Angela Crocker debates how the movie industry manipulates young girls and
affects how they see themselves in society.
In the movie
industry there has always been this idea of the so called ‘Prince Charming’.
It’s like this matter of life and death situation in which every woman NEEDS a
knight in shining armour to gallop in and save the day! However, I can argue,
in many ways, why women can rescue themselves. Although, the idea of having a
handsome chap on your arm does sound quite appealing; this is the 21st century
for Christ’s sake! Women are more than capable of being independent and do NOT
need a man to protect them from a stereotypical villain.
Disney, a
company that is globally known, influences billions of innocent minds, trapping
them in this traditional, patriarchal ideology that takes feminism back a
hundred years. Disney is very well-known for their idealistic films where each
story HAS a prince who saves the damsel-in-distress every single time. This is
very repetitive. The princess has some kind of danger lurking in her midst.
Basically, she’s facing imminent doom. There’s pretty much nothing the princess
can do but wait for true love’s first kiss. It’s the same theme throughout all
Disney plotlines. Like, how relevant can a kiss be to save the princess after
she was poisoned by an apple? Well done on that one Disney.
It would be
hypocritical of me not to mention some of the newer more modern Disney movies
which are a lot different to their older films. ‘Maleficent’, which is one of
the most recent by Disney in the princess franchise, tells the story of
‘Maleficent’, a fairy who turned evil. Not to give any spoilers away on
Princess Aurora’s outcome but, there was little to no Prince Charming action
and I kind of loved it. However, the moment that idiot of a Prince came onto my
screen, I lost all respect for Aurora’s character. She turned into a
love-struck teen who swooned at the knees from one glimpse of muscles and long
hair. I almost gagged. Disney however did save itself with the film’s ending
because it avoided the whole ‘love-centric’ stereotypical storyline aspect of a
fairy tale ending where you see the Prince and Princess get married and live
happily ever after. Instead of a clichéd ending, we got a magnificent finish
without disappointment.
Disney
finally did the unthinkable when in ‘Frozen’, one of their biggest animations,
Elsa, the queen, said, “You can’t marry someone you’ve just met”. This denies
the notion of love-at –first-sight which is a first for Disney. I high-fived my
screen and jumped for joy. I can’t believe Disney said this! There’s so much
respect for her character finally saying what we, as the audience, have been
thinking our whole Disney viewing lives. I guess it has to take some common sense
from a queen to change the mind-set of a princess and thereby influence young
girls.
I’m a
personal believer in equality, yet movies today don’t portray equality in the
way you would expect. For example when little girls watch a Disney film and say
‘Oh I want to be just like Princess Belle’; that’s not good! Little girls need
to find their own identity and I don’t think the underlying concept of a
matriarchal relationship is a positive desire for a young girl to want and hope
for. Women today lack self-respect and maybe Disney is a partly to blame for
that because up until now with some of the recent Disney Films (EG: ‘Frozen’,
‘Maleficent’ and ‘Brave’), Disney has reinforced patriarchal stereotypes and
finally it seems like Disney are turning away from its patriarchal ideology.
But Prince
Charming can be found lurking in other places. There are many ways he is shown.
He’s often referred to as the guy of the girl’s dreams. In other movies,
there’s always a heroic male lead character rescuing his love interest: a girl
who has been kidnapped by his nemesis, usually a theme in most ‘James Bond’
movies. This is a plotline we’ve seen many times before. Well done, Hollywood:
yet again, another original script. Conveniently, the woman is not able to
rescue herself when she’s usually left alone for most of the time in a room
with perfectly good tools to help her escape. She decides to go through the
days of torture, waiting for her Prince Charming to be a hero and save her from
the terrible danger that she is clearly in. The relationship would probably end
in disaster.
Have I
mentioned that Prince Charming is kind of what the American’s would call a
‘jerk’? No, honestly, all Prince Charming’s usually reject the older lady and
would rather go for someone stick-thin. It’s a shame that some ‘Prince
Charmings’ don’t go for an average looking woman, an older woman or perhaps a
slightly more average-sized woman. Wouldn’t a child have more confidence in
themselves if they had more realistic role models to idolise? But, no, they
create characters that are paper-thin with long beautiful hair and a cute
charming voice: just enough to lower a young girl’s confidence.
Over the
years, the movie industry has changed; views have shifted and people have
become more modernistic. Traditional views of patriarchal relationships have
started to vanish. The industry has moved with the times.
However,
there are still some patriarchal ideas seeping through the screen. The impact
is still there and is especially evident to children, who are easily malleable
and not able to see what the movie’s subtext really is.
Disney
however is finally getting it right. It used to for a long time manipulate
young girls, making them want to be just like the princess you see in fairy
tales but society has changed. Women don’t need men anymore. Men aren’t always
like what you see on the screen such as Hans of ‘Frozen’. We thought he was
somebody who finished Anna’s sandwiches but he was actually a monster. This turns out to be a big reveal and maybe shows that all princes’
true intentions aren’t as charming as we are taught to believe.
