The Ways In Which Disney Princess Movies Have Gotten Worse Over Time

My final essay for Writing 101 discusses how Disney has improved its portrayal of female characters over the last several decades, and the work they still have to do in order to produce empowering role models. There are certainly still problems with the princess movies of today, though I usually do not view them as worse than the originals. However, this article points out that there are actually several problematic aspects of these films - and some of them are new (as in, they are problems that were not evident in the First Wave films). In this reflection, I going to focus, in particular, on those more modern issues with Disney.

First, in comparison to the original Disney princess films, female characters actually make up a lower percentage of the dialogue than they did seven decades ago. With the exception of Brave and Tangled, all of the Disney princess movies from 1989 to 2013 have somewhere in between 15% and 45% of the dialogue being held by women, with an average of around 25%. Keep in mind - these movies are about women, and they still do not even hold a majority of the speaking roles. This is likely attributed to the fact that almost all minor characters are made male as the default.

Second, Disney has changed its marketing strategy so that it does not immediately hint that a woman is the main character of the films. Names like Tangled, Brave, and Frozen are suspected to have been chosen with the intent of drawing in more male audience members. This is in contrast to names like Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Mulan, and the list goes on of names that clearly indicate the focus of the film. When I first read this, I felt a little skeptical. People do not generally watch movies that they have not at least seen the trailer for, and would those not make it clear pretty quickly. Maybe Disney did not do this intentionally. Alas… not quite.

Third: the trailers. I was stunned by the emphasis on male characters in recent Disney films that, of course, are actually focused on the journey of a woman. It seems like Disney has gone over the top to avoid emphasizing the role of female characters in a movie about a woman. Understandably, I did not remember the trailers nearly as well as I remembered the movies themselves, but as I was watching them, I quickly became confused: where is the main character? Why isn’t she the one speaking in the film? Why isn’t anything about her plot really being revealed through the trailer?

An inevitable product of contemporary society and changing attitudes about women, Disney is certainly improving its portrayal of female characters. And yet, some new problems are also presenting themselves. It is a very unfortunate thing that male individuals are less likely to engage with any TV show, movie, book, etc. that has a female lead. However, I think that the only way we can begin to change this is by proudly embracing female characters - what they have to say, their strengths, their names, and their stories - rather than trying to hide them away.