Since 1937, Disney company has created a total of 14 princesses with different personalities in 1985 years. If the princesses wearing puff sleeves and Clinolin's big skirt at the beginning created the bright idealism of young girls at that time, then in 2021, Princess Moana in " Ocean Story " used her slightly fat figure, a wide nose and a brave and resolute image to break the shackles of the image of a "princess" in mainstream aesthetics.
From a good wife and a good mother to a female heroism, these changes are always closely related to the social and cultural context and ideology. To a certain extent, the history of the change in the image of Disney princess is also the history of the growth of girls. From narrative strategies to communication language, how exactly does Disney present the characteristics of every princess’ era?
"Invincible Destruction King 2": Disney princesses collection
01
princesses are all "beautiful and weak"
I think to this day, everyone will not forget the description of Snow White "skin white as snow, hair like ebony, and lips like blood". "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves", released in 1937, was the beginning of the Disney princess clues and also laid the public's understanding of the princess' image - besides noble origins and excellent bloodlines, beauty is a necessity for women.
Therefore, you can see that in " Xianlu " released in 1950 and "Sleeping Beauty" released in 1989, there are similar settings for princesses, such as Cinderella "although she wears this rag, it is hard to hide her noble temperament", while Sleeping Beauty is "long golden hair, like sunshine on it, and a shy lips as red as a rose."
"Snow White" "Sleeping Beauty": In the past, only a prince could kiss the princess. Now if you don't study hard, you will punish you to kiss the gentleman of East Eight District
. The princess character under patriarchal culture cannot escape the role setting of "gods and helpers". Compared to independent thinking, they are easier to obey, and they appear more vassals than independent creation. For example, Snow White cleaned the room spotlessly for the seven dwarves; and Cinderella even did all the housework alone. Of course, there is never a gender distinction between hard work, but for Disney princesses, housework that cannot be quantified by economic value is still the whole of life.
In addition, all the fates of princesses cannot escape the proposition of "save". When facing difficulties and persecution, they tend to obey and escape. For example, Cinderella, who wants to attend the prince's dance, will only hide and cry secretly after being troubled by her stepmother. But for marginal characters like the prince, even if they appear as short as a song, they are enough to become a key role for princesses to change their fate against the will of heaven. Women's definition of the word happiness depends entirely on whether there is a happy love. At this time, you can apply the famous saying of Beauvoir in "The Second Sex", "Women are not born as princess, but men and society make her a 'princess'."
"Cinderella" live version: Only under the gaze of the prince can you become a princess, otherwise it is just Cinderella
Of course, character settings like Disney are also closely related to the background of the times. The first feminist movement in the United States ended in 1920, nearly half a century between the outbreak of the second feminist movement in the United States in the late 1960s. The three princesses in Disney's first stage happened to be born in this period of decline. Therefore, overall, they are still as kind, weak, pure, and good at housework as women of the previous era. They have no pursuit and self-will, and are more like an accessory.
Source: BBC/New women who entered the workplace due to World War II also look more concise in their dress and simply
However, World War II broke out in 1937, which also gave birth to the entire society's redefinition of the gender of men and women.On the one hand, due to the need to boost morale, men were inevitably heroized; but on the other hand, under the mobilization of the war of Roosevelt , a large number of American women went from families to society. Some of them joined the army, and some joined factories and hospitals. The realization of work experience and self-worth greatly impacted the old view of women, promoted the development of American women's consciousness, and also planted seeds for the next stage of Disney princess prototype.
02
The division of love and ideals
When it came to the 1960s, The Second Industrial Revolution allowed women to enter the workplace on a large scale, and also changed the concept that women must rely on men. At the same time, with the development of the times, women's problems have been elevated to the cultural and spiritual levels. For example, in the classic book "The Mystery of Women", which is as famous as "Second Sex", it discusses the social problems faced by middle-class white women, the definition and pursuit of happiness, and Disney's style also changes.
"Aladdin"
After that, in a series of princess movies such as " Little Mermaid ", " Beauty and the Beast ", and "Aladdin", princesses are mostly given the "rebellious" personality traits. Princesses boldly question and fight against patriarchal rules that violate their will. For example, in "Aladdin", Princess Jasmine showed the courage to pursue true love and used her wisdom to fight against the villain Jia Fang. In "Beauty and the Beast", Bell likes to read and is well-versed in history, challenging the absurd rule of "women should not have knowledge." Of course, there are also limitations in this. For example, although Bell chose a beast with a terrifying face, the beast's "true body" is still a handsome and golden prince, and the appearance of happy love is still suspected of being stereotyped. However, compared with Disney in the first stage, the princesses finally no longer inexplicably "love at first sight". Instead, after a long time of getting along, they pursue their lifelong partners from the personality traits they appreciate, showing that women have the right to choose, rational and brave side.
"Beauty and the Beast" actually has another limitation. Women do not choose partners because of their appearance, which is worthy of praise. However, it is a rule for men to pick on women's appearance
But at this stage, " Mulan " is a special existence. On the one hand, Mulan joined the army for his father, challenging the unreasonable military use system and creating honors in the male field; but on the other hand, the problem lies in the word "replace". Mulan's story began in the Southern and Southern Dynasties in China. Women need to use the perspective and symbols of "him" to interpret battlefield stories. However, Mulan's cartoon was filmed by Disney. At this time in 1998, the United States had entered the "post-feminist" era that had developed for 150 years, and feminist values were quite mature, so Disney adapted the original work. In the original work, Mulan was discovered to be a woman after returning home, and eventually returned to her family and took on the responsibility of taking care of her husband and children. However, in the Disney version, Mulan was discovered to be a woman in the army, but after being expelled from the military camp, she still used her wisdom and responsibility to shoulder the mission of saving her family and country.
