Feminism in Disney's Princesses

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The next princess is Jasmine from Aladdin. Jasmine is the first non-white princess and is an Arabian. She started the change of princesses in Disney’s movies because after this movie they created a native American, Pocahontas, and a Chinese, Mulan. Jasmine, like Belle and Ariel, wanted to explore. She wanted to get out of royalty and experience being an average person. Jasmine got out of the palace and explored. She even destroyed their wedding tradition and caste system by marrying a poor guy. Addition to them is Pocahontas, who also wanted to get out of her everyday routine and find something new. She is one with her family and she even convinced their group that these white men had good intentions with them and disobeyed her father in marrying a guy suited for her. Pocahontas showed that a woman can save the whole tribe and a man, John Smith. She showed her independence at the end of the movie when she didn’t have a happy ending with John Smith. In addition, Pocahontas has the first ever real based historical character who is an American Indian.

Last on the originals list of Disney Princesses is Mulan. As said earlier, she’s the first Chinese princess even though she isn’t related to royalty. In most sources I have, their similarity is that Mulan is always mentioned. At the start of the movie, they showed what a girl should act so she could bring honor to the family which she failed. Then Mulan sang “Reflection” saying that she is far from being what her family expected her to be. Feminism started to show when Mulan is in the army camp until the end. She disguised herself as a man, a soldier named Ping, and joined the army to replace and save her ill father. She independently passed every obstacle other man, faced. She hurt Yao and created a commotion in the camp and she even beat Captain Shang, the male lead, in a fight. With their encounter with the Huns, Mulan courageously created the avalanche which wiped out every Huns member and she also saved Shang from death. She saved a male instead of the male saving her. Unfortunately, her identity was revealed and she was dishonored, but luckily her life was spared. She was banned to join the army ahead and she was treated like a girl should be. She was ignored by everyone when she was telling the people that the Huns are alive. Woman power came back when she leads everyone in saving the emperor and the whole China. She fearlessly fought Shan Yu and claimed victory. She brought honor to her family by being a strong fighter, not an innocent and graceful woman. It was the first Disney princess movie that has a female hero instead of a male, totally showing feminism.

We start the next batch with Tiana, from the movie The Princess and the Frog. She is the first African-American Disney princess. Tiana is a hard-working woman in order to achieve her and her father’s dream, to own a restaurant. Even though she’s a frog the whole time in the movie, her ambition to become a human again is strongly portrayed. She does everything in order for them to survive, not only for herself, but also others, which a gentleman should be doing for a woman. For example, in a scene in the movie, Tiana built and paddled a raft while Naveen is sitting down playing his instrument. Another one is that she is fulfilling her father’s dream even though it would mean to sacrifice her whole freedom and all she has to do is to work. She showed independence and proved that a woman can also do it. “While The Princess and the Frog presents tremendous female empowerment by allowing the black female protagonist to own a business.” (Stover, 2013).

Next in the list is Rapunzel, from Tangled. She has been locked up in a tower for 18 years and this shows her independence. In addition, she even defended herself against an unknown trespasser, Flynn Rider, with only a frying pan to use. She even tricked Flynn and forced him to escort her outside to see the floating lights. Throughout the movie, it would seem that Rapunzel, mostly, saves Flynn’s life. She saves him from the Vikings, getting drowned, and also she heals him and even brought him back to life in the end. She shows that a woman can be a symbol of a woman’s power, but the story still revolves with a man unlike the movie which was next released,

The movie Brave wad the first ever movie, which was produced where romance is not needed by a princess. Next to Mulan, Merida is the second mostly mentioned in my sources and the second movie that shows a boyish type girl. She even portrays that a princess is not all about a beautiful body and tame actions. She doesn’t act like a princess and doesn’t want to be. She also doesn’t perform any household duties. Almost all princesses are associated in marriage and live happily while Merida refused to be married. She wants to have freedom on her own. Merida fought for her own hand to gain it and even defeated her three suitors in archery, which is very unusual especially that she is a girl. She was tricked and, unfortunately, her mother turned into a bear. They, Merida and her mother, find a way on how her mother can turn into a human again. Merida, with her mother, bravely faced the obstacles only with herself. The cloth with a picture of her family, which was covered to Merida’s mother, changed her mom back to normal. It was the first Disney movie which shows that you do not require to love a guy to keep the story going, sometimes a mother’s love can be more than enough.

Disney continued making movies like Brave. An example is the latest movie released which was Frozen. There are two royalties here: Queen Elsa and Princess Ana of Arendel. Elsa is crowned as the queen may be enough reason that this movie showed feminine power. She is also powerful, literally. When Elsa ran away from her kingdom, she abused, in a good way, her powers to do whatever she wants to. While expressing her feelings in the song “Let it Go.”, she was clearly saying that no one can stop her. She also fought some men, but sadly she lost. In the ending when Ana is near to her death, she chose to save her sister from Prince Hans’ evil scheme by covering her, but sadly she still froze. Fortunately, Ana came back alive and she even punched Prince Hans’ face. While watching the movie, you would mostly see a woman’s power. The conflict, Arendel was in winter and Elsa must come back to her kingdom and Ana had her heart frozen, was solved with no man involve, just two sisters.

Looking through these Disney movies, feminism is slowly evolving. From a damsel in distress to a powerful female. Earlier, we classified Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan and Tiana as a dreamer, independent and wanted to experience new things, specifically Pocahontas and Mulan who are both heroes.

“The study suggests that traits such as ‘assertiveness’,