Princesses rule again, with a purpose
COMMENT: The women’s movement is repossessing royalty, but is that really helping the cause?
An unexpected hero emerged when millions of concerned citizens lined the streets for the Women’s March two weeks ago. It wasn’t an outspoken celebrity like Madonna, Miley Cyrus or Jane Fonda or a noteworthy activist like Gloria Steinem or six-year-old Sophie Cruz. It was a fictional princess best known in some circles for donning a gold bikini.
Among signs mocking U.S. President Donald Trump were posters extolling Princess Leia. Images of the Star Wars character were a frequent sight across North America, often paired with slogans like “A woman’s place is in the resistance,” “The women strike back” and “Don’t Leia a hand on my health care.” After the fact, the Washington Post dubbed Princess Leia an “unofficial symbol for the Women’s March” and Vanity Fair called her the “surprising face of the rebellion.”
It seems counterintuitive that a progressive feminist movement seeking things like equal pay and access to birth control would embrace a princess as its de facto mascot. Surely, there are non-fictional women with real job titles to idolize.
Despite the resurgence of feminism, our culture’s collective princess fetish remains strong. Before she became a symbol of the march, petitions to crown Leia an official Disney princess circled the Internet in the weeks following Carrie Fisher’s death. Our appetite for all things Kate Middleton is insatiable and Canadians were recently delighted to discover a potential princess story (Meghan Markle) in our very midst. The fervour over Markle, Prince Harry’s girlfriend, was so strong that tabloids attempted to bribe her former partners and friends for scoops.
Disney itself certainly hasn’t slowed down the unstoppable princess machine. Frozen’s Elsa is one of the most popular animated characters in recent memory and fans can barely contain their excitement for Polynesian princess Moana.
Even Emma Watson, who speaks to the United Nation about women’s rights and leads the organization’s #HeForShe campaign, plays classic Disney princess Belle in the upcoming live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.
Princesses, and Disney princesses in particular, faced a backlash starting in the late ’90s and early 2000s over criticisms they present an idealized view of women, unrealistic beauty standards and an unhealthy willingness to do anything to “get the prince.” Parents became wary of introducing their daughters to the likes of Snow White, Ariel and Sleeping Beauty.
Meanwhile, the tragic death of Princess Diana, along with the Royal Family’s perceived mistreatment of her, cast a harsh and unflattering light on what it meant to live out a real-life royal fairy tale. People loved her not because of her bejewelled crown, but because of all the ways she embodied an anti-princess.
In June 2016, a study by Brigham Young University confirmed early exposure to Disney princesses makes preschoolers more susceptible to gender stereotypes. Those stereotypes can have long-term damaging effects.
“We know that girls who strongly adhere to female gender stereotypes feel like they can’t do some things,” said BYU Prof. Sarah M. Coyne. “They’re not as confident that they can do well in math and science. They don’t like getting dirty, so they’re less likely to try to experiment with things.”
Yet obsessive princess culture is on the rise again — even among self-proclaimed feminists. Many feminists, especially millennial women who grew up on a steady diet of Disney, are convinced princesses can be a symbol of female empowerment rather than subjugation.
However, we can’t judge feminism’s success by the status of its most privileged supporters. A rights movement should be judged by the treatment of its most disenfranchised members.
Feminism still struggles to support working-class, poor and minority women. No matter how fondly we remember Cinderella or how badass Princess Leia was when she killed Jabba the Hutt, it’s difficult to imagine a movement that aims for equality moving forward while idolizing age-old symbols of inequality.