Parents have been telling their children bedtime stories, centered around fairy tales, for what seems like forever. In 1923, Walt Disney Company was founded, forever changing the world of story-telling. Before Disney, and the commercialization of ‘happily ever after’, fairy tales were placed in which children found solace: young girls could be princesses and young boys could be knights in shining armor without any consequences. Now, after Disney, the freedom of imagination once found in fairy tales no longer exists; children have to fit into the mold of characters that have been stereotyped by Disney Princess Culture. Stories that started as a way to help one’s child sleep peacefully have exploded into a daytime nightmare.
At BYU, a new study by family life professor Sarah M. Coyne shows how the culture of Disney has helped to perpetuate stereotypes through children, especially young girls. Published in Childhood Development, the study examined 198 child participants and tested them twice, about a year apart. The purpose of the study was to see how exposure to Disney Princess media and products affected young children’s body image, gender-stereotypical behavior,and prosocial behavior.
To start off, Coyne and her research team evaluated the level of exposure each child had to Disney Princess culture, based mainly on feedback from parents and teachers. The children were also involved and given a task in which they picked and ranked their favorite toys out of a collection made up of stereotypical ‘boy’ toys, ‘girl’ toys, and gender-neutral options.
From these tests, researchers found that 96 percent of girls and 86 percent of boys were subject to Disney Princess culture, 61 percent of the girls and four percent of boys playing with princess toys. Regardless of gender, more interaction with Disney Princess culture in the first testing was a prediction of more female-gender stereotypical behavior in the second testing.
Exposure to Disney Princess culture yielded positive results for boys. The boys who engaged with Disney Princess product and media had higher body esteem and were more helpful, implying the necessity of more feminine
However, for girls these learned behaviors were more dangerous, as they led to feelings of limited options and helplessness, as voiced by Coyne:
“Girls who strongly adhere to female gender stereotypes feel like they can’t do some things. 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 and experiment with things.”
Along with this, higher interaction with Disney Princess culture was shown to lead to lower body esteem for girls, as they tried to mirror what they were told was beautiful. Coyne sees this as the beginning of a sense of body shame:
“Disney Princesses represent some of the first examples of exposure to the thin ideal. As women, we get it our whole lives, and it really does start at the Disney Princess level, at age three and four.”
When contacted, Coyne urged parents to “really consider the long-term impact of the princess culture.” Of course, this doesn’t mean that parents have to completely cut Disney out of their children’s lives. It simply means that like all things, Disney Princess culture should be engaged with in moderation.
There are so many things in the world for children to learn about and explore. Instead of immersing them in a commercial life, take them outside, read them classics, teach them to draw, make mud pies, bake. Children are only young once, and what they should be most engaged in is their families, friends, and learning more about the world around them.
