#lifelessonslearntfromDisney

I so desperately wanted to post this on Facebook but I hate what it when people do that and that's what this blog is for, I just hate that it'll only receive a limited audience.

First off, click here and read (or skim) this post about Disney's new 'I am a Princess' video campaign to promote Disney Princesses as strong, brave and generous rather as being apparently just meek and beautiful and with the sole aspiration of finding a husband.

Personally I find Martha Kempner's view a bit harsh. I think even classic Disney princesses from the 90s and beyond taught us good values - Snow White and Aurora taught us to be kind to all creatures, Cinderella taught us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us and that what goes around comes around, Ariel taught us to go after what we want, Belle and Jasmine taught us that love is more important than what you look like and where you came from, Pocahontas taught us that we're all the same and Mulan (who's not actually a princess by the way but according to Disney she is) taught us to do what's right.

It's not just Rapunzel and Merida that were brave and strong and generous.

If you've seen my Tumblr the majority of my posts are Disney related, often hash-tagged with 'Life Lessons Learn from Disney' because Disney taught me so many things and continues to do so. I do aspire to be like Mulan (my favourite "princess"), not because she's a 'Princess' but because she stood up for herself and did what was right. She was a warrior. She took responsibility and did what she had to save herself, her family and her country. And then she found a husband, who she was willing to give up to again save her country. Disney was my entire childhood and continues to be a humongous part of my life, I can't fathom how someone can view it so negatively. Disney taught me so many things and every time I watch a Disney movie I fall in love all over again.

I don't think the video, as Kempner comments, is literally saying that girls should aspire to be princesses (there are only a limited number of royal families left after all) more that they should aspire to have the characteristics and values that Disney princesses (and princes and all other characters from the Disney films for that matter) have: generosity, kindness, determination, bravery, independence, love, individuality, creativity, open-mindedness, loyalty among others from the long list of traits those girls and women have.

I grew up without the "good moral" Disney princess movies (Brave and Tangled) with the "happily ever afters," the "mustfindahusbands" and the "gender-role ruts" (which again, Mulan) and I turned out pretty well I think.
I believe that I am independent (possibly to the point of crazy-feminist-come-cat-lady as my recent, and brief, foray into boyfriend-land taught me), thoughtful, considerate, neither narcissistic nor slutty nor do I aspire to be the "fairest of them all" or, the modern interpretation "hottest of them all."
If your daughter is growing up with the aspiration to become a damsel in distress Paris Hilton/Kim Kardashian type maybe it's your own parenting, not Disney movies, that is the issue.

You are raising your child, not Disney.