Follow Your Heart - to Princess Syndrome

You are a pretty, pretty princess! But which one? Disney will tell you! All major credit cards are accepted.

When you are little, the Disney Princesses seem like the perfect role models. What little girl doesn’t want to be beautiful and utterly lovely when she grows up? These are women that have whole stories based around their dreams and desires – they are main characters in the films that have become ‘traditional’, essential viewing for young girls across the world. Yet there are so many things that are simply wrong about their characters, and they have caused much controversy amongst feminists and media critics.

Much of the controversy stems from the oppressive female stereotype these princesses proliferate to young girls: that superficial beauty is everything, and that their ultimate goal in life should be marriage to a handsome prince.

Of course, the cultural fascination with princesses has been around for ages: many of the Disney films are based on traditional fairy tales and Brothers Grimm tales. But it is Disney’s watered-down, consumerist twist on these tales that makes the contemporary Princess Syndrome so dangerous. As Angela Ndalianis, associate professor of cinema studies at Melbourne Uni has said:

‘Not only are the films fostering the little-princess aesthetic, but they also breed cross-merchandising that’s earning a bundle for entertainment companies who have rights to princess tales. From a historical perspective, the little girl/princess parallel has been there for centuries – but the merchandising associated with conglomeration has amplified its effect; now our little girls can be like their favourite princesses.’

And it’s not just Disney that’s jumped on the princess-bandwagon. Hundreds of other toy-brands, television shows, films etc. have princess themed plots/merchandise. Disney’s Princess range alone covers books, stationary, play castles and toy make-up kits; Barbie has an extensive Princess range too (and several puke-tastically terrible films!), and even supposedly more ‘contemporary’ dolls like Bratz have clear princess-influences in their tiara-bedecked formal dress range. Young girls can of course also buy entire princess costumes, complete with gown, tiara and jewels, so that they can be just like their role models! Even from such a young age, girls are being submerged in the ‘I consume, therefore I am’ culture as they are shown that part of the princess experience is materialistic: ‘getting’ pretty clothes, jewellery, make-up etc.

The princess syndrome prevails in the more up-to-date teen movies of today. The age.com princess syndrome article lists Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, The Prince and Me, Princess Diaries, A Cinderella Story and Ella Enchanted. Even a supposedly more ‘open minded’ film like Mean Girls, in which the main protagonist Cady overcomes the reign of the superficial Plastics and realises her own inner happiness as ‘herself’, the princess image is proliferated. The ‘Queen Bee’ of the story, Regina (subtle!), is shown to have a glamorous lifestyle (the word ‘PRINCESS’ is actually emblazoned across her bedroom - again with the subtlety!) and although this is shown to be not as enviable as it would at first appear by revealing its superficiality, the film is still all about getting prince charming.

But what alternative role models do young girls have? These movies mostly have a female lead. At least these films give the message that, in a world where only 1 in 4 movie roles is female (the same % as the number of female leads) little girls can still be the main character, and events in their lives can revolve around their needs and wants.

And Disney isn’t completely sexist, to be fair. More recent characters like Mulan, Pocahontas and even Belle are far more progressive than their predecessors (completely limp bimbos like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc.). They are by no means perfect – each of these films still results in the princess winning the ‘handsome prince’ – but at least the characters have some spirit. Mulan even tackles some equality issues, as the idea of women being inferior to men is shown to be defunct by the country-saving cross-dressing heroine – who, although at first is ridiculed and disgraced when it is revealed she is a woman, eventually wins the respect and honour of her entire country. This, I feel, is a more respectable role model for young girls.

But does Disney think so? It would appear not. Girls are not encouraged to look or act like these princesses – the only girls’ fancy dress outfits sold by Disney are for the traditional princesses - Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella (plus Belle, though only in glittery ball gown version) – and for fairies, like Tinkerbell. The amount of merchandise available for the more respectable princesses is extremely limited compared to that for the others. Now this may also have something to do with the racial aspect of the characters – Disney is a notoriously racist enterprise – but I think it’s also linked to the gender stereotype Disney perpetuates, which these few characters do not fit exactly into.

But from Snow White (1937) to Mulan (1998), Disney has come a long way, and the gender stereotype has faded slightly – but not enough. Come on, Disney, end the corporate FAIL and start showing young girls that they can follow their hearts to something other than becoming consumerist royalty.

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See this article shown on feministing.com for further views on the Disney Princesses.

And... Happy Transgender Awareness Week! :D

Girl, Poisoned

Destroyx and Z00g of Angelspit

When thinking of what would be a good topic to start off my first ‘real’ blog post, I spent ages sifting through ideas. I could think of several things that would make good posts, but nothing that was suitable as a starting point. I eventually settled on an article about the song ‘Girl Poison’ by the industrial band Angelspit, and how young girls are preyed on by the consumerist industry and the media.

Angelspit are a great inspiration to me: through their individual image, their music, and their general ethos. I would seriously recommend people listen to some of their music. They have a great punk-esque DIY ethic, are super-skilled in music and lyric composition, and have a passion for creativity. A great starting point would be to read their manifesto.

