The Evolution of Disney Princesses

An analytical essay composed by Charlotte (Year 12) regarding the evolution of fictional Disney princesses. 

“You can’t marry a man you just met”. This retrospective line spoken by one of Disney’s most feminine princess, in the film dominated by their most powerful and independent princess, successfully slammed open the door into discussion of Disney’s progression in gender roles. And since the 2013 release of Frozen, the question of Disney’s improvement in gender portrayal has been a collective area of interest, heightened by its three latest princesses; powerhouses of strength and independence.

Disney is a globally renowned entertainment corporation with an inordinate amount of merchandise and media. Walt Disney has become a household name synonymous with fun, love, and lessons of morality. “Modelling, per social cognitive theory, is one of the most powerful and prevalent ways in which to transmit values, attitudes and patterns of thought”, and thus, Disney’s widespread circulation means the company has a large influence over children who consume their products. Disney Princesses, one of the company’s most successful franchises, act as role models for young women and girls who watch Disney films and thus “transmitting values, attitudes and patterns of thought”. As well as providing women for girls to admire, Disney’s use of their princesses spanning several decades acts as a representation of womens’ role in society throughout the last eighty four years. 

Scholars have declared that “any substantive shifts in societal constructions of gender roles… would and should, be reflected in changes to representation in the media”. This viewpoint is reflected in Disney’s changing portrayal of the role of women. The early era portrayed the women’s role as purely domestic and marital, such as Snow White and Cinderella, while giving them shallow, one-dimensional characterisation. The middle era first introduced the necessity for development in love, began to permit women having personality traits, such as independence with Mulan and Pocohontas, and laid the foundations for the move “from damsel to heroine”. The modern era shattered the illusion of love being essential, reinforced the significance of familial love,i.e Anna and Elsa, and even began to address their own previous stereotypes. Even still, “Princesses…rarely remain single at the end of these movies, suggesting that finding love is a key goal for any princess, and by extension, any young girl or woman.” Of the fifteen Disney princesses established, only six remain romantically unattached by their film’s conclusion, five of which are from the modern era. Pocahontas, in the middle era, was the first to reject her happily ever after, however, unlike those from the modern era, she rejected or rather sacrificed her love for reasons of familial duty. Those in the modern era, however, were mostly completely uninterested in love, and in the case of four of them, Elsa, Moana, Raya and Mirabel, romance was completely absent from the plot. 

This gradual growth in Disney’s definition of love is due to contextual change. In the early (and some middle) movies, marriage is viewed as the ultimate happily ever after and is a core priority of the princesses, as was the view in the 30s and 50s when women’s key goal was to marry well and start a family. The early princesses “act as the object: a commodity and a prize for the prince to be won” but as Disney progresses, love becomes something that is rewarding but not the primary priority of the princesses. Instead, it is something they discover along the way, “the definition of love is changed here… love... is shown as a journey, rather than an instant romance or necessary ending.” In the middle era, love is shown to need time and development, it is a journey, which contrasts against the shallow, undeveloped romances of the early era. This is due to the growth in female independence which occurred in the 70s and 80s, thus the late 80s and early 90s princesses had more independence and love was not their main priority. “More recent Disney Princess movies show a more balanced portrayal of relationship formation”, because contextually by the modern era love is no longer a necessity for women. Many of the modern movies follow the societal trend and portray women as having strength in themselves and their independence. In the live-action Mulan remake, romance is not as significant a plot point as the original; there are hints of it, but it is not explicitly involved, and her possible ‘prince’ is her age rather than 30 years older and in a position of authority or privilege over her. In the live action Cinderella remake, love is not her main priority either. She wants to go to the ball simply because her friend Kit would be there. In the live-action Aladdin remake, Jasmine’s main priority is her people, and she only happens to stumble upon love. While this seems like a positive trend, some aspects of modern era movies are still stereotypical. It is questionable why Tiana’s career oriented nature is only permitted so long as she also ends the movie with romantic attachment, and in terms of Elsa “the omission of romance begs the question of whether a formidable woman can be a desirable mate for a man”. 

