Hanes Little Girls Or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect

In the essay, “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect”, author Stephanie Hanes focuses on the sexualization of women especially young girls. Hanes explains how modern movies, magazines, and the internet force women to look and act a certain way which forces young girls to grow up thinking they have to be perfect. Hanes starts her essay off with a short story that the reader can connect with. Mary Finucane, the mother of Caoimhe, noticed that her daughter was becoming less and less interested in running, jumping and playing, but more interested in wearing dresses and waiting for her “prince.”

She believes that the new age media have a characteristic of oversexualizing the view of women in the society. She gives a case study of Mary Finucane, who has a three-year-old daughter who has stopped jumping, running and insisted on wearing dresses. Finucane discovered that her daughter changes drastically after she gains an interest in the Disney princesses. She believes that the consistent indulgence in these Disney princesses leads to the self-objectification (510). This seems to be true because more young boys and girls at their early stages tend to fall in love with these heroes and heroines, and they take them as their role models. Disney princesses have, therefore, developed into the cultural icons and terms of films as well as other accessories. Furthermore, Disney princesses may have an effect on the young girls because of their appearance. Their small waists, slender bodies, and beauty make young girls have self-esteem issues due to their bodies. Hanes uses a variety of statistical data to support her arguments, making her argument extremely strong. Despite the image that displays to the public of harmless cartoon characters, these Disney princesses have a profound effect on the behavior and outlook of young girls in the society

Little girls have become infatuated with looking, acting and dressing like princesses. In “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” Peggy Orenstein writes “There are now more than 25,000 Disney Princess items. ''Princess,'' as some Disney execs call it, is not only the fastest-growing brand the company has ever created; they say it is on its way to becoming the largest girls' franchise on the planet” (Orenstein). The author explains how enormous of a franchise Disney princess items have become. The author physically cannot hide from their products; they are virtually everywhere.” As my daughter pointed out Disney Princess Band-Aids, Disney Princess paper cups, Disney Princess lip balm, Disney Princess pens, Disney Princess crayons and Disney Princess notebooks -- all cleverly displayed at the eye level of a 3-year-old trapped in a shopping cart -- as well as a bouquet of Disney Princess balloons bobbing over the checkout line. The repetition was excessive, even for a preschooler” (Ornstein). The over saturation of Disney does not leave girls with many other choices, they are being forced fed a brand and ideology from a very young age. This could have the potential of taking a toll on how young girls grow into mature emotionally developed women. Not only is Disney ingeniously marketing these characters to young girls, but it has become prevalent in everyone’s mainstream lives. Peggy insists “I'd smiled politely every

Orenstein begins by using her daughter as an example of a typical girl who is fond of princesses, categorizing her with the many girls influenced by the “princess craze”. Then she continues to analyze how industries use the fixation and further promote it to secure large amounts of money for their company. Subsequently, she returns the argument to her real life experiences, describing a time when her daughter goes to dress up like a princess, saying, “I’m convinced she does largely to torture me — I worry about what playing Little Mermaid is teaching her.” Not only does this statement show how her opinions as a feminist are displayed in her opinion of her daughter, but also introduces her argument of the negative impacts this craze promotes from a parental point of view. The author’s ability to balance her opinions with valid evidence and her relatable worry as a parent, allows her to state her strong opinions openly.

Many parents/caregivers today may ask themselves if their little girls may be growing up too fast? Are they becoming little women too soon? Stephanie Hanes wrote an interesting and valid article “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect, “ which argue that many young ladies today in age may be impacted by Disney Princess regarding their life expectations. The author talks about the issues of young girls feeling the necessity to mature sooner rather than at a timely matter.

“Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” is an article by Stephanie Hanes which touches on the princess phenomenon many young girls are obsessed with. Stephanie Hanes concludes that the Disney Princess craze is linked to self-objectification and the growing sexualization of young girls. Although she provided numerous facts the argument was unsuccessful because it was weak and confusing. Her own personal opinion on why she blamed the Disney Empire for sexualization amongst young girls was rarely voiced. Lastly the main idea of the article gets masked by controversial expert claims that are not linked to the topic.

Disney directly exposes the idea that young girls should make their main goal in life to find their prince charming, fall madly in love, and live happily ever after. Making young girls’ aspiration in life revolve around finding a man of their dreams “transfix[es the] audience and divert[s] their potential utopian dreams and hopes through the false promises of the images [Disney] cast[s] upon the screen” (22). Disney tells the audience that women need a man to be happy. Disney presents the idea that women are dependent on me. Just like in The Little Mermaid, Ariel goes as far as surrendering her voice, to a witch named Ursula, and abandoning her family in order to be with her prince. Ariel also trades in her life as a mermaid, drastically changes her body, and sacrifices her greatest talent all in order to win her prince. Disney sends the message that girls need to give up their talents and lives in order to be with a man. Disney suggests that a woman’s main priority is her lover, no one or nothing else. Disney effectively portrays women in a negative way, depicting them as weak and needy. No attempt to break the stereotypical gender roles of women are evident however, these stereotypes are growing as Disney instills this image of women in the minds of viewers.

