What's Wrong With Cinderella Analysis

In the middle of Disney’s success, Disney faced many controversies. One of the most persistent and supported controversies by many people across the globe is the prevailing of sexism behind its film plots and themes. Sexism, as defined by Oxford, is “prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.” Many animated films by Walt Disney Animation Studios, especially from the older ones, are filled with obvious sexist tones. The sexist tones that are said to exist in Disney films should be analyzed and be made public for the sole reason that more than millions of people as proven by their sales views these films.

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.

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.

Cinderella’s story is undoubtedly the most popular fairy tale all over the world. Her fairy tale is one of the best read and emotion filled story that we all enjoyed as young and adults. In Elizabeth Pantajja’s analysis, Cinderella’s story still continues to evoke emotions but not as a love story but a contradiction of what we some of us believe. Pantajja chose Cinderella’s story to enlighten the readers that being good and piety are not the reason for Cinderella’s envious fairy tale. The author’s criticism and forthright analysis through her use of pathos, ethos, and logos made the readers doubt Cinderella’s character and question the real reason behind her marrying the prince. Pantajja claims that

In the article “The Princess Paradox” and “Cinderella and Princess Culture” there are several different approaches that Orenstein and Poniewozik take to get their points across. Over the course of both articles there is a common theme that is displayed. While both authors address the possibility that princess culture has an effect on girls, Poniewozik uses movies to emphasis his claim, and Orenstein uses the product that disney sells to emphasize her claim.

If the company’s largest seven films are observed, namely the classic Disney princess films, the gender stereotypes become quite apparent. A study done on sex roles of Disney princesses by Dawn Elizabeth England had examined reoccurring similarities in all of the Disney princesses. The first being the physical: these namely address the unrealistic proportions, such as the thin waists, delicate limbs, full breasts and fair skin tones. (Dawn Elizabeth England) These unattainable characteristics may lead young girls into being unsatisfied with their looks and may lead to self-esteem issues. In her book, The Sexualization of Childhood, Sharna Olfman explains the various images Disney princesses convey to children. She argues, “The female ideal is a rich white girl who lives in a big house with servants who do the work” (Olfman 40). This may give young girls the idea that the only way to get noticed or to get attention from the opposite sex is to have effortless beauty and to capture the males heart with looks alone. Young girls are thought that looks should be one of the primary methods through which a woman’s attitude and personality should be rated. This gives a shallow perception of what it takes to actually obtain a spouse. This teaches girls to be superficial and not to depend on their own personalities and mental capabilities in order to be

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.

From a young age, princess culture has impacted the lives of numerous people. Some individuals may have spent their childhood in the attire of their favorite Disney princess while they put on their best rendition of the character they admired most. Other children went seemingly unfazed by the phenomenon, as their peers remained spellbound by the magical world of princesses. With Disney’s debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, princess movies provided the defining factor of the Disney entertainment empire for years to come. From this, fairy tales embarked into a territory that would touch the lives of many in a new way. However, since princess culture has considerably grown, opponents, such as Monika Bartyzel, question if princess

Cinderella wins the battle because her mother is able, through magic, to provide raiment so stunning that no ordinary dress can compete” (Panttaja 288). A few lines later, the author supports this by stating that “The prince marries Cinderella because he is enchanted (literally) by the sight of her in the magical clothes” (288). What this implies is that the prince would not have had the slightest of interest in Cinderella if it wasn’t for her magical garbs, provided by her fairy godmother of course. In fact, the author mentions that “in the Grimms’ version, Cinderella is described as “deformed,” while the sisters are described as ‘fair’”; what can be inferenced from this is that Cinderella’s dress is in fact, “miraculous” by turning “a deformed girl into a woman whose beauty surpasses that of the already

Cinderella is a loving, and caring girl, but her past has been tragic. In the France and German story, Cinderella’s mother died so; she had to live with her evil, mysterious stepmother. Her stepmother neglects her and treats her like dirt. But, this all changes when her mythical creature gives her the gold and silver dress. Cinderella stories are all similar

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Ariel are all names almost every young female can recall. These are just a few of Disney’s most memorable characters, the “Disney princesses” which are idolized by young girls everywhere. These princesses are portrayed to be strong willed, optimistic, and hardworking women who overcome various hardships throughout their life. Talk about being the perfect role models for little girls everywhere- but are they really? Although they may seem to have admirable qualities, by the end of these Disney movies, each princess receives their happy ending with their “prince charming” at their side. This concludes that happiness is obtained only by finding your “prince charming”. A princess’ “happily ever after”, that is repeated in these iconic Disney movies, distorts what true happiness is and could be for girls around the world. This perceived reality promoted by Disney then becomes engraved in our young girls’ minds through ways that are much like propaganda in the political arena. Propaganda is a form of language commonly used to manipulate intended audiences. In Disney’s case, their intended audience consists of young girls around the world. These Disney films display methods of propaganda, such as doublespeak (Lutz) and the two-extremes fallacy (Cross), which result in our young girls believing in a false reality. There needs to be attention brought about this flawed perception of a sole happiness that is continuously depicted by Disney and shared through ways of propaganda, as it is damaging the minds of our young girls- the future contributors of our society.

Every little girl has seen at least one of the Disney Princesses movies and have played pretend as if they were a princess. They dressed in the costumes and parade around the house as if they were waiting on their Prince Charming, but are Disney Princesses bad for little girls? Are they forcing little girls to grow up faster and more provocative? Stephanie Hanes, a freelance journalist, wrote “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” published October 3, 2011 in the Christian Science Monitor. In the article, Hanes argues that little girls tend to grow up faster because they watched Disney Princesses. The author of “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” has an effective argument when using ethos, logos, pathos, and writing choice when explaining the effect that Disney Princesses have on little girls.

Cassandra Stover explains in her Journal Damsels and Heroines: The Conundrum of the Post-Feminist Disney Princess, the dramatic shift with Disney princess at the peak of the late 1980s and early 1990s. She explains that the shift can derive from feminist movements and how the change can be directed to the third wave of feminism. She examines the original Disney princesses and decribes them to be more passively aggresive and unindependent, while the new princesses are more independent and brave. The author then explains if the shift from the old to new princesses are actually better, and not just different. Stover analysizes that Disney princesses evolve and are a part of the worlds change on feminism.

Cinderella is the second Disney Princess. Growing up with Cinderella in their lives, children learned a lesson: Dreams really do come true. Children also learned that happy ending's are possible even if the future looks bleak. Today, many children look up to Cinderella and she has, and always will be, a favorite Princess. With Cinderella, one's childhood was filled with hope, courage, and positivity. One knew that anything could happen, and one always followed one's dreams. One can find Cinderella (sometimes with Prince Charming) in Fantasyland or at the Princess Fantasy Faire. Most of the time, Cinderella still caters to the needs of her stepmother and stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella, who are also in the park. Cinderella brings one back to a

This leads to my next point talking about how girls conform to try to be just like these Princesses. Most of Disney’s classic main characters are beautiful, flawless young women that have no ambition and are just in search of a man(Stern 2014). Showing