Revisiting Disney: Revisiting the "Princess" Body Image

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Revisiting the "Princess" Body Image

It's one thing for an animated character to have entirely unrealistic proportions (example: Rapunzel in Tangled with orb-like eyes, a head like a Bratz doll, and a practically non-existent waist) but when Disney brought the same imagery to their new, live-action Cinderella, they crossed a line. Cartoons are obviously not real people, they complete actions no normal human could including activities such as flying or not having severe brain trauma from being smacked in the head with a cast-iron frying pan. Even if seeing the cartoons' like the original Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, etc. could be detrimental to a young girl's body image, seeing a real person who bears the same proportions is endlessly more detrimental. When ads and trailers for the new Cinderella movie came out, there was almost immediate outrage at how unbelievably small Cinderella's waist was. Magazines, and I'm sure movies, have been doing photo-editing on models' and actresses' bodies for years to alter them into unachievable, thin bodies. People will buy the products these companies sell because, subconsciously they think that if they do, the products will make them look like those mythical-magazine-nymphs. In the last few years, people have started fighting back against these negative-body-image-inducing advertisements and edits, calling out companies that photo-edit their models and deny it, even sometimes making blogs dedicated to these photoshop fails:

(https://www.tumblr.com/search/photoshop-FAIL)

Adults can recognize that these images are faulty and, even if some people wish they could look like the models pictured, more and more people are realizing it's really a waste of time to hope for such slender, smooth figures because they aren't natural. Children don't have this kind of understanding. They don't even have fully developed brains that can really think rationally. How could a company, a "family-oreiented, wholesome" company like Disney which has also had plenty of scandals regarding its actresses with body-image issues, eating disorders, or depression, think that this kind of imagery is in any way ok. Not only to they attempt to perpetuate the desire for unrealistic ideals, and make it seem like they are all that much more achievable by editing a live-action movie to fit that unrealistically thin body-type, they then denied ever editing the image. They should at least own it if they did (which I more than strongly believe they did). Buzzfeed wrote an article on the matter, I've linked it on the side, where they interviewed people who sell and make corsets and CGI experts, both of whom said that Lily James' waist in the new Cinderella movie couldn't have been achieve without about a year of "body training" (ew.). I really doubt this girl wore a corset for a year before filming this movie. So do those experts. I can't even fathom who thought this was ok and not only ok but a good idea. What's worse is that Disney created this image in one of their most popular franchises, Cinderella possibly the most iconic Disney princess. While I would love it if this movie crashed and burned with nearly-no ticket sales, I know it'll be a block-buster and that's probably the worst part.

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Disney's as a Boys' Toy Too

I rarely remember that little boys, as well as little girls, watch Disney movies and look up to some of the characters. In many of the earlier films, the men/princes aren't really a significant piece of the story, but more recently males are playing a greater and greater role in Disney and Pixar movies. Males like Chang, Sebastian, and Wasabi serve as role models for young boys just as the princesses do for little girls. Because of this, it's just as important that little boys of all appearances and personality types appear in animated films. The Feminist community has been more outspoken about female representation than the male community, perhaps because women tended to be placed in a subservient position to the men of the stories in earlier Disney movies. However, if you try to closely examine the character of the men or male characters in the early Disney movies, they tend to just be place holders that allow the princess to achieve their happily ever after. In later films they are hyper masculine and tough, even sometimes emotionless, if they want to be attractive to the females in the story. The non-human characters like Sebastion, Timone, and the like can be more sensitive because they aren't the male protagonist trying to win the girl and save the world. If we're going to work to build up strong, independent girls, we should work equally hard to help develop sensitive, thoughtful boys. This begins with providing more complex characters for them to look up to and more representation in the male characters in Disney films.

Identity and Disney

Disney Characters' Race Breakdown

Although Disney is often criticized for its lack of diversity in the characters in its animated and live action films, the statistics are fairly close to those of the US census. Although in Disney, about 75% of the characters are White, and so minorities are somewhat underrepresented, the statistics are fairly close to the true proportions. In America, about 62% of the population identifies as White, while 17% of the population is Hispanic, 13.2% is Black, 5% is Asian, and 3.8% of the population identify as multiracial, Native American, or Native Hawaiian. While more diversity would be nice, especially regarding Latinos considering they are 17% of the US population and only one single Disney character is identified as Latino, the statistic is less drastic that I would have anticipated.