Disney Essay: Do Disney Princesses Have an optimistic or Negative Impact on Girls?

I do believe that childhood should be one of the more splendid periods in a person’s life. This is a time when the world is first being experienced in all its beauty, and a time when one starts to distinguish themselves from their surroundings. Although both these important points are still preserved in today's modern world, times are changing rapidly, and the entire world places a unique demands, sometimes offering possibilities, and sometimes only restrictions. One relatively old kind of entertainment which plays an essential role in childhood is cartoons.

Fundamentally, there are various kinds of them created for different ages and genders, and I wish to discuss one specific relationship: Disney princesses (who will be the female protagonists of many Disney cartoons) and young girls (who make up the biggest part of consumers of this type of media). To my mind, the impact which is imposed on girls by the princesses includes both negative and positive parts and is hard to unambiguously determine that is the main factor. Anyway, why don't we cover this issue a bit further.

Firstly, it is important to cover the negative influence of Disney cartoons. Basically, the normal feature of these princesses is their exceptional beauty, which naturally leads to a girl’s want to look as similar to them as possible. As a result can cause girls to suffer physically (in order to be thinner, for instance), and the advantages obtained as a result of such a beauty can become the key method for solving problems. Similar points are mentioned in a article by Rebecca Hains from the Washington Post.

Secondly, regarding the results, there are two points here I want to mention. One should perhaps not overestimate the impact of what has been previously stated. Yes, Disney princesses are beautiful and sometimes this is the only thing which highly influences young girls, being the surface quality, but at precisely the same time some of them are extremely clever and naturally free-thinking, such as Belle (whom I myself admire a lot, perhaps not being a girl) from Beauty and the Beast. She's a truly great example for a young girl: clever, beautiful, frank, erudite, and also effective at true love. And the movie itself supplies a strong thesis against the beauty-over-everything concept! Still another interesting aspect is that to understand the impact of any entity one should look not only inside that entity, but also think of its alternatives and compare them. Within our case there clearly was much more primitive and harmful media content than relatively romantic Disney princesses, for them to appear as a better alternative. To add to the purpose, Ghilzai et al. mention that being employed to aggression is one of the dilemmas faced by children watching cartoons, and Disney princess characters in this instance are relatively kind and nonaggressive (“Impact of Cartoon Programs”).

While there are some disadvantages imposed by Disney princesses on girls, there are also advantages. The disadvantages are the orientation of appearance and repeating learned behavior, including physical suffering when required. The benefits, however , handle intellectual values and the capacity of real love, and also having a relatively good influence when compared to other available cartoons. I might say that the situation can not be drawn in simply black or white colors and is thereby harder than having purely positive or undesireable effects.

Works Cited

Ghilzai, Shazia Akbar, et al. “(PDF) Impact of Cartoon Programs on Children’s Language and Behavior. ” ResearchGate, ResearchGate, Jan. 2017, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323523698_Impact_of_Cartoon_Programs_on_Children’s_Language_and_Behavior.
Hains, Rebecca. “Why Disney Princesses and ‘Princess Culture’ Are Bad for Girls. ” The Washington Post, WP Company, 24 June 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/24/princess-culture-is-bad-for-girls-now-theres-proof/.