Female villains in all eras still lack romantic attachment and this discourages women from being without romantic relationships, depicting women who end up married as good, and those unmarried as inherently evil. Not to mention “The unanimously heterosexual nature of romantic resolutions in Disney movies”. Both Elsa and Raya are highly queercoded, especially Elsa: her magic acts as a metaphor for being gay, since once it is revealed she is shunned as monstrous because people do not understand that it is beyond her control. At first glance, the modern princess has greatly improved since the early era, but there are still further steps which need to be taken to ensure a princess whose choices and love are solely her own. 

In recent years, Disney has begun to put emphasis on the power and significance of familial love, and recognised it as a force in at least equal strength to romantic love. In the middle era, some of Belle, Pocahontas, Mulan and Tiana’s core actions are fuelled by their love for their family, particularly their father, and in the modern era Brave, Frozen and Encanto focus on the trials of familial love and how it is just as important and strong a force as romance. Brave and Encanto particularly focus on the pressures of familial expectations, from Queen Elinor and Abuela. They were both stories where romance took a back seat, or was completely irrelevant in the case of Encanto, and the focus was on building and strengthening familial love. Merida is expected to be a proper princess by her mother, and the members of the Madrigal family are expected to be perfect. Frozen first introduced the idea of familial love being equal in strength to romantic love, as Anna’s selfless sacrificial act to save her sister was out of sisterly love for her; “this teaches the young generation the importance of finding happiness through oneself and not through the prince”. Maleficent, the 2015 live-action Sleeping Beauty remake also reinforced the impression of the strength of familial love, emphasising its equality to romance, as true love saving the day. Ultimately, Disney’s trend toward highlighting both the struggles and rewards of familial relationships is a large step in the correct direction, as princesses are not solely defined or featured for their romantic struggles; they have relatable trials and tribulations to young women today.

The revolutionarily magnanimous nature of contemporary society’s beauty standards have also had a great impact upon Disney’s princesses and their stories. The unattainable standards portrayed in the early era of “extremely pale skin tones, small waists, delicate limbs… full breasts”, and perfectly symmetrical features, were unfortunate products of the treatment of women as ostentatiously fragile objects during this context. Princesses in the modern era such as Merida and Raya have had more realistic and attainable body types, while Mirabel breaks the standard of ridiculously thin Disney women and becomes the first realistically curvy princess. Female villains of the early and middle eras were often overweight, asymmetrical or not conventionally attractive, thus, suggesting that women who do not fit the conventional ideal and definition of beauty are evil or unworthy of love, also reflective of the discriminatory eras. Princesses in all three eras are portrayed wearing dresses and pale colours, heightening the biased ideal that femininity equates to beauty. Studies have exhibited that, “greater exposure to mainstream media content placed appearance and physical attractiveness at the centre of a woman’s value”, and scholars and society alike have realised this, thus, striving to prove in recent years that beauty is ubiquitous and undefined, regardless of physicality.

This integration of well rounded and realistic women coincided with the reduction of harmful messages surrounding power. The word princess indicates a position of privilege, but not so much of power, as a princess is not the highest form of authority, that is the king or queen. This label implies that the women of Disney are not the height of power, unsurprising in the patriarchal nature of society. While they are still labelled as Princesses, some growth has occurred: Elsa was the first Disney woman to become a queen, rather than a princess. This indicated supreme power and her being the highest authority. In the second movie, Anna becomes queen, also granting her the powerful and authoritative image. While Elsa sacrifices her royal status, she still maintains power due to her magic, and is one of, if not the most powerful Disney princess. An interesting point was raised by scholar Do Rosario that “If the Disney kingdom, and, indeed, fairytales in general, supported the natural privilege of patriarchy, presumably the princess would always have a brother or other male relative poised to succeed her father. But she doesn’t”, suggesting that perhaps Disney is not as patriarchally founded as previously believed, and the term Disney Prince reinforces this, since Princes are not the height of power either. One aspect of Disney that has clear progression is the concept of the ‘damsel in distress’. Early princesses like Snow White and Cinderella made no attempt to save themselves or others from miserable situations. This was reframed in the Cinderella remake, where her compliance stems from a place of kindness rather than a place of weakness and while she does indeed escape her situation with the prince’s help, she was not relying on him to save her and was instead choosing to remain in her situation because of her kind nature. In the middle era they began saving themselves and others or not needing saving, exemplified in Belle’s rescue of the Prince. However, these rescues were still imperfect, since they were often rescues performed in less adventurous areas, Belle nursed the Beast rather than fighting off the wolves. This progressed further to princesses being more likely to perform rescues in the modern era. Rescues exclusively featuring men saving women “may in turn present young children with the message that heroism, and associated concepts such as risk and strength, are inherently masculine, and that women are weak, passive, and in need of assistance”. This was evidently recognised, since the contextually fuelled stereotypes of women needing rescue has been dismantled in such strong-willed and resourceful characters as Tiana, Rapunzel and Anna. Ultimately, the women of Disney have been gaining power in alignment with those of reality, as modern women are perfectly capable of being strong and rescuing themselves, as opposed to the expected meek and complacent woman of the earlier context.

