The way Disney present male and female characters.
Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella. We all know
them; we all love them. But what do they all have in
common?
Disney has always had issues with how it depicts the
way their characters look and act. The Disney
princesses all have hourglass figures, small waists, they
all fall in love with a man and majority of them are
white. Disney is giving off the effect to kids that women
are weak and vulnerable and always need saving
which, is not the case and can be confusing to little
girls and boys. Disney thinks that they need all their
characters to look like this. This creates unrealistic
body standards for young girls and insecurities at a
very young age. This can be devastating to their mental
health and could lead to struggles like eating disorders
and body dysmorphia. Especially if their bodies aren’t
the same shape or size etc. Also, it can create
unrealistic expectations in boys for what they think
women and girls should look like. It can also affect their
perspective on how to treat women in their lives when
in reality, every person looks and acts completely
different to each other.
In a small study of 198 kids, 96% of girls and 87% of
boys had viewed Disney princess media in their lives.
This has been associated with a greater female gender
stereotype behaviour and lower body self-esteem a
year later. This is just a small study but imagine this on
a larger scale. How many girls and boys will have been
affected by this? When I was a little girl I was in the
same situation where I found myself thinking “why do I
not look like these girls?” and that I didn’t act the same
Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella. We all know
them; we all love them. But what do they all have in
common?
Disney has always had issues with how it depicts the
way their characters look and act. The Disney
princesses all have hourglass figures, small waists, they
all fall in love with a man and majority of them are
white. Disney is giving off the effect to kids that women
are weak and vulnerable and always need saving
which, is not the case and can be confusing to little
girls and boys. Disney thinks that they need all their
characters to look like this. This creates unrealistic
body standards for young girls and insecurities at a
very young age. This can be devastating to their mental
health and could lead to struggles like eating disorders
and body dysmorphia. Especially if their bodies aren’t
the same shape or size etc. Also, it can create
unrealistic expectations in boys for what they think
women and girls should look like. It can also affect their
perspective on how to treat women in their lives when
in reality, every person looks and acts completely
different to each other.
In a small study of 198 kids, 96% of girls and 87% of
boys had viewed Disney princess media in their lives.
This has been associated with a greater female gender
stereotype behaviour and lower body self-esteem a
year later. This is just a small study but imagine this on
a larger scale. How many girls and boys will have been
affected by this? When I was a little girl I was in the
same situation where I found myself thinking “why do I
not look like these girls?” and that I didn’t act the same
