Princesses Disney Article: An article Defending the Classic Princesses

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An article Defending the Classic Princesses

posted by hatelarxene

I know we've probably had an excess of these over the last few months, but I don't care. In my humble opinion, there can never be too many articles defending Walt's girls. I believe Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora just as much praise and recognition as any of the Modern ou Renaissance princesses. The three classic Princesses receive a large amount of criticism. They include "weak", "passive", "need a man to save them", "boring", "do nothing", "need a man to save them", among others (that last reason is so incredibly stupid and sexist). These "arguments" are beyond cliché, mind-numbing, and REPETITIVE. Actually, I would think that montrer kindness, dreaming, singing, dancing, cooking, and doing chores would qualify as "something", but apparently they don't. Again, I just don't get it!
They are no worse than the characters of today. Actually, they're better than some of the characters today. Have toi people seen Bella cygne in action? ou Ally Dawson?

Let's start with the one that started it all, Snow White. At a very young age (14, to be specific), Snow White has already been through quite a lot. The Evil Queen made her a maid in her own home. I repeat: a PRINCESS was made a MAID in her own home.
Snow White later on shows how wise she is beyond her years, knowing that she needs to get a roof over her head than anything else after running through the forest. We also see a manipulative side of Snow when we see her convince the dwarfs to let her stay.
So weak? No. You'd be terrified too if toi knew someone in your family was trying to kill you. And she sure knew how to get things done, for a 14 an old girl.

On to my personal favorite, Cinderella. Cendrillon is incredibly strong. Like Snow White, Cendrillon loses her mother at a very young age. Then she suffered through the loss of her father, and afterwards suffered psychological abuse from her stepmother and stepsisters. Judging from the opening scene, Cendrillon is around 7 ou 8 years old. That means being a slave for people who treated her like she was lower than them for 10+ years.
She's also never outright disrespectful, but rather playfully points out the ridiculous of her stepfamily through fiery citations (for example, "Lucifer has his good points too. For one thing, he... Well, sometimes he... Hmm... There must be something good about him.")
That doesn't scream "doormat" ou "boring" to me. And to everyone saying she doesn't stand up to her stepfamily, I kindly suggest toi all go watch the movie again. She also plays a part in getting herself out of the tower par suggesting that Bruno assist with Lucifer, and she also escapes an Il était une fois citrouille coach prison in one of the sequels. So damsel-in-distress, my a**.
Cendrillon is not "flat". She is kind, humble, sarcastic, witty, and assertive.

Aurora, while not as strong as Snow ou Cindy, is certainly not a weak character. She's lived a sheltered life, and like the other two, her only companions are animals. She then finds the man she loves, and on the same jour is informed that she is a princess and has royal duties and responsibilities. And "no personality"? Really? From the (approximately) 18 minutes of screen time she gets, I see that she's playful, shy, dutiful, obedient, and loves to dream.

The Classic Princesses have chosen to see the good in life, and I believe everyone should live par this philosophy. So don't call them flat. Don't call them boring. Don't call them damsels. Don't limit them. Like every other person, fictional ou not, they have their strengths, weaknesses, faults, and dreams.

Snow White

Cinderella

Aurora

I just had to include this image of Cindy here; she's so stunningly gorgeous. Skin, eyes, and hair are on fleek!

Beta99, fahmad27 and 9 others like this

audreygrace412 I love this article and I agree with all of your points. I don't think there's been too many articles defending the classic DPs. :) I think they display timeless virtues and often get stereotyped in a way that watching the films would easily debunk, so to me that shows they aren't defended enough. They have much more spunk and outspokenness than pushed in the media and they have tons of positive messages. PS When Snow asked the dwarfs to stay, she didn't expect to be taken in just because she was a female or the princess and actually offered to do her share. She also didn't let it get her down when Grumpy was mean to her and was pretty adamant despite his "mean" words and actions so she's clearly not that frail and weak. When Cinderella heard Lady Tremaine read the message that "all eligible maidens" could go to the ball, it was Cinderella who spoke out and put her foot down which made Lady Tremaine agree that she should go to the ball as well. In addition to that, she does speak up against Lady Tremaine when she accuses her of putting the mice in her sister's room but she is quickly shut up.

ezilo25 Thank you! What a great article! Even though I have issues with Aurora, I adore Cinderella and Snow White. They are just so strong, given all what they have endured. So I am very grateful that you defended them. I totally agree that cooking dancing and every thing is work. Why do people call themselves feminists, when they think it is sexist that women must do those things, while they should just let them do whatever they want! Again, wonderful article, thank you very much!

UnholyNoise Snow White is actually my least favorite DP, but honestly so many of the arguments against her are dumb. I love Cinderella and Aurora, and neither of them get the credit they deserve, either for their resilience and inner strength (Cindy) or for what they bring to the story (Aurora - I'm gonna fight the next person who says that she lacks depth/personality and all she does is sleep). Great piece!

