Is Disney Really Trying to Reform?

Melanie Anish, Features Editor

As 2017 approaches, the gender equality gap is narrowing, but big corporations like Disney are struggling to keep up with this trend. Part of Disney’s efforts to catch up include creating the “Princess Principles.”

These new principles include: care for others, live healthily, don’t judge a book by its cover, be honest, be a friend you can trust, believe in yourself, right wrongs, try your best, be loyal, and never give up.

Throughout Disney’s ninety-three years of filmmaking, it has been very apparent to parents how misogynistic the classic fairy tales truly are. And parents have been concerned that if we continue to provide movies like Sleeping Beauty, where the woman is practically dead and can only be saved by a man, then future generations will only perpetuate our patriarchal society.

So, new innovative movies like Frozen, where all the male characters are secondary, and the newest Princess Principles, begin to prove to parents that Disney is taking baby steps towards present-day egalitarian beliefs.

But is this really the case?

A parent of two, English teacher Mrs. Erin Gastaldi explained how her children recently received Disney-produced book sets for her children. The Minnie Mouse book set for her daughter includes details about shopping and described how to be fabulous. In contrast, her son’s Mickey Mouse book set includes details about how to read, write, and learn.

It was extremely clear to Mrs. Gastaldi that there was no educational value in her daughter’s gift. But in her son’s gift, everything was based around education and success for the future.

When asked if Mrs. Gastaldi believes that Disney is truly beginning to change its misogynistic brand, she replied, “I appreciate Frozen, but I don’t think that the shift at Disney is corporation-wide. And I don’t think that the shift exists throughout everything that Disney produces. I was appalled that in 2014, there would be such a dramatic contrast between what we are giving our little boys to read and what we are giving our little girls to read.”

And as Disney shows some signs of trying to transform the company and products, many parents are still concerned about their children obtaining the wrong morals from princess movies.

But, Disney is not quite ready to give up on its multimillion-dollar brand of princesses just because parents have begun to take a stand.

Throughout the Disney stores in the United States and Canada, misogynistic products are still flaunted in front of and sold to children.

So the real question is, will Disney be able to give up its multimillion-dollar princess brand in order to please society’s demands for gender equality?