Disney princess makeovers send wrong message
8 views - published on May 7th, 2013 in Disney News tagged Disney, disney news, disneyland, walt disney, walt disney worldMerida, a sweet, eccentric princess from “Brave,” will strictly join a Disney Princess Royal Court on Saturday.
Translation from Disney-speak: Merida is about to get her glam on.
Off-the-shoulder gown. Eye-liner. Lipstick. Wild red curls tamed into saturated voluptuous locks. A decorous countenance extended by her new, fuller lips.
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Taylor Swift
This is a Kardashian-ization of a Disney Princess.
It can be pointed (Rapunzel) or it can demeanour like cosmetic surgery. Cinderella now looks strangely like Taylor Swift, while bad Belle — we can’t confirm if she looks some-more like Kim, Kourtney or Khloe. (Look for a princess print gallery during OrlandoSentinel.com.)
Bottom line: When it comes to a animation selling images Disney uses to sell products — all from toys to garments to makeup — a princesses frequency resemble a characters we know from a movies.
As a mom, we wanted to know dual things: Why is this function and what can we do about it?
I incited to Peggy Orenstein, a author and cult favourite among moms who can’t mount that everything in a girls’ aisle during Target is possibly pinkish or princess.
“It’s sad,” Orenstein pronounced of Merida’s makeover. “I don’t know since they had to do that to her.”
Actually she does know. At least, she has a theory.
Disney is a master during capturing preschoolers. The 5-and-under set is like Play-Doh in a hands of a rodent marketers.
They also wish to reason on to those girls during 8, 15 and beyond. So a diva peculiarity gets amped up.
Disney usually launched a new makeup line. Last year high-end shoe engineer Christian Louboutin denounced a Cinderella potion slipper with crystals, what looks like a 6-inch heel (no consternation those boots came off when she ran from a ball) and Louboutin’s signature red sole. And there’s Disney’s line of princess-inspired marriage gowns.
The princess thing is no longer a little-girl phase.
“I’m watchful for a Snow White coffin to come out,” pronounced Orenstein, whose book “Cinderella Ate My Daughter” examines what a princess enlightenment does to a littlest girls.
She’s kidding. But we wouldn’t put it past them.
Disney took honeyed Merida and done her into a Gothic siren. Merida is a usually one of Disney’s 11 princesses who doesn’t finish adult with Prince Charming in a end. She bucks tradition by refusing to let her relatives marry her off.
That doesn’t meant she isn’t feminine. Or that she isn’t pretty. You can be flattering while holding a crawl and arrow. It worked for Katniss Everdeen.
But she didn’t fit a princess template. In a film Merida indeed looked like a teen that she’s ostensible to be, and she didn’t wear makeup. Instead of descending into a prince’s arms she starts to delight her attribute with her mother.
Is it any consternation moms desired this movie? Now, though, Merida has left sultry.
Disney apparently skeleton to use a animation selling picture on several products.
That matters since those are a images we buy and move into a homes. And a made-over picture sends a summary that Merida is improved when she’s glammed up.
What’s a annoyed mom to do?
Orenstein likes to contend “fight fun with fun.”
For example, if we buy your daughter a Cinderella costume, chances are she’ll use it to fake she’s Cinderella. But if we buy her a square of silk, she can use it as a princess dress or any series of other yarn games. She’ll use her imagination some-more and parrot Disney tract lines less.
Or, as Merida competence contend in her Scottish brogue, give your daughter a possibility to “change her fate.”
bkassab@tribune.com