Hidden Stories in Disney Princesses
Viewing the Princess from her perspective
I started this story a few years ago. I felt like some of the Disney Princesses of the 80’s and 90’s were presented in a way that hid the real struggles of the princesses or the proportion compared to the male counterpart. I watched them from a boy’s perspective, and I feel like it is important to reflect on the underlying plot lines that were hidden from me in my youth and innocence.
Aladdin
I loved Aladdin growing up and even now, but I didn’t fully understand the message with respect to women. On the surface, it seems to be the story of a street rat stuck in his life, unable to be free who meets the princess stuck in her life, unable to be free. So it seems the typical poor/rich dynamic.
Let’s flip the script. If it was a poor girl and a prince, would the story be as compelling? If it were the prince, he could easily do what he wants because he would become the sultan one day. The poor woman would probably live in destitute.
By looking at it from this lens, I think the story is saying no matter if you’re the richest woman in the land (i.e. the princess since the queen had died), you’re only as free as a street rat, a thief. A woman gains no advantage by their rich privilege in terms of being able to choose how their life goes because of their gender.
Jasmine eventually gets her freedom to chose how her life goes, but we view her victory of freedom as equal to Aladdin’s, but it is much greater because her lack of freedom was much greater than Aladdin’s. He could have potentially found a way to work legitimately, but she was already at the top of the societal food chain.
Nobody asked Jasmine what she would have wished for if she had found the bottle with the genie.
The story is really about a princess who works with a higher power to gain stature in the eyes of her father and thus her freedom.
Little Mermaid
Another classic film of a princess mermaid (Ariel) who wants to be a human falling in love with a human prince (Eric). They both seem dissatisfied with their royal duties, but she faces more resistance than Eric. Her father ultimately destroys her collection, and she feels out of options to the point where she risks losing everything. In fact, she has to sacrifice the thing her father loves the most, her voice.
Some have described the plot as what immigrants go through, but the gender issue seems too obvious. Eric fell in love with her because she saved his life. She fell in love with him because he danced and was having fun on a boat. Ultimately, does that set up a different standard for what is legitimate love? Eric knows nothing about her, and she doesn’t actually know that much about him.
Beauty and the Beast
Another classic movie where Belle is different than other women, fighting being forced into marriage. The marriage was only because she was a trophy to be had, not because of her intelligence. While the Beast is trapped by a curse, his affliction is either the result of his actions or his character.
So there is this complete foil in both character and societal trapping. The story is about both of them being freed by love, but from her perspective, her freedom was far more than his. His inner trappings still had a castle and servants, and he still had a freedom.
If it weren’t for meeting the Beast, Belle’s future did not look too pleasant. Gaston was pursuing her relentlessly, and he was not above forcing her into marriage simply out of his selfishness. Gaston was really just the Beast in person form, so either way, Belle had to deal with the trappings of the patriarchy in either an ugly incarnation or something more appeasing to the eye.
Reflecting on these stories reminds me how much the male perspective has been ingrained in my upbringing and how I frame stories that are much more complex than they appear to be on the surface.
