Little Girls Or Little Women The Disney Princess Effect Analysis

In the quest to look beautiful just like the heroines in the Disney princesses' franchise, many girls indulge themselves in the products that made for the grown-ups. Hanes proves this with a statistic from the marketing group, NPD Fashionworld, who reported that a total of 1.6 million dollars is spent annually on thong underwear for children between 7-12 years (510). These facts do not even begin to cover what is really happening to young girls nowadays. In addition, young girls are engaging themselves with the makeup at a young age that may be harmful to them because they are chemicals. Young children who feel that they are fat and want to become slender may even go to the extent of starving themselves to obtain the body shape and size that they want. There have even been cases where parents have allowed or encouraged their children to undergo the surgeries and other procedures to "enhance" their beauty. As a result, these girls end up getting the health problems and depression. Hanes supports this fact with the statistics from an APA research, which linked stress, depression, health problems, and eating disorders to sexualization

Throughout the last few years there has been a discussion on how Disney Princesses have a negative impact on young girls and their expectations on what lies in their future. Many Disney princess classics, although they are entertaining, send bad messages to young girls and often teach that their worth is more about beauty and less about their intelligence. The “ Disney princess effect” has impacted the way young girls grow and how they look upon their future and happy ending.

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.

Hanes addresses many specific issues in her article. The first topic she discusses is how Disney refuses to admit that the way they portray their female characters is often sexist and stereotypical. Parents worry that the Disney princess phase is only the beginning of girls adopting an unhealthy body image and self-objectivation. However, the negative effects of Disney princesses is still controversial because some parents claim that the princesses teach girls to be kind, love animals, and to persevere. Another worriment is that many studies show exposure to unwanted sexual material is happening at a younger age. The fear is that early exposure will cause girls to grow up too fast and lead them to have erroneous views of sexualization. Since Disney and other media emphasizes that girls should be ultimately feminine girls are now dropping out of sports because they think it brands them as unsexy. To make matters worse, marketers are now playing a role in the hypersexualization of women. The marketers target little girls by using the sexualization of women to persuade little girls into buying their products at an even younger age. There is now a new challenge to face- the internet. Along with the internet and social media; social media is now the hub for self-objectification. Girls are now posting scandalous pictures of themselves on social media, and are receiving praise as a result. However, adults cannot blame girls completely for their actions because they do not know any better because they are growing up in a culture that celebrates superficiality. The author stated that there is no realistic way to avoid sexualization that the only way to get rid of the

Because of Disney’s stereotyping of gender, that little girl grew up wanting to become a perfect princess. Princesses in Disney’s movies and films gives young girls unrealistic ideas of the real word. However, some may believe that Disney princesses are a good influence on young girls and are able to show a them how to act eloquently. Gender roles, eloquence, and the beauty of the princesses are all topics that influence young girls. Even though some might believe that princesses are good role models for their child, princesses show young girls how they should interact around boys and other girls never mind the girls own opinions. An article about Children’s Responses to Gender Roles in Fairy-Tales written by Ella Westland writes, “The girls

We all in some point of our lives been, so delighted with a fairy tale movie or a book, but do not think about the drastic consequence it is portraying on having an ideal body image? Over, the decades we have seen how fairy tales have impacted every individual. From having our great grandparents to our parents reading and watching fairy tales at a very young age. Fairy Tales have been a great phenomenon for a very long time. With the making of Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, and much more loved by many people. As time his passing, people are realizing that fairy tales are affecting young girls at a very young age. Targeting mainly their body image. Body image is really important for many girls because they need to be up to date with the fashion trends society is putting out there. Now, a day’s many Fairy Tales movies are being created in looking slim, pretty, blonde, long beautiful dress, and perfect with no imperfection. In creating these false expectations on how a girl is supposed to look is drastically changing their minds. Also, is affecting their self-esteem in being low, due to not being satisfied with their body. Young girls want to be a princess because they have everything and receive all the attention. Having the characteristic of a princess is changing girls in evolving a false identity. In having a perfect body like a princess is causing other girls to not fit in because they do not fit in the category of perfect. Although, some accept

Stephanie Hanes’ “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” first appeared in the Christian Science Monitor in 2011. Hanes aims to convince her readers that little girls are being exposed to high amounts of sexualized content at a very young age. With strategic organization, supporting evidence, a specific purpose and intended audience, Hanes is able to produce a convincing argument.