Disney makes over $3 billion on their Disney Princess products every year and now have over 25,000 items in their princess collection (Orenstein 2). Disney has played a big role in shaping not only societal viewpoints on what young girls should like, but also what little girls believe they should enjoy as well. Gender stereotypes have been around for a long time, but now with technology advancements, such as media in western society is able to play a bigger than ever role in influencing people’s perspectives. Not only do we see gender roles and stereotypes in television shows, but also in advertisements and in children’s toys. Although many readers of Peggy Orenstein’s “What’s wrong with Cinderella” have argued that the princess culture is corrupting today’s young girls and making them more dependent on men, a closer examination shows that many girls grow out of the princess phase with no negative repercussions and choose whatever passions they want.

Authors James Poniewozik and Peggy Orenstein are both concerned with the increase of princess culture among young girls. Poniewozik’s article “The Princess Paradox” and Orenstein's article “Cinderella and Princess Culture” discuss similar aspects of princess culture that could be potentially harmful to it’s audience. Both Poniewozik and Orenstein take on a feminist perspective in their articles. Specifically, both authors discuss feminist themes in princess culture but Orenstein focuses on toddler to pre-teen aged girls while Poniewozik is more concerned with specifically teenagers.

Little girls? Or little women? The “Disney Princess Effect”, an article written by Stephanie Hanes was published September 4, 2011 the CS Monitor. Girls growing up in today’s society are being stripped of their childhoods. With fictional figures to dream of being, young girls aren’t falling in love with the beauty of the stories but more so they assume that they don’t look good enough to be like the world adored princesses. The author wrote this article in response to the epidemic of young girls growing up too fast and the concern it leaves. Between the Finucane Theory, the “Hottie Mystique” and the media onslaught will all reveal the beginning to a much bigger problem that these Disney princesses are creating. The author contends that young girls are losing sight of their childhoods and are becoming sexually advanced too soon.

In our modern society parents want to know who the best role models are for their children; especially parents of young girls. Most girls are introduced to Disney Princesses at a young age, but what most parents don’t know is that not all Disney Princesses are positive role models of modern society. The princesses were amazing role models for their time but since then many opinions have changed on what is expected of women and what is not some; people in society today can argue weather certain qualities that the princesses posses are acceptable for today’s youth. The most famous princesses are the “Original Disney Princesses” :(in chronological order) Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Mulan.

What young girl does not dream of becoming a princess and living in a castle happily ever after? Virtually every young girl identifies with princesses and has watched at least one Disney Princess movie. From the first movies of Snow White and Cinderella, to the later movies of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, to the most current movie Moana, Disney Princess movies permeate not only the movie theaters, but also our culture. In fact, “becoming a princess is as easy as purchasing a tiara and hosting a princess-themed birthday party or buying a Halloween costume and playing pretend” (Garabedian, 2014, p. 23). Nonetheless, as declared by Princess Merida in the movie Brave, “there comes a day when I don’t have to be a princess. No rules, no expectations. A day where anything can happen. A day where I can change my fate” (Andrews & Chapman, 2012). In other words, does the life of a princess measure up to the expectations of little girls everywhere? The Disney Princess brand has grown incredibly popular, especially with young girls. In spite of this, the franchise has also become extremely controversial due to potential gender stereotypes in the films. “Gender is one of the most discussed topics in today’s society…[it] represents and also reproduces certain attributes, expectations and roles which are associated with male and female…influencing the views and opinions of future generations” (Maity, 2014, p. 31). Yet, is the Disney Princess brand harmful to young children due to gender stereotypes? Two essays that contemplate the Disney Princess brand and gender stereotypes with opposite viewpoints on this controversial issue are “Girls on Film: The Real Problem with the Disney Princess Brand” by writer Monika Bartyzel and “In Defense of Princess Culture” by writer and mother Crystal Liechty. However, Liechty’s essay “In Defense of Princess Culture,” is the most effective article in convincing the audience of her point of view due to the claim, support, warrant, language, and vocabulary employed.

In Stephanie Hanes’s “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” article, she reveals her beliefs on young

Popular culture inspires youth the desire to be what they see in the media. Parents feel the need to bring up their offspring in the utmost sophisticate way, though obliviously allowing television to develop their understanding. Filled with fairy tales featuring Princesses, heroes, and magics, these popular mythical characters have become a major influence on younger children especially little girls. They imagine becoming princesses hoping that one day they will be swept away by their Prince Charming. As they progress in age, young girls begin to watch sitcoms portraying how they should look, feel, and dress. In today’s time, popular culture is interpellated as to how the process of growing fast is eminent. From baby girl to princess, from a princess to a young lady; all categorized by age groups. Male characters are often portrayed to be a prince or a hero of such. Boys are usually identified as the prince start as an adolescence swiftly growing into a young adult. According to Stephanie Hanes, “parents are having a hard time dealing with it, they say that things they used to do aren’t working; they say they’re losing control of what happens to their girls at younger ages.” (pp 511) Pop culture creates an image of how women should resemble themselves from the beginning of childhood to the age of accountability by means of dolls, animated characters, and kids’ digital games promoting

Even at a young age, children are unavoidably affected by these movies produced by Disney. They learn by watching and copying what they see around them and they are able to understand and process the information that they discover in their environment (Renzetti, 1992, pp. 61-62). The young girls aim to pass the standards of beauty brought by Disney so that they could be like the princesses and this thinking is carried until they are older. Psychotherapist Mary Finucane (as cited by O'Connor, 2011) said that her daughter admired the princesses so much that she (her daughter) stopped doing the things that princesses do not do like jumping and running. O'Connor (2011) said that “The American Psychological Association links early emphasis on beauty and play sexiness to the pitfalls we link with older girls such as risky sexual behavior, eating disorders and low