Are Walt Disney films REALLY girl friendy?
Like many active Facebookers aka bored young people, I was scrolling through my timeline looking for a funny college humor video or Buzzfeed story to share on my wall. Rarely do I ever pay any attention to those sponsored ads that I encounter in between my friends' pictures and status posts. As a pop culture enthusiast, however, I was intrigued when I came across a sponsored ad from Answers.com titled "How Dreamworks Animation Doesn't Care About Our Girls." They present a really solid take on Disney's target demo being young girls. But then, I wonder why Disney movies are so saturated with anti-feminist subliminal messages. And even more ironic is that according to Answers, Dreamworks aims to do the opposite and market to boys, and yet, Frozen is much more feminist and empowering than many of Disney's beloved princess movies.
While Disney princesses are meant to be beautiful and classy young ladies that girls can look up to, Disney hardly portrays them as exemplary and independent. As the protagonists, they are often the creators of the drama they find themselves in. Needless to say, their inevitable need for prince charming to save them in the end, not only paints them as reckless, but also incapable of finding their own way out of a sticky situation. The prince on the other hand, are often portrayed as flaw free individuals.
And then you have Dreamworks, which according to Answers, has a male-centric brand and markets their female-tailored films as universally as possible. The movie Frozen focuses on the two sisters Elsa and Ana, but astutely promotes a character that plays a minor role in the story. Olaf the snowman is the perfect character to use in a unisex promotional campaign because he is sweet enough to appeal to girls, yet carries no association with girly things. The fact that Frozen is a movie for girls, is only evident when actually watching the movie. Why then, does Dreamworks offer more empowerment to girls than Disney?
Elsa, the main character in Dreamworks' Frozen shows more strength and sensibility than any Disney princess has ever displayed. Unable to control her powers, she has every reason to remain locked up in her castle chamber, still she bravely faces the crowd of people that come to witness her crowning as queen. When Ana asks Elsa for her blessing to marry someone that Ana has just met, Elsa immediately sees the danger in this, which is more than any Disney princess can say. And I just have to add that in the end, when Ana is frozen, only to be saved by true love-- it is her sister whose love saves her, not a man's.
Disney may target their movies to young girls, but their agenda is purely and undeniably male-oriented.