Many of their lyrics are worth discussing, as they are filled with (often ironic) social commentary, mostly with a cyberpunk slant - and the subject matter of ‘Girl Poison’ is, in many ways, typical of their general lyrical concerns.
You can find the lyrics to ‘Girl Poison’ .here

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So, what is girl poison?

Well, a straightforward dictionary definition of a poison is ‘any substance that causes injury or illness or death of a living organism’. In this case, it is a substance that specifically affects girls. Angelspit cite several individual poisons within the lyrics: the girl is ‘full of Ritalin and Codeine’, injected with Silicon, and ‘pumped full of image, sweet as saccharine’. These words are clearly in the medical lexical field: drugs that act as stimulants, analgesics (that relieve pain), and artificial enhancers: image-enhancing (the silicon) and thus enhancing the attractiveness (saccharine is an artificial sweetener) of the girl.

But although all these substances are individual poisons to the girl, it is the umbrella ‘cause’ for the use of these drugs that is the real toxin: a consumerist industry that pressurises girls to meet the fixed criteria for perfection, encouraging artificial modification to achieve a prescribed state of ‘beauty’, and thus worth.

Each process of superficial alteration, whether it be silicon injections, buying set fashions (‘pocket money spent on hot pants’), or simply shaving, gets the girl one step closer to becoming the ‘ideal female’ – in this song represented by the fairytale character Sleeping Beauty. This literary allusion not only places this ideal figure in the realms of fantasy – showing how such perfection is dream-like and unachievable in reality – but the specific choice of Sleeping Beauty, poisoned by a spinning wheel and rendered to a state of comatose for a hundred years, hints at the zombie-like compliance fashion-victim girls are forced into (the girl is kept ‘hammered with girl poison’).

However, although these processes of modification may seem to be making the girl more ‘beautiful’, in reality they are harming the girl – just like poison. The girl is ‘slash[ed] away’ at, ‘publicly degrad[ed]’, weakened with an ‘insect diet’ and has her ‘innocence stolen’. She is reduced from a ‘princess’ or a ‘duchess’ (a girl with power, authority [even if just over herself], and thus true worth) to a ‘sexy little decoration’, an object of sex-appeal to be possessed by someone greater (male), only complementary to the bigger picture; or a ‘pedi-sinister girl next door’, confined to a twisted version of a pop-culture-generated, two-dimensional stereotype. And although the process of image modification had the aim of increasing the ‘worth’ of the girl, through enhancing her beauty artificially, it in fact has the opposite effect: the ‘princess’ (a girl of noble/royal blood – i.e. someone of inner-worth) is corrupted, and becomes ‘meat’ for ‘the dogs’ – vulnerable to male predators and the sex industry.

The girl is weakened both physically, by her increasing dependence on artificial methods of sustaining her image (likened to a drug addiction), and emotionally, as her self-confidence is torn apart. From this fragile state she is exploited again and again by the media and the fashion-industry, as shown by the lyric ‘self doubt is an industry’. The line ‘self harm is a best seller’ relates to how, by targeting girls with beauty products and fashionable clothing that are ‘crucial’ to maintaining their ‘perfect image’, girls are forced to finance their own suffering and degradation.

But can girls be saved? Sleeping Beauty was rescued from her sleep by the kiss of her handsome prince, but it seems that no such fairytale happy ending is in store for the girl in the song. ‘Handsome Princey’ is declared to be as ‘artificial’ as her image, and actually compliant in ‘keeping her hammered with girl poison’. This relates to the pressures girls feel relating to their image with regards to men. Teen magazines constantly tell girls how to dress, wear their make-up, talk, act, etc. to impress guys, to the extent that girls feel they must maintain their superficial image of perfection so that any prospective boyfriend will like them. And, similarly, through the images in lads’ mags, music videos and advertisements of photoshopped models, boys are shown what they should expect from a girl. Because teens are shown this one route to happiness – artificial perfection – they feel they must comply and confine themselves to a stereotype society deems attractive and acceptable.

The reality is human beings crave acceptance in social circles. Because of the way modern society is founded on image and general consensus of ‘fashion’ – what is ‘cool’ and what is not – people are increasingly bound in conforming with these social rules to ensure they are not outcasted. And, as the western world becomes ever more based around corporate lifestyles and twisted media conceptions of uniform ‘beauty’, it becomes increasingly difficult for girls to resist the pressures of the fashion industry, and overcome girl poison.

So, the antidote? Girls should have feelings of self-worth and confidence fostered in them for who they are, not who the fashion industry feels they should be. ‘Beauty’ should once again become a concept that is ‘in the eye of the beholder’, and not just some reproduced corporate image of superficial perfection. And expressions of individuality that are currently repressed by the restrictive climate of our capitalist society should be encouraged to blossom, allowing girls to escape demeaning stereotypes and bloom as their real, beautiful, selves. Impossible? No, but resistance of what Bikini Kill dubbed ‘psychic death’ from the media requires understanding and perseverance on behalf of all grrrl-kind to succeed.