Since the Disney renaissance began with the rise of “The Little Mermaid,” Disney princesses have gained skills and independence, becoming true, modern women. However, many have gained these traits at the cost of their voices.
Carmen Fought and Karen Eisenhauer created a project looking at who has the most dialogue in Disney princess films. Despite “Snow White,” “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty” being hopeless, dated and misogynistic, women spoke most of the words in each film.
Since the Disney Renaissance, only two films have had women speaking at least 50 percent of the dialogue: “Tangled” and “Brave.” “Tangled” features a female protagonist and antagonist where women only manage 52 percent of the dialogue. “Brave,” which is focused on a mother-daughter relationship, came in with a whopping 74 percent. Even “Frozen,” the utter phenomenon featuring two female protagonists, only has women speaking 41 percent of the dialogue.
What does this mean? Modern Disney women are more skilled and distinctive that their predecessors, but their voices and opinions continue to be placed on the back burner in their own films. Beyond the protagonists, there are few female background characters. Disney continues to perpetuate the idea that the default person is male.
The majority of Disney sidekicks are male. The only notable female sidekicks with dialogue are Mrs. Potts in “Beauty and the Beast” and Charlotte LaBouff in “The Princess and the Frog.” The various people the princesses interact with are male. There’s nothing wrong with men being involved. Men can and should be characters in Disney Princess films, but not at the cost of women.
Pixar films are incredibly male-dominated. There is only one Pixar film with a female protagonist.
Disney princess films shouldn’t have to be gender equitable when other Disney films are already so unequal. It’s ridiculous that women have to fight for dialogue in films that are built around women and produced with young girls in mind (which in itself is problematic). It’s wonderful that Ariel is spunky and rebellious and that Tiana is a young entrepreneur. But those traits cannot come at the expense of their voices.
As a young girl, I wasn’t particularly attached to Disney Princesses. I was fond of Belle for her intellectualism and love of books, but men have 71 percent of the dialogue. Gaston would be ecstatic!
I don’t have the ability to make Disney get its act together and give young women examples to follow. They’ve made great strides, but I don’t think they deserve a standing ovation for daring to give princesses skills and personality.
