Disney Princesses, Ranked by Social Justice Warriors – By Sinduja Rangarajan & Madison Pauly (Mother Jones) / Dec 30 2019
A whole old world.
Since Frozen II was released a few days before Thanksgiving, the snowy family franchise has raked in more than a billion dollars globally—and inspired hordes of 3-to-8-year-olds to put on glittery blue gowns and go to the theater to watch their beloved ice queen Elsa.
Frozen II breaks many gender stereotypes. The story is centered around Elsa and Anna, sisters who embark on an adventure to find the truth about their pasts and fix humanity’s relationship with nature. Elsa doesn’t have a boyfriend, leading to Internet speculation that she might be Disney’s first queer queen, and for most of the movie, Anna’s boyfriend, Kristoff, doesn’t do much besides patiently wait for her to return. He’s a gentle, kind, and supportive commoner, a far cry from the typical Disney prince and his chesty gender normativity. Frozen taught us that princesses can save each other; the sequel takes that idea a step further, the two sisters joining hands to save the world, while the men serve their vision.
But the feminist overtones of contemporary Disney princess flicks like Frozen II don’t quite make up for the corporation’s century-long track record of portraying its women as Cinderella types waiting to be rescued by their various Prince Charmings. Nor do they atone for the female leads of the ’90s “Disney Renaissance” (think Belle, Ariel, even Mulan) who flipped the damsel-in-distress narrative on its head but still somehow managed to speak less than a third of the dialogue, and who of course wound up marrying the boring shmucks they rescued.
We have a love-hate relationship with the Princess Cinematic Universe. Love the nostalgia; love the songs; hate the capitalistic-paternalistic entrapment of young girls learning to emulate stick-thin 16-year-olds who strive toward dreams of wedded bliss. What follows is our effort to navigate these crosscurrents: a ranking of the princesses of the PCU, by the lights of two gender reporters (one of whom is the mom of an Aurora-obsessed 3-year-old).
Note: We’re purists. We’re excluding sequels and leaving out the Pixar collabs.
Continue to article: https://www.motherjones.com/media/2019/12/disney-princesses-ranked-by-social-justice-warriors/
