Hey guys welcome back to my channel! And before we get into the video I just want
to say thank you to all of my subscribers and my Patron because
honestly it makes me so happy to know that there are people who actually care
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becoming a patron please think of doing so because every little amount helps. So
thank you so much and let's start the video. So the Disney princess discourse
can basically be summarized into three distinct periods...
The first being Disney princesses are terrible influences for your child,
the second being Disney princesses are actually woke though, to now - Disney
Princesses are just characters that have very little real world stakes, and
honestly we should have been at this third period a long time ago. Hey guys
welcome back to my channel and today we're going to talk about how the Disney
Princess discourse has changed. So I watch a lot of Disney princess analysis
videos on YouTube and initially that was because a lot of the videos at first
confirmed a lot of my own biases that the Disney Princesses were hurting
womankind or something like that. Then as time went on the discourse changed and
began the challenge a lot of my preconceived notions. The popular
discourse that started in the early to mid 2010 made by bad faith critics who
could care less about feminism made the argument that Belle had Stockholm
Syndrome, but this was replaced by the inevitable backlash with videos like
Belle Doesn't Have Stockholm Syndrome, Ariel Didn't Get Legs for a Guy, and
Jasmine Was Never Speechless. And this period basically started in the mid 2010s
and continues to this day. And this made me wonder why do we need to twist
everything that a woman does into something empowering? Why can't women
just do? And I can see that Ellis' argument isn't necessarily that Belle's
an empowered woman, but rather that we have dismissed her as "dumb" and have forgotten
the actual questionable parts of the movie because of bad faith criticism. But
as the Disney princess discourse starts anew in the second decade of the
millenia, I ask, so what if Ariel did get legs for a guy? So part one...
The change in the discourse. So first off where did this pushback of the original
Belle was actually woke though even come from?
Well first Bell and the other Disney Renaissance princesses were originally
written as empowering and I think a lot of people forget that. But the push back
online is more targeted at the Disney remakes, which try to "woke-ify" they're
dated films. And in a lot of ways these movies are dated, however the stuff
that's the most dated for example the race stuff or the lgbtq+ representation
isn't something that these remakes try to fix, rather these remakes try to
commodify feminism. And these new Disney remakes were heavily informed by the
online discourse at the time and that early online discourse was mainly
dominated by Honest Trailers, Cinema Sins, Screen Rant, etc, which is problematic
because that's not good media criticism! And though these channels started out as
fun ventures, not to be taken too seriously, they've gotten so big that
Disney executives, as well audiences, think they're taking part in a real
discussion about how good a film is. However these channels started around
seven years ago, which in internet years is like thirty. Most people nowadays know
that Cinema Sins Everything Wrong With videos isn't actually good criticism, but
when these remakes were being written and produced these videos were in their
heyday, and I admittedly liked watching them in 2016. I used to really like
bashing on Disney movies until I saw this video. And honestly I think that
this video changed the Disney discourse game. The Take's video
opened my eyes and many other people's eyes to the fact that hating Disney
Princesses isn't a personality trait. The Take's video helped me see Disney
Princesses as well thought-out characters. And I think the Disney
Princesses tend to get lumped together a lot, when in reality they each have their
own unique story. Some of their stories are empowering and some of them aren't and I
honestly don't think that Disney Princesses need to be empowering, rather,
I think that we need to change our definition of what empowering is. When
you argue that Ariel didn't get legs for a guy you imply that if she did get legs
for a guy that would be bad, so I personally think that we need to change
the discourse from Disney Princesses are empowering because they don't do things
for men to Disney Princesses are empowering because they're all unique
and complex individuals. Hey guys, I'm just hopping on while editting like usual and
I just want to talk a little bit about my spicy-hot take about um so what if
Ariel got legs for a guy? Um I hate this idea that if a woman does something to
please a man she's automatically bad or wrong or not empowering herself or
internalizing the patriarchy or whatever because it really does take a woman's
agency away - that women can think on their own, and you know so what if Ariel
did get legs for a guy? Like what if she really did? And you know who cares is if
she did? She shouldn't be judged on her willingness to want to please
someone that she's in love with? Like I don't know... it's just very strange to me
how we always have to twist things when it comes to women nowadays into
something empowering. Oh her doing X Y or Z wearing you know
revealing clothing, oh no that's just for herself you know. It's like it could be
for other people and we don't need to like bash on her or anything.
