The new school year marked the launch of Athena Society’s third year!
With lots of brand new members across Years 10-13, our second session focused on ‘princesses and patriarchy‘ this week.
The recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II made us think about how the young 25 year old queen in 1952 had to navigate the corridors of power that were exclusively filled by men at the time. We considered what attributes a princess are supposedly required to have (beauty, passivity?) and then re-evaluated our views on a range of Disney princesses. Through reading ‘Toxic Royalty: Feminism and the Rhetoric of Beauty in Disney Princess Films’ by Stephanie X. Hu in the Inquiries Journal, we tracked the evolution of Disney princesses from Snow White in 1937 to Moana in 2016. We noticed how the power dynamics of characters were problematic, as well as their unrealistic body types. In many of these films the villains were older or powerful women, creating the dichotomy that a ‘good woman’ must be non-powerful. We also highlighted that often the death of a mother was the cause of a breakdown in society, reinforcing the idea that womanhood is irrevocably tied to raising children.
We concluded that there is still much to be done to avoid continued female stereotypes, and sadly heard how young children we know are still being drawn to problematic Disney merchandise. Perhaps we will try to write our own more empowering storyboard for Disney to consider!
Ms.L Aitken-Burt (Teacher of Classics, History & Politics)