The Harmful Consequences of Absent Maternal Figures and Aloof Paternal Figures in Disney Princess Movies

As a little kid watching Disney princess movies, I feel fairly confident saying that most of the messages in the films about race and gender went right over my head. However, one persistent theme that I did notice was the frequent absence of parents, specifically mothers. My mom was diagnosed with a fatal autoimmune disease called Scleroderma before I was born, and passed away when I was nine years old. I had a very happy childhood, but the knowledge that my mother would eventually die, and likely sooner rather than later, was always in the back of my mind. Disney princess movies frequently seemed to serve as a sharp reminder. Here are just a few of the classic Disney movies where the mother of the main character has died: Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Aladdin, and more…

I decided to try and figure out what the reasoning was behind this common trend, and came across this article, and a few others with a similar story. Supposedly, Walt Disney bought his mother a house shortly after becoming famous. The furnace in the new house leaked shortly after the purchase, causing her to die; Disney is said to have always felt a sense of responsibility for her death, sparking a pattern of deceased mothers in his franchise’s films. Personally, this justification seems a bit far-fetched to me. The only princess movies that were actually released after Disney’s mother’s death and before his own were Cinderella and The Sleeping Beauty; of the two, Cinderella is the only one where the mother is dead. It seems strange to me that the trend would continue for that specific reason over two decades after Disney died, beginning with the release of The Little Mermaid in 1989. However, regardless of the reason, I believe that this general lack of maternal figures and strong female relationships is quite harmful to young children.

In my exposure to Disney since her death, I have often become frustrated not only with the lack of mothers, but also the characteristics of the fathers who were still alive. In particular, the father figures in Aladdin and The Little Mermaid struck me as apathetic, ignorant, and unsympathetic. I believe that, indirectly, that portrayal of fathers implies that the antithetical characteristics of those men can only be found in women. I always interpreted those movies to imply that, for daughters to be exposed to traits like kindness and empathy, they must have their mother. As someone who has a very involved father, I find this message incredibly inaccurate and harmful. And, as someone who believes that male support for gender equality is perhaps even more important than female support, I find the message even more disturbing. If a mother is not alive in a Disney princess movie, there is no reason that the father should not still share a close relationship with his daughter. I believe it is critcal that children learn from a young age that father figures should be expected to be equally as involved, aware, and considerate as any mother figures.

Disney does seem to be doing slightly better with this trend in recent films, such as Brave; I hope the pattern of present parents, regardless of their gender, continues to exist in future years.