"Mulan": As the last princess film of Disney's 20th century, after joining the army for his father, Mulan still returned to her family. This slight change "changed" the context in which only by using male symbols in history can one establish her own value, allowing Mulan to complete a series of transformations with her identity as a woman and assume corresponding social responsibilities. At this point, women have also completed the transformation from inferiority, self-reflection to self-reliance.
However, it is particularly worth mentioning that movies that appear after the millennium, such as " Princess and the Frog " and " Tangled ", love is no longer the "truth" of the princess' life. For example, in order to realize his dream of opening a restaurant, Princess Tiana worked part-time jobs, while Princess Lepe ignored her mother's warning and resolutely chose to go to the outside world, constantly consolidating her survival skills, presenting a free and unrestrained personality, yearning for independence and modernity.
Princess Tiana in "Princess and the Frog" breaks the traditional aesthetic in terms of character appearance and is also the only Disney princess who survives through professional labor.
03
crowned herself
Although the above princesses have made a leap in personality characteristics and self-search, they always follow the mainstream Western aesthetics in appearance. It was not until the release of " Frozen " and "The Story of the Ocean" in recent years that the princesses truly gave the princess more inclusive and diverse characteristics from appearance to personality. These characteristics make the characters more three-dimensional and rich, and extremely charming.
For example, in "Frozen", Disney crowned women as king for the first time, and the queen did not use masculine special features to show her strength in appearance. She was just an image of a cute girl with fat baby and big eyes. However, the character also had the "dark side" that would hurt her sister inadvertently. Finally, she relied on restraint and forbearance to demonstrate her sense of mission of protecting the people and her family;
In "Frozen", a sentence Let it go, implies that Elsa lost her image as a "good girl" in the past and accepted her "unreasonable" superpower
. In "The Legend of the Sea", the princess is even more of a rough girl with a strong figure and dark skin, but she has a cheerful personality and dares to take risks. Her roughness is also a cute and cute person.
"Oceans": Moana broke out of the parent protection circle and broke the rule of "no good results when going out to sea". Do you look like you who don't take the civil service exam by life or death?
Of course, before that, Pixar, now belonging to Disney, also did similar temptations. For example, in " Legend of Brave " released in 2012, Princess Melida also likes to dance with swords, eat voraciously, laughing, and reminds her that "the princess should be perfect" mother in resistance, accidentally turned her mother into a bear, which is similar to Pixar's "The Transfiguration of Youth" who will also become a bear.
"Legend of Brave": The story of resisting blind dates is very Chinese characteristics
. At the end of the film, the princess does not need a prince to accompany her and wants to be her own queen alone, which can be regarded as an ode composed by Pixar on the road to growth of women. Of course, there are also some awkward aspects. For example, the protagonist's path to self-growth is very easy, and there is a kind of "smoothness" that is sufficient for the story, but it still reveals Disney's "princess culture" - princesses always lack self-questioning and rational thinking. However, finally, the discussion on the path of women's growth has completely gotten rid of men and women's love. Men are placed outside the core value system. Celibacy has finally emerged, and women's focus has also turned to the treatment of original families, self and parent-child relationships.
80 years, the Disney Princess series of movies have been like a changing system of the value standards of the times, from negative waiting and viewing love as the only truth in life, to the division and choice of women's dreams and love in the post-feminist period, and finally to the 21st century, the princess puts her own value at the core, and the audience finally has a richer imagination of the word "princess". However, recently, the casting of Disney's live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" has caused a stir again. The reason is that the black actor played Ariel was used, which made the audience feel that it is very different from the imagined Little Mermaid. Some viewers think that Disney is overkill, while others think that intentional doing it is real "racism", but some viewers think that the little mermaid who betrays the ethnic group has not changed to a bubble until it turns into a sporadic love of the prince. This is like a black actor starring in a movie dominated by white culture, which still can't overcome the racial separation that still exists today, but in fact, it is a big game of chess played by Disney.
"Little Mermaid" live version
No matter what the truth is, perhaps the positive meaning is greater than the negative meaning. French anthropologist and literary critic Rene Girard once proposed a famous theory: that the essence of human desire is mutual imitation.In other words, everyone instinctively believes that each desire is unique and private, and it is these desires that distinguish “us” from “others”. No matter what controversy the audience has about diversified casting, at least it has expanded people's imagination of the princess again. The black actors themselves dare to take on this role not only have to face various pressures and controversies in society, but also have to truly break the shackles that imprison themselves at the psychological level - others say that black girls are not good, so I insist on giving it a try. On a realistic level, this kind of thought of truly accepting and appreciating one's own female beauty is quietly emerging and inspiring other black girls.
Just like Queen Elsa appeared in "Frozen", it is also a waste of the situation where women can only gain respect from all aspects of society by using the "rights suit" to move closer to their masculinity. Regarding this, I think the global buyer of luxury e-commerce Net-a-Porter, Elizabeth (Elizabeth von der Goltz) is very reasonable: "You don't have to wear a suit anymore. Wearing a feminine skirt is not to show weakness, but rather a kind of power. Acknowledging the soft and romantic feminine traits is also a control over the body."
Maybe one day, Disney can say goodbye to the "Princess" series, after all, the story of every ordinary girl is touching enough.
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