Another thing, and this is a huge tangent, but with Selena Gomez's song,
I think it's called Good For You, and I was reading like the lyrics on lyric
genius and you know she puts her own meanings to the lyrics there
and I was reading it and she commented on the lyric page that the song Good
For You a lot of people misinterpret it because they think that I'm dressing up
for a man, but it's actually about dressing for yourself. Like???
Nothing in this song really implies that and it just seems like she's either
trying to get feminist points or trying to you know market herself as an empowered
woman or whatever. You can still be an empowered woman and dress for a guy like
I don't know. It just irks me how nowadays everything a woman does
needs to be empowering. Like why can't women, like I said earlier in the video,
just be? Just do? Without them like losing feminist points or not being woke?
Sometimes women dress for men. That's it. Like there's nothing
good or bad about that. It's just something that people do because women
are people. All right that's it for my spicy hot take, let's get back to the video.
Part 2, So you don't let your daughter watch Disney Princess movies?
Before the Disney discourse changed to Disney princesses are actually woke
though, much of the bad faith criticism came from parents who thought if their
kid watched a Disney princess movies their daughter too would become a damsel
in distress. Though I agree that the Disney Princesses need to be more
diverse, in more ways than one, I honestly don't think letting your kid watch and
play with Disney princess toys is bad. However, a lot of parents I've met over
the past two years really hold this belief, that if they let their kid watch
a Disney princess movie that they'll become helpless. And this Dogma was
passed down to me by college professors, bosses, etc, who helped indoctrinate me
into also hating Disney Princess movies. But now that I'm not a baby anymore this
hot take is just like??? It blows my mind. I said this before,
but I'll say it again, Disney Princesses aren't the sole cause for your kids
self-esteem issues! Rather they're fictional characters that are informed
by societal biases at any given moment. Disney Princesses are more like symptoms
of racism, queer phobia, etc, and not actually the root cause of those things.
And this doesn't mean that the Disney Princesses are perfect or that their
movies are perfect or that some of the early Disney discourse about talking
about Belle having Stockholm Syndrome wasn't helpful because I do think that
we should question media, of course, but at the same time a lot of it was made in
bad faith and I totally agree with that. That a lot of people overlook the actual
problems in the movie to just get a clickbait title. I think girls
are smart enough to form their own opinion about the Disney Princesses
without their woke father telling them that Disney Princesses are a bad
influence because that will only get their daughters into hating girls who
actually like the Disney Princesses and then you're not helping anyone.
So part 3 Who really gives a shit? I honestly don't care if Ariel got legs
for a guy, if Bell has Stockholm Syndrome, because those points were made by pop
feminists or by people who use the guise of feminism in order to ruin something
for someone else. Ariel, my favorite Disney Princess, is a great and strong
character. And her getting legs because of Eric or not has no bearing on that. A
woman's value is not based on if she's desired by or desires a man. Does Belle
have Stockholm Syndrome? Who honestly gives a fuck? Once you realize that
Disney Princesses are characters, and though do you have some real world
implications, aren't making women stay in abusive relationships, the more you can
just start enjoying things again. Again, this doesn't mean that these movies are
flawless, but rather that these superficial points have been highlighted
to death. The actual flaws in the films, for example Ariel getting married at the end,
the townspeople in Beauty and the Beast just being an unruly brainless mob, and
how Jasmine and the other princesses of color are more sexualized than their
white counterparts, are rarely ever talked about because they don't get
clicks. What I want to see more than anything is a movie with strong and
diverse characters, and I don't think that going back and remaking films from
30 years ago and de-problematizing them is the answer to that. We need new
stories......
We need new stories with good racial representation, lgbtq+
representation, with characters that are out, disability representation, fat
representation, etc. We just need more representation guys! But of course that
doesn't make money, so let's just keep commodifying feminism. But honestly do we
even want Disney and studios like Disney to be making people of color lead films
at this point? You know probably not, but they literally own everything so it just
makes it that much harder for independently lead studios to get funding
and it's just really frustrating. So that's it guys. That's the end of the
video. I really hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the online Disney
discourse and how it's changed. I really hope that in the 2020s we just kind of
you know forget about the Renaissance Disney Princesses for a while and like
start focusing on new characters because I honestly couldn't care less at this
point about the Renaissance Disney Princesses. They've been talked about to
death and I really want to see new stuff that isn't Disney remakes, but
probably these videos about Disney Renaissance princesses will continue
because they're remaking all of them this decade so yeah. Alright that's the end of the
video, I hope you enjoyed and if you did please like, comment,
subscribe, and think about becoming a patron or follow me on Twitter - links
down below - and I'll see you in the next one bye :)