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halle bailey as Ariel the Little Mermaid
halle bailey as Ariel the Little Mermaid
Walt Disney Studios
Culture

Are Disney Princess Movies Feminist?

Nirja Thaler
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Washington chapter.

In 2018, Pirates of the Caribbean actress Keira Knightly went on Ellen and told the audience she wouldn’t be letting her daughter watch The Little Mermaid. Why? Because Ariel gets “saved by a man,” of course!

The biggest critique of classic Disney princess films is that the princesses are waiting to be “saved by a man;” however, this is simply not true. In none of the Disney princess movies do any of the princesses wait to be saved. Sure, at the end of earlier films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty, the princesses are awakened by a true love’s kiss, and at the end of Cinderella she ends up having a better life with a man, but at a time when women weren’t allowed to have their own bank account, it wouldn’t have been very realistic to show a woman working her way out of a situation. And a film shouldn’t have to.

Another issue with the “saved by a man” critique is that it diminishes the enjoyment of romance. The classic Disney princess movies revolve around a princess, not a prince. If the roles were reversed and there was a movie about a Disney prince, nobody would criticize the fact that he falls in love with a princess at the end. Nobody would think of him as being saved. So perhaps, the problem lies with the fact that we assume a prince is “saving” a princess and not just existing in her world as any other romantic partner would. 

The main message of Disney princess films does not revolve around a man or love at all. Each movie is based on a fairy tale or folklore. These films are stories based on or about women. The goal is to teach young girls to have the attributes, such as being kind and being brave, disguised under the simple reasoning of because it is what “princesses” do. Yes, Disney princess movies may enforce more traditional values as they show women doing housework, being girly, and falling in love, but censoring these lifestyles is merely cutting off young children from understanding the evolution of our society. 

It’s okay to show young girls that media that isn’t perfectly feminist, because feminism has imperfections. A young girl will grow up and realize that life is not a fairytale and she is not a princess, but until then there’s no need to force her to grow up early.

In modern adaptations of Cinderella, Cinderella is made out to be more of a “feminist,” as she works as job and tries to save up to move out. But, dare I say these modern changes undermine the original bravery of the first Cinderella — Cinderella makes the best of her abusive situation, and, with patience, she gets out of it. Girls will grow up to realize the deeper meanings of Disney princess films, which I assure you they have, as well as their faults. But until then, don’t let your overly ambitious feminism take away someone’s girlhood. 

Nirja Thaler

Washington '27

Nirja is a Staff Writer for HER Campus at Washington. She is an intended Philosophy and Economics double major. She was coeditor of her high school newspaper. She has been a part of various types of writing (such as poetry, songwriting, newspaper, and novel writing) clubs throughout her life. Nirja is passionate about exploring social justice issues. She enjoys writing articles that appeal to appeal to both sides of an argument. Originally, her intended major was journalism. With any topic she writes about, Nirja loves to relate the subject to a bigger concept in the community/world. She loves real-life pattern recognition and repetition examples. On her limited free time, Nirja enjoys playing and composing music. She pays piano, viola, guitar, and the ukulele. She is classically trained in piano, and has been playing for over six years. She also enjoys songwriting, and writes most of her songs on piano. In addition to music, she likes to run, crochet, and watch early 2000s movies.