Good and Evil Ideologies Garnered by Disney Characters

Like many young girls, I was obsessed with watching fairy tales unfold before my eyes. Since I grew up in China for the better half of my childhood, stories of Snow White and Cinderella were quite foreign to me. When I came back to America, I made my parents buy all the Disney made fairy tales on tape so I could watch them over and over again. I absorbed all the glitz, glamour and ugliness that Disney creators had determined that young girls should see. It was not until high school, when my friend lend me her Grim's fairy tale book did I realize the term "Princess" coined by Disney was highly manipulated.

First of all lets take at deeper look on the "evil" characters of the Princess stories. Snow White's stepmother is the evil witch, the antagonist; Cinderella's stepmother is the mastermind behind all her suffering; Little Mermaid, the sea witch is the evil sorceress that tempts her desires. One thing about Disney productions is that the good and the bad are always so apparent. The thread that ties all these antagonist together is the color to which their drawn. If you click for their pictures, you find a similar scale of purple hues with the evil characters' wardrobe (in some cases like the sea witch, her skin color is purple!). With the ideologies that media offers to the viewer, one would think black would be the perfect form of color to represent evil, but while black can come off as too stark, purple is just elusive enough to pull off mysterious and unknown, thus dangerous (uh oh NYU watch out). Also the animalistic features of the evil characters are quite striking. The evil witch resembles a vulture when she completes her transformation, which is told through the overshadow of two vultures glaring at her while she walks to give Snow White the poison apple. The sea witch is so apparent in her animalistic features as her tentacles slither to and fro when she speaks to the innocent mermaid; an image of Medusa and her mane of wriggling snakes. Cinderella's stepmother looks the least animalistic of all, but her cold stare can give Medusa a run for her money. It's interesting that evil characters can simply be anybody and can look as outer worldly captivating as she wants or horribly grotesque, while the Princesses, according to Disney is set by specific conventions. Conventions that perhaps little girls model and older girls critique.

       In an article by journalist Jessalyn Keller, she explains the theory of "Princess Phenomenon" When you watch commercials for Disney vacations, the image of little girls dancing with either Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel and others never gets old. In fact they seem to have packaged all the princesses into a neat nintendo game. Despite the distortion of reality (a $750 Disney trip will not get guarantee you a dance with the princess) Keller goes into an interesting analysis of The Princesses. The image of The Princesses include those princess with pale skin, except for Jasmine from Alladin. Jasmine can be a part of this elite princess club despite her skin color because her character parallels Snow White, Cinderella, Arielle and Sleeping beauty; they encompass all the woman that need saving from a prince. Interestingly enough the relationship then becomes a true princess is one that has to have a prince come to her rescue, without this male hero she is a distorted princess. Contrasting these princesses to more in depth characters, like Mulan and Pochahontas, not only are their skin color different (actually Mulan was quite pale) but they were the heroines of the story, without the male character they would still win the wars. It's interesting that in class when we were talking about the predetermined yet shifting position of feminism, many of the same components what a high class female should act and look like, comparing to the low class females who despite do sit in high positions (their were two queens) are simply evil in disguise because they plan and scheme and have no male companion, unlike the princes of the princesses. It's true that more recent Disney productions have varying females roles, which describes the slow shifting of ideologies of what a good female should be, but it is quite minimal. Shifting of ideologies do require time since the predetermined condition of a princess has been so embedded in the viewers minds.

 

      One thing that's even more interesting is that Keller mentions that Japanese animation gives princesses a different role compared to the princesses of Disney. While it is true, that female heroines of American praised animation, like Spirited Away, builds females roles with more layers, their general production of princess related stories always goes back to the same conventions that Disney has upheld so well. In China, I didn't watch Disney princesses but I did watch Moon princesses, Sailormoon. She had blonde hair and big blue eyes (Cinderella?). Although she fought of evil everyday, her prince disguised in a mask would save her every time she finds herself failing, which is every time. Also anime characters, the female is also blonde and gorgeous and usually a damsel that needs saving. I don't know if Japanese animation borrowed from Disney conventions or if it's the other way around but growing up watching such mediated feminine education, I couldn't help myself but to go out and get a puffy pink dress and find a prince to save my day. (Just kidding =D)