As a young girl I imagined what it would be like to be a woman, Disney princesses had very little influence on this reality. Stephanie Hanes, the author of “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect,” discusses how little girls feel they must grow up too soon. There are several other women introduced throughout her essay whom share similar thoughts. Moms all over the world may have varying opinions on this subject; however, the women that Stephanie chose to display in her work, at least the majority of them, agree that Disney princesses might be the culprit of this behavior. There are a few brief statements that acknowledge that not everyone agrees with the idea that Disney princesses are causing this phenomenon. There are

The article, “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect,” was written by Stephanie Hanes to address the influence that our sexualized society has on young girls. She goes into detail about how they become mature too fast from being exposed to an overly sexualized environment, and how the effects are often a distorted self image, and a lowered self-esteem when it comes to activities, similar to sports. The lack of awareness in parents is also discussed. From the moment I started to realize Hanes purpose for writing this text, I had to remind myself to accept her point of view.

According to A Dictionary of Journalism, the media is defined as journalism as part of a much broader field of public communication organizations, including newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV channels, the film industry, the music industry, websites, advertising, and public relations. For young children, media plays a predominant role in developing schemas of one’s identity, including body image, and gender roles. Young children spend the majority of their time viewing media, therefore the process of generating one’s identity based on his or her observation of media is inevitable. Disney’s princess movies have brought significant effects to children’s development of their identities. There are three main stages of Disney movies. The first stage is the “princess” stage, where the movie depicts the most stereotypes (i.e. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). The second stage is the “rebellious” stage, where the princesses are illustrated as curious and adventurous, yet still show the aspect of female stereotypes (i.e. Jasmine in Aladdin). The third stage is the “hero” stage, where the princesses are shown to fight the female stereotypes (i.e. Mulan). Although Disney has portrayed more complex, yet evolving gender roles as time went on, Disney’s princess movies had significant effects on young audiences by planting changing gender stereotypes.

In “Feminism and Disney Princess” Corey Gross uses popular Disney movies to illustrate the gender issues that occur. In addition to that he mentions that he is not here to start a debate. Gross is a proponent of women’s rights, social justice, and freedom. He explains each female’s obstacles and what they stand for. For example, in the popular movie Aladdin, Princess Jazmine is being told who she can and cannot marry.

Researchers have discovered that “ongoing exposure to certain ideas can shape and distort our perceptions on reality.” (Mintz 2007) Because young girls are subjected to a constant display of beautiful people in the media, they have developed a negative body image of themselves. Those who have a negative body image perceive their body as being unattractive or even hideous compared to others, while those with a positive body image will see themselves as attractive, or will at least accept themselves and be comfortable in their own skin. During adolescence, negative body image is especially harmful because of the quick changes both physically and mentally occurring during puberty. Also, young girls are becoming more and more exposed to the media and the media keeps getting more and more provocative. Young girls are looking to women with unrealistic body shapes as role models. It’s hard to find, in today’s media, a “normal” looking

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.

Ever since the Disney Princesses were created, they have all had the same body shape: tremendously skinny. With the Disney Princesses becoming the largest girls franchise in the world, there is no denying the impact it can have on such young girls. These girls long for recognition and beauty, and expect nothing less than their favorite Disney Princess to reassure them of the perfect lifestyle they need in order to achieve their perfect lives. In our society today, girls are becoming over sexualized at a much younger age than normal. One’s physical appearance plays a significantly larger role today than it ever has before. With this in mind, I have decided to conduct research on how the Disney Princesses have impacted an individual’s outward appearance and body image. The Disney Princesses have always been a form of innocence for young girls. However, while it’s clear that the majority of people adore the Disney Princesses, still, most can see the impact it can produce on young girls that will follow them into adulthood.

Cramped in a small Los Angeles office, Walt Disney drew a few larger than life cartoons. After Disney’s big hit Alice Comedies and cartoons of Mickey and the gang, he moved his office to Burbank, California. There, Walt and his brother, Roy, came up with their most famous movies such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Alice in Wonderland. Now with two American amusement parks, three international parks, multiple cruise lines, multiple resorts, over five hundred films, and over thirty academy award, it’s hard to not heard of Disney. Every boy or girl has at least seen or heard of Disney movies. It’s such a big part of society today that it becomes influential in a kid’s childhood. This project will look at the underlying effect of the Disney princess phenomenon and how it shapes a young girls’ perspective of herself and how she’s “supposed” to be.