In my house, 2014 feels like it’s been sponsored by Disney.
Frozen. Frozen. Frozen. We have Elsa costumes, we have the DVD on high-rotation. The CD’s playing in the car. We have Elsa and Anna action figures, we go to Frozen parties, we eat Frozen cake.
The look on my daughter’s face here pretty much sums it up:
But that’s not all. When my almost-5-year-old isn’t tugging on her hair, willing it to grow so she can have an ‘Elsa plait’, she’s ‘being’ Ariel. Ariel the Little Mermaid, who’s been swimming around pop culture since 1989.
My daughter has many, many questions about Ariel.
“How can she hold her breath underwater for so long?” She’s a mermaid.
“Can I be a Mermaid when I grow up?” That would be a no.
“Do sharks eat mermaids?” I would guess, yes.
I fought the Disney princesses for a long time. And then they beat me. My pre-preschooler instincts were that they were lousy role models, and that they promoted a very particular, very narrow view of what women were – in need of saving.
But parenting stiffens your spine in so many ways, and chills you out in so many others. Now that I live in Princess Land. I’ve made my peace. Or have I given up? I suppose I have decided that are many, many more serious things to worry about than the influence of Ariel, Elsa and her mates.
So I don’t want to be”one of those” parents who’s trying to steal away the magic and fantasy of childhood.
BUT. I wish they ate more, these girls.
I wish that the women who are my daughter’s idols, her moon and stars, her (cough, splutter) role models, had even vaguely realistic bodies, instead of waists the size of gnats, wrists like twigs and ankles that would never, ever make it full a whole night of dancing with a prince, handsome or otherwise.
Which is why I LOVE these illustrations, by photographer Loryn Brantz, where she’s taken the princesses and just made them ever so slightly “normal” in the waist department.
Like this:
Because I genuinely don’t understand why the Princesses need to be QUITE SO THIN. Yes, yes, I can just about live with the idea they have to look beautiful and glamorous, and aspirational (just like a “real” princess), but I can’t think of a good reason why they are not just slim – in the ‘this is the western standard of beauty and princesses are beautiful’ kind of way – but in a teeny-tiny, sylph-like, so-light-they’re-almost-invisible way.
And Disney are not backing down on the thin-ness. After flirting with a slightly more human shape with Merida in Brave, they reverted straight to type with the almost feminist Elsa and Anna, neither of whom would have a chance of standing up on those spindly legs in real life.
Sigh. So hope with me that obsessing over these icons isn’t setting up my daughter for a lifetime of “Why don’t I look like that”. And instead enjoy Lauren’s imagined world where the princesses get dinner, as well as a handsome prince.
Loryn Brantz is a two-time Emmy Award-winning illustrator and design professional. She lives in New York where she strives to create works that make people giggle no matter what the medium. You can check out her work here. You can also connect with her via her Facebook or Tumblr accounts.
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Top Comments
Isn't it time we start putting some of the blame back on parents to teach kids the healthy way to be thin? Lets be honest, we ALL at least at one point wished we were thinner than we are, and I don't mean ribs protruding, anorexic looking, I just mean healthy, fit women. I think by having all of these thin celebrities, cartoons etc its giving kids an idea of what to strive towards, and then parents should be coming in and teaching them the right way to get there and maintain it.
I say this as someone who is larger than desired and have been my whole life. My parents didn't teach me a thing about eating healthy - Pizza with Dad and copious amounts of chocolate, soft drink etc with Mum - I was taken for walks and if it wasn't for my siblings, I probably wouldn't of even gone outside.
I'm now on a strict path to slim down and it is bloody hard! I wish I had've had guidance earlier in life.
Growing up with Disney and many other cartoon franchises, I disagree completely. There was never a moment where I wished that I was thin because of the Little Mermaid or any other Disney princess for that matter. And not all princesses were in need of 'saving'. Belle was by far my favourite and always will be. What I took from Belle was not her 'tiny waist' but her love of reading, and self sacrifice for her father and that beauty was skin deep. I'm sorry but let your daughter love Disney as so many other little girls do.
Disney has in no way factored into a lifetime of "Why don't I look like that". It never has and never will. Because I'm completely happy with who I am at now 22 years of age -with (still) a love for reading.
With the recent release of Frozen there are many messages that one can take from that mainly being that Anna was ultimately saved from Elsa and not a prince. Maybe we should concentrate more on that,rather than putting so much focus on the slim figure of Elsa and Anna.