This presentation examines the Princess Narrative and Disney films against the backdrop of parenting styles in the Caribbean and focuses on the impact on the girl child, self-image, violence and growing up in a digital world.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES
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THE PRINCESS
NARRATIVE AND THE
GIRL CHILD: ISN’T IT TIME
TO ‘LET IT GO’?
Taitu Heron, Head/Development
Specialist
(taitu.heron@open.uwi.edu)
Women and Development Unit
(WAND)
UWI Open Campus

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THE FOCUS OF THE
PRESENTATION
• Overview of the Princess Narrative and its impact on the Girl Child
• Analyzing the Disney Princesses
• Is it problematic? Do we need to let it go? Why?
• The Dangers of the Princess Narrative in the Digital Era/ the use of
technology (girls under 11 years old)
• The Princess Narrative and Caribbean parental setting and Self-
Imaging of the Girl Child
• Challenges, Alternatives and Solutions

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• Parental approach; As a mother of a girl child and an aunt to several nieces, with a
penchant for research; trial and engagement that inform guide my mothering
practices;
• Community member, especially online community of parents and mummies seeking
to shift the parenting narrative of children to one that is more rights-focused and
nourishing the spirit and free expression of the child; non-punitive, consequence-
directed; facilitating negotiation and decision-making; authentic communication
between adults and children regarding sex, sexuality and the related dangers and
pleasures…at age-appropriate times; Not from a child-must-be-seen and not heard
approach
• Critical analysis and engagement with IT devices; monitoring, evaluation and
indicators of child use and engagement; gender analysis esp of media spaces and
children; media literacy (beyond consumption towards use and innovation)
• An approach that is spirituality centred over religiously centred, accepts that children
can find their way to God as adults. Parents guide in directions, rather than
indoctrinate.
• Motherhood as a revolutionary site for shifting consciousness and raising a different
child
APPROACH AND
UNDERGIRDING PRINCIPLES

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THE DISNEY PRINCESSES –
OVER A DOZEN Snow White & the 7
Dwarfs (1938)
• Cinderella (1950)
• Sleeping Beauty
(1959)
• The Little Mermaid
(1989)
• Beauty and the Beast
(1991) (Belle)
• Aladdin (1992)
(Jasmine)
• Pocahontas (1995)
• Mulan (1998)
• The Princess and the
Frog (2009) (Tiana0
• Tangled (2010)
(Rapunzel)

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9 are white, 4 are POC: Arabic – Jasmine, Chinese - Mulan, Native American –
Pochahantas and African American - Tiana). The franchising products places
emphasis on the white princess characters, except perhaps Tiana.

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The Stories
A FEW OF THE PRINCESSES

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• “Nice” girl, usually a teenager (under 16) Unpack
nice…
• Portrayed as beautiful with beauty as an asset
• Predominantly white (Unpack race and ethnicity)
• Polite, Shapely, Feminine, Helpless, Little ambition
• Romance saves them or gives freedom of some sort
OR self-sacrifice is important to achieve romantic love
(Ariel, Rapunzel, Cinderella)
• No clear career but things change: (Tiana, Mulan) -
waitress, soldier
• A heroic and strong man / prince will rescue them from
obscurity, they will live happily ever after
THE PRINCESS NARRATIVE
& ITS MESSAGING

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PERPETUATION OF WHITENESS INSTEAD
OF MULTIPLE ETHNICITIES; PRO-
BLACKNESS
• “The problem of pervasive,
internalized privileging of Whiteness
has been intensified by the Disney
representation of fairy tale princesses
which consistently reinforces the idea
of White Supremacy.”
Seeing White: Children of Color and the Disney
Fairy Tale Princess, Dorothy L. Hurley
- Not anymore. More purposeful in

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THE REAL DANGER OF THE PRINCESS
NARRATIVE (1937 to present day)
• Mythical places and romantic fairy tale settings
that perpetuate female compliance with child
marriage (most of the princesses), kidnapping &
imprisonment (Beauty and the beast; Rapunzel)
domestic servitude (Cinderella, Snow White), non-
consensual intimacy (Snow White, Sleeping
Beauty).
• Solidifies the “nice girl” and the suppression of the
female voice to own wants, desires and needs to
the needs and desires of others (male
protagonists) (Sleeping Beauty, Snow White,
Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast)

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COMPLIANCE AND DANGER

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•
THE MESSAGING. JUST BE NICE AND
EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT

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•
WHAT DOES THE PRINCESS NARRATIVE
SAY THAT THE MEN/PRINCES MUST DO
TO ATTRACT A PRINCCESS/YOUNG
WOMAN?

