Disney movie that never had as much success was the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Whenever you buy Disney merchandise, you never see Esmerelda among the popular Disney Princesses Jasmine, Belle, Ariel, and Cinderella. The themes it dealt with such as disabilities and religious persecution was too dark for mainstream audiences. I was a Disney fed child. Every year my family took a trip to Disney World and I still love my Disney movies it’s just that we have realize that they weren’t as empowered as they were marketed to be. Like Hilary was saying many people were saying that Ariel giving up her voice to be with prince Eric was promoting passivity. Even though Disney movies have come a long way since their racist and sexist start in 1940 they still have a ways to go.

  2. Avatar of Hannah Banana

    Hannah Banana

    When I was a child I pretended to be Princess Jasmine. But now I’m beginning to rethink that those movies aren’t as female empowerment as they had led us to believe. Beauty and the beast had a lot of good themes like making the lead character a nerd and that real beauty comes from within but why does every female character get all the guys in every role? Why couldn’t they have made the leads not get a lot of attention from guys? If you look at the movie the hunchback of notre dame Esmerelda was never a Disney princess. The themes that movie dealt with-religious persecution, disabilities-was too dark for most audiences. Even though I still love my Disney movies and Disney world trips it’s good people are beginning to rethink the themes of the movies.

  3. Avatar of baccarat

    Check out the Beast and the Beuty

  4. Avatar of Patti Salazar

    Patti Salazar

    I feel like Cinderella was the worst of all. What a freaking gold digger. But yeah, not to mention the prince of Sleeping Beauty who just kissed a princess who wasn’t even conscious. I wouldn’t have understood all of this if it wasn’t for this article. But I was thinking that maybe Disney didn’t intend to do this, mainly because they’re not really the author of these classic books. Removing the main details would have been a complete remake. So I guess they didn’t have a choice.

  5. Avatar of Joan Taylor

    Joan Taylor

    I don’t remember Disney being as stupid as this. Maybe we’re just overthinking?

  6. Avatar of Delores Green

    Delores Green

    I hate how they made Rapunzel dumb. I used to like her.

  7. Avatar of Hilda Norris

    Hilda Norris

    Oh please, just because they’re cartoons it doesn’t always mean it’s for kids. Plus, supervise your children so that they don’t end up watching something as stupid as this.

  8. Avatar of Claudia Delgado

    Claudia Delgado

    Never liked old Disney anyways. I like the current Disney Princesses better. Elsa didn’t even need a prince.

  9. Avatar of Monique Fleming

    Monique Fleming

    I was probably a dumb kid back in the days because I didn’t even see the undertone of these Disney movies. I just thought that princess and prince’s were loving couples and that everyone in this world has their prince charming. The real message was lost in translation to me. Eitherway, I’m glad someone compiled this because I want this to serve as a lesson to a lot of people that even though they’re cartoons and that the show seems harmless, we might be putting across the wrong message.

  10. Avatar of Angel Gray

    Angel Gray

    I didn’t even know that Snow White was 15 and she lived with 7 male dwarves!

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