Whatever happened to the Snow Whites and Cinderellas of the years past? Those sweet little girls that were presented as little girls, with little girl figures and dresses. The Disney movies, like everything else, have moved into the 2000s. The “girls” are now much more aggressive, ambitious, intelligent and stronger women. But, with all these progressive changes and growth, did they also have to portray them as buxom, sensual, sexy, incredibly overdeveloped dolls? Is this for the kids, or instead, to attract the interests of the parents? What kind of message does this send to the girls today? Not only are they expected to be intelligent and successful, but they have to look like Barbie dolls too? Body image forms the foundation of how we perceive ourselves as children into adulthood. Is this the message we really want to send to our children, as young as toddlers? Instead, we should encourage more appropriate and reasonable perceptions and expectations of our bodies. Setting such unattainable goals can only lead to feelings of inadequacies and low self-esteem.
As adults we already deal with the daily bombardment of images that are air- brushed to perfection that manipulate us into believing that without their products, we can’t have the life we want. Do we really want our children exposed and absorbing these ridiculous standards as well?
“Children’s films” need to be just that- for the children. It’s about time they stopped presenting super women and presented and empowered the reality of what we are- all shapes and sizes!
-Dr. Courtney