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BEAUTY, BODY AND GENDER
STEREOTYPING
• Enforcing Gender Stereotypes
• Struggle between personal desire and
predetermined gender roles
• Disney gives young girls unrealistic
expectations about love
• Using the body to represent good and
evil
• Hour glass figure emphasizing breasts
and hips; and either thin or fat to
represent evil

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THE REPRESENTATION OF THE BODY
AS GOOD VS EVIL

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•
THE DEMOGRAPHICS AND SOCIO-
ECONOMIC INDICATORS

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•

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•

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•

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•

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THE SUBLIMINAL CONSTANTS THROUGH THE
AGES
• The Nice Girl and voice suppression
• The perpetuation of compliance / go with
the societal flow and family expectations
• European standards of beauty and
femininity
• Life is not self-directed
• Fragile version of femininity that uses
beauty as predominant value
• Early marriage as a goal or accomplishment
rather than choice / limited career options
• Explorations of different identities and
being are seen as wild or rebellious (Mulan,

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21st REALITIES, IS IT TIME TO LET ‘IT’ GO? Can we
really?
• Do the girls out grow pinkification and
princessing? Yes…. But there are other
things happening:
• Digital technologies, youtube, netflix and
the Disney franchise The realities of cyber
bullying, online pedophilia, child trafficking,
prostitution and the mainstreaming of
pornography and pornographic scripts using
Disney princess packaging
• Honesty and engagement with girl children
about positive and negative aspects of what

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• Purposeful shifting of the nice
girl/compliance (silent preparer of not
saying no to unwanted sexual advances);
• The ultimate trap -- Some men will not
save you; Fathers and father figures
cannot protect girl children from
everything, until then….there is martial
arts and learning how to speak up.
IS IT TIME TO LET ‘IT’ GO?

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Good Night Stories for Rebel
Girls Websites & FB pages for
parents
• The Mighty Girl
• The Girl God
• Orisha stories (Yemonja,
Oshun, Oya etc) and other
culturally relevant content
or stories.
• Adults will have to search
•
ALTERNATIVES / SOLUTIONS

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• IT era is here to stay. Helicopter parenting
does not help
• Critical engagement in content is important
• Some should not be allowed. Explain why
• Bridge the education system deficit with IT
• They will monitor themselves
• Create alternative definitions of princesses –
warrior princess, BlackGirlMagic;
• Be one step ahead with their use of the
devices, learn about blocking apps,
monitoring apps, tablets instead of phones;
Netflix instead of YouTube.
TOOLS / SOLUTIONS FOR A WORLD THAT WE
WILL NOT SEE AND THAT THEY WILL BE
ADULTS IN

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHICz5MYxNQ

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Sources
• Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses, Dawn Elizabeth England & Lara Descartes &
Melissa A. Collier-Meek. Sex Roles (2011) 64:555–567.
• We Did An In-Depth Analysis Of 21 Disney Female Leads.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/justinezwiebel/we-did-a-census-of-all-the-disney-female-animated-
characters
• Beyond the Prince: Race and Gender Role Portrayal in Disney Princess Films, Brianna May, 2011.
• Seeing White: Children of Color and the Disney Fairy Tale Princess, Dorothy L. Hurley. The Journal
of Negro Education, Vol. 74, No. 3 (Summer, 2005), pp. 221-232.
• “How does it get into my imagination?: Disney and Self-Image, Elizabeth Yeoman.
• Batchelor and Hammond: The Cult of Cute, The Disney Princess and American Girlhood. In:
Batchelor, B. ed., 2012. Cult Pop Culture: How The Fringe Became Mainstream. Westport: Praeger
Publishers, 101-113.
• Disney, 2014. Disney Princess- Rapunzel [online]. London: Disney. Available from:
http://www.disney.co.uk/princess/princesses/rapunzel.jsp
• [ Disney Pixar, 2014. Brave [video, online]. Available from:
http://www.disney.co.uk/brave/videos/index.jsp?content=official-brave-trailer1#/content/trailer].
• Disney, 2014. About Frozen [online]. London: Disney. Available from:
http://www.disney.co.uk/movies/frozen/