Women have had a strict role throughout much of history. Effectively encompassed by scholars Raduvic and Radulovic, early female expectations “primarily include the ability to love and empathize, to meet the needs of others, especially their children and husbands, to care for the house and all family members, to be emotional, gentle, loyal, obedient, uncorrupted, useful, submissive, faithful, beautiful and erotically attractive”. These unjust expectations are upheld in all three eras. In early movies, the princesses are “shown almost exclusively in stereotypical roles such as wives, homemakers and non-professionals” and maintain “hyper-feminine, over-done personas” throughout the films. Those from all eras carry out domestic labours, a traditionally womanly pastime, and in the early and middle eras, all have a motherly and caring nature, such as Snow White cleaning the house for the dwarves because “perhaps they have no mother… (and) then perhaps they'll let me stay”, or Belle nursing the Beast despite her having no previous display of such a skill. Princesses, especially those of the early era, uphold the expectation of a woman’s kind nature: she is expected to be poised, graceful, obedient, and devoted, and those who possess such qualities are rewarded, often with marriage. Female villains contrasted to this, and this further encouraged young girls to try and be quiet and gentle. “Conforming to the unreasonable standards to which girls are exposed through the media generates excessive anxiety for girls”, and “Disney, therefore, disseminates messages that have the potential to negatively affect girls’ conceptions of femininity during an important period of gender development.”. This has been recognised, since gender roles shifted “from vacant, passive and domestic damsel such as Snow White to the contemporary, bolder and full of personality traits heroines such as Belle, Anna and Elsa”. Merida was one of the first to completely reject the notion of femininity. Merida’s mother attempted to teach her to be a ‘proper’ princess, which included many of the characteristics listed above, but she was unwilling.

Merida ripped her dresses, she fired bows, she took no interest in needlework. This was initially viewed negatively by her mother, and possibly the audience, but eventually was seen as positive when Merida found balance. She was still able to fulfil her duties and be a great leader, but did not have to change herself to do so. “Anna opposes the traditional notions of passivity… (and) connote(s) masculine traits such as fearlessness, opinionatedness and drive”, also opposing the traditional quietly complacent character of women. In the live-action Aladdin remake, Jasmine does not rely on seducing Jafar, thus, being “erotically attractive” as aforementioned, to escape from his clutches, and instead appeals to one of his henchmen, Jaquim. Throughout the film we see several different parts of the song Speechless, which revolves around Jasmine standing up for herself, and by the end she decides she will not remain speechless anymore and stands up for herself. This steady change is due to feminist movements and women rejecting their traditional roles and is reflected in our media. 

