Implications.

Young child wearing a Cinderella costume loads dishes into a dishwasher.
http://www.angelscribe.com/IMAGES/cinderella3.jpg
20/10/13

This image shows a young child aged around 4-5, loading dishes into a dishwasher wearing a Cinderella costume and a tiara. This image represents the implications of how the representation of women in modern day fairy tales reflect our superficial society, and that women must change themselves and present themselves in a certain way in order to conform to society's idea of beauty. This child has obviously seen the film "Cinderella" and admires the character Cinderella to a certain degree. Along with this admiration comes the desire to embody Cinderella as best she can. Many times in the film, Cinderella is shown cleaning after her step-mother and ugly step-sisters and in the end marries a Prince. This shows young girls that if you act like Cinderella and do all the things that Cinderella did like cooking, cleaning, sewing, singing, etc. then you too will get married to a Prince and live happily ever after. This provides young girls with an unattainable goal. It is highly unlikely for a normal 'commoner' to marry a Prince, despite all the hype from the recent Royal wedding. No matter how many floors you scrub or dishes you load in the dishwasher, you probably won't end up with a prince, even if you can squeeze your foot into a glass slipper. Yet, Disney keeps making more and more money from their Princesses.

In this article from the New York Times written by Peggy Orenstein (2006) she states that "sales at Disney Consumer Products, which started the craze six years ago by packaging nine of its female characters under one royal rubric, have shot up to $3 billion, globally, this year, from $300 million in 2001. " Orenstein carries to to say that "it is on its way to becoming the largest girls’ franchise on the planet." 

Now, if it is the largest girls' franchise on the planet and is so popular with young girls, then this means that Princesses are the biggest role models of young girls. The problem with that is that the Princesses shown in these films are not as inspirational as real-life women such as Maya Angelou or Margaret Thatcher who worked hard to become successful women. Instead our youth, the future of the world, are stuck with damsels in distress who wait for Princes or fairy godmothers to save them. This discredits the importance of independence and sets these girls up to be weak and dependent. Instead of being inspired by the good deeds of the inspirational women I have mentioned earlier, our future leaders will look up to Princess Ariel, who traded her voice for a man; or Cinderella, who pretended to be something she wasn't to impress a Prince. Apparently, being true to yourself isn't an important value to have; neither is independence, determination and intelligence.

Not only does this present itself as a long-term problem, but we can also see some immediate, short-term effects of the representation of women in modern day fairy tales reflect our superficial society, and that women must change themselves and present themselves in a certain way in order to conform to society's idea of beauty. In this article, a mother is quoted saying that "My 3-year-old daughter began refusing to do or wear things that princesses didn’t do or wear. She had stopped running and jumping because princesses didn’t do those things. That was about the time I stopped waiting for the phase to pass — when she stopped running." This article goes on to quote that “If a young girl doesn’t have a reminder that these fairytales are just that, fairytales, then she may grow up believing that her happily ever after is only attainable through a prince charming or a tiara on her head.” This illustrates the long and short-term consequences of the the representation of women in modern day fairy tales reflect our superficial society, and that women must change themselves and present themselves in a certain way in order to conform to society's idea of beauty.