Our lecture on Princess Culture I think hit very close to home for a lot of people in class today. Everything fed to us in popular culture has been spoon fed to young girls as a product. The term "Disney Princess" used to just reference a handful of characters that Disney owns. However, once Andy Mooney saw the want for more Disney princess products the Disney Princess line was started and brought some highest revenue that Disney had ever seen.
Speaking for myself this makes me kind of angry. When I was younger I don't remember too much princess merchandise. It wasn't until after I left my "princess phase" that this line was created. I think the biggest reason as to why this line makes me angry is that it waters down these characters and molds them into faceless characters that represents profit. Quite a few of these princesses have been put into a negative light for being static characters that don't control their stories and are glorified set pieces. The more modern princess have become more and more active than the older princesses. However, even with Disney's introduction of more and more active princesses (Ariel, Belle, Meridia etc.) they still marginalize them by molding them into these money making machines, and denying them of their characteristics.
As we talked about in class today this separation of these characters can be detrimental to how young girls view the princesses. Instead of seeing well rounded characters they view a shiny and spoiled imposture. Because of this they might not absorb the great attributes of the princess they will just take the materialist view.
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