Many of the aforementioned standards and expectations were explicitly and effectively addressed in Encanto not through the ‘princess’, Mirabel, but through her family, showing the extent to which gender stereotypes and expectations have diminished. Firstly, in her sister; Isabela. Isabela has power over nature and consistently produces dainty flowers in pinks, purples and reds. She is expected (and seemingly wants) to be everlastingly graceful and poised, and is set to marry a man in the town to propel her family. However, it is later revealed that Isabela does not want to get married. Throughout the film we had previously seen moments where, when Isabela had heightened emotions, her flowers would lose their perfect symmetry and this is especially seen when she loses her temper in an argument and a cactus pops up. She then launches into her song What Else Can I Do? which consists of her admiring the imperfect asymmetry of the cacti and making more unique plants, “it’s not symmetrical or perfect, but it’s beautiful, and it’s mine”. In this song, Mirabel realises how hard expectations of perfection have been on Isabela. Isabela had also been wearing ‘feminine’ pastel colours- purple and pink- throughout the film, and by the end of this scene, her dress is mostly black with a vast number of coloured splotches on it. The suppression of women expressing emotion and causing trouble is also portrayed in the character of Mirabel’s aunt, Pepa. Her gift is that the weather mimics her emotions. Throughout the movie she is consistently struggling to keep her emotions in check and thus to keep things sunny. Any time she shows a hint of emotion in a cloud or storm she is scolded by Abuela or another Madrigal, and her constant trait throughout the movie is trying to repress her emotions. At the end, upon reuniting with Bruno, Pepa is told that on her wedding day Bruno had told her it would rain because he wanted her to “let it rain, let it snow, let it go”, implying that he believed Pepa had a right to her own emotions and their expression in any way she needed to. The trials of Mirabel’s other sister, Luisa, also reflect the struggles of female expectations. She represents the pressures of the domestic role of women, or the ‘glue’ that holds the family together. Her gift is that of immense strength, and she consistently carries out favours and jobs for those in her family and the village. However, it is revealed in her song Surface Pressure that this role is becoming too much for her, evident in the lyric, “I’m pretty sure I’m worthless if I can’t be of service”. Gradually throughout the film, Luisa becomes physically weaker, and much more emotional. In the confrontation at the end between Abuela and Mirabel, Mirabel asks if Luisa will ever be strong enough for Abuela. By the film’s conclusion, Luisa’s and Isabela’s emotional journey is most effectively encapsulated in the following lyrics of All of You:

Isabela: It's a dream when we work as a team, You're so strong,

Luisa: Yeah, but sometimes I cry,

Mirabel and Isabela: So do I,

Luisa: I may not be as strong but I'm getting wiser,

Isabela: Yeah, I need sunlight and fertiliser. C'mon, let's plant something new and watch it fly,

Isabela, Luisa, and Mirabel: Straight up to the sky, let's go.

As well as being a rare instance of female solidarity within Disney, these lyrics epitomise the journey the Disney Princess has taken. She has learned that she can be powerful yet also express her true emotions, that she can have depth and be both strong and wise, that her life is a journey of discovery where she will need figurative “sunlight and fertiliser” to grow, and most of all that she can make her own decisions and write her own story by “plant(ing) something new and watch(ing) it fly”.

Disney’s Princesses have had significant change over the years. This is unquestionably due to contextual differences and the role of media as a reflection of society’s values and ideals. The early princesses “are consistently portrayed in an unrealistic light as well as have far less screen time than their male counterparts”, and demonstrate the womens’ role in the 30s and 50s; complacent and vacant objects exclusively purposeful for the use of men. The middle era princesses represent the growth of feminist ideals during the 70s to 90s and the increased prevalence of strong women. The princesses of the modern era symbolise the contemporary acceptance of diversity and emphasis on individuality, independence and choice; contemporary releases “have taken place against a backdrop of unprecedented political, social and economic advancement for women worldwide, as well as increasing social discourse and acceptance surrounding gender role flexibility and fluidity”.

“Walt’s princesses scrubbed and waited with boundless cheerful energy…Team Disney’s princesses undertake no chores, neglect their obligations, and run wild”. There has been clear change in character, power, femininity, beauty and love- “Disney does appear to have taken significant and much welcomed steps towards a more positive and balanced presentation of both male and female central characters, in line with cultural advances in gender role flexibility” but some argue that “whilst gender portrayals in pre-2003 Disney movies have improved over time, they are by no means in keeping with societal developments in gender equity”. The Disney princess is flexibly undefined in contemporary context, yet still upholds some of those stereotypes. While glaringly obvious gender inequality is no longer present within this media form, underlying and possibly unconscious biases still exist, such as the popularity of traditionally female clothes among these women, or the omission of romantic plotlines only from more powerful women. These standards are steadily improving and have even been explicitly addressed in recent films. The Princess is more independent than ever and while she still maintains imperfections, so does society and contemporary women, and ultimately “she is now questioning and expanding the definitions of her role… there is no return to the former patriarchal structures”.