Portia0623 Great article! I'm a feminist and I love the classic DPs. One very sexist double standard I've noticed recently is how female characters always have their personalities picked apart and criticised much more than male characters. Feminism is about seeing the sexes as equal, and this means letting people make choices for themselves and not judging them for being "too" masculine or feminine. p.s I especially like your defence of Cinderella. I've always found Cinderella to be an inspiring character, not the doormat people say she is. My favourite quote from the film is "They can't order me to stop dreaming", which is a bold statement even today.

disneymagic93 Excellent article! The classic DPs get way too much hate these days. Sleeping Beauty has 3 strong fairy godmothers. I'm surprised more feminists don't take that into account. I think people should give Aurora a break because she is not the star in her film even though I love Aurora.

KataraLover Great article! Snow White and Cinderella are great, well-written, and three-dimensional characters that I can admire a lot. There wasn't much that they could do in their situations because they had no way of proving that they were a princess or the daughter of a nobleman. If they ran away they would either be a servant for someone else, who would possibly be just as bad or even worse than their step-mothers. Plus they would possibly even be forced into prostitution. Women had no rights back then and when the movies were made they were limited to the roles that were expected of them back then, but still demonstrated traits of strong and interesting women. Plus, for anyone who says that these women wouldn't inspire anyone, guess whose favorite fairy tale was Cinderella, WALT DISNEY HIMSELF! The one who created the most successful company of ALL TIME that is still just as popular to this say, was inspired by Cinderella because he felt like her growing up. Plus Snow White inspired him to prove people he could make his dream come true and make it into a movie, even though everyone was telling him he couldn't. He would doubt himself at times, but never completely lost his optimism because of these two characters. But what does the creator of the most popular and financially successful company ever that made many timeless characters, brought color to movies, made the first movie that was more than just a few minutes long, and always was able to make a comeback when his company was in danger of being shut down! SLACKER! (NOT) As for Aurora, while I won't shame people for liking her or say she's one of the worst characters ever, I still stand by that she's one of the most forgettable and boring protagonists in Disney history. She's who I think of when I think of the stereotypical boring fairy-tale princess. It's not just her lack of screentime that's the problem. In Fantasia the characters had less screentime than her and yet were able to truly shine, Lola Bunny had only three minutes of screentime in Space Jam and yet she was still a good character with a definitive personality (though admittedly not the most well-developed), and Jasmine from Aladdin and Eris from Sinbad: Legend of The Seven Seas don't have that much more screentime than Aurora. But the thing if these characters were even more time for us to get to know them. I know a lot of people think we don't need to know a lot about a character for them to have a well-developed personality, but that's exactly what they need. Plus it kind of bugs me that they're only showing upset about not being with the Phillip instead of other more important and psychological things that would give her more depth. Such as that she was cursed by an evil fairy when she was a baby because of a small thing her parents did, her parents that she likely thought were dead are actually alive, she's a princess with duties and responsibilities, has a kingdom that she'll have to one day run and any decision she makes could affect her subjects, she has to leave the life she knew, has no freedom anymore, and most of all that her entire life has basically been a LIE! Doesn't this seem like more important things for her to cry about than Phillip? Plus the scene where she meets her parents is completely emotionless and WAAAAAAAY TOO casual and unrealistic. Also, how the hell is she shy? She shows no signs of being shy! So what if she acts awkward around Phillip? He's a stranger who keeps on grabbing onto her when she's trying to get away like some kind of rapist! Wouldn't you be awkward in that situation? By that logic, she should be a snob with the way she put her nose in the air at him. With the way she interacts with the animal's she seems very social. However, do I think Aurora is a bad character? No, but I don't think she's full of personality, has that much depth, or anything like that. However, I do think she's a harmless character and some things about her are overblown. She's a damsel in distress, but it's really not her fault. She was cursed when she was a baby and put under hypnosis by the Mistress of All FREAKING EVIL! Yes, she sleeps, but how the hell is she supposed to get out of that? The only way out is true loves kiss, no other way! Plus she does have a well-written and three-dimensional personality in Keys To The Kingdom, where she has a lot of depth to her and is admirable. I even wrote an article defending the Keys To The Kingdom version of her. My problem isn't her being a passive character that isn't an action girl or a rebel, it's that I don't find her to be very interesting and is mainly a plot device. But I can somewhat see why she has her fans and there really are FAAAAAAAAAAAAR worse characters out there than her. She's not even bad, just not using the screentime she has to the full advantage there could be to give her a lot of character. She's a harmless character and I do think that some criticisms about her are overblown and some are even nitpicky. Great article!

Sparklefairy375 I actually don't really love Classic Princesses (except Cinderella that is in my top 5), but I agreed that they are doesn't much appreciated by some peoples. They are pretended as weak and plain characters. Actually not all of the statements are true. I see they are just have different attitude, personality, and minds if compared with more modern Princesses eras like Renaissances and revivals.

disneymagic93 @KataraLover Sleeping Beauty is about the fairies not Aurora & they are strong characters.

hatelarxene Thanks everyone, for the kind and thoughtful comments.

fahmad27 Thank you so much for writing this article! I get annoyed when people go all ga-ga over Elsa and Anna but think the other Disney Princesses (from Snow White-Rapunzel) are weak and stupid. Not true!