Lessons Through Fairy Tales

Some of Disney's wonderful creation of Fairy Tales

Once Upon a Time... 

There was a man who created the modern understanding of Fairy Tales. His name was Walt Disney, the creator of Disneyland and a number of Disney films. People can agree that the understanding of princess fairy tales have started with Walt Disney.  Fairytales have been around for centuries and allowed people to have an immense imagination.  Fairytales can have the most impact on children because they become fascinated with the idea of a Prince and Princess.  Disney having a timeline of Princesses to the very first being Snow White in the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that came out in 1937 and Cinderella in 1950, etc., and more till this day. Through Walt Disney's creation he was able to inspire children to want to be the princess or prince that they are, he allowed them to live freely with their imagination. Also, the use of fairy tales have been used to influence children and society as a whole to be accepting and live freely. To uphold this idea Disney had to make changes for a better representation on race and gender.

When I was younger (and well till this day I still admire this Princess) I admired Snow White and how pretty and kind she was to her little dwarfs. Whenever I would do something my mom would to say, "I never seen Snow White do that so why are you?" That snapped me back to reality and realized if Snow White doesn't do it I shouldn't either. Or to sit like a Princess and act like a Princess. I also see it with my little cousins and my aunt trying to discipline them. Through this mechanism it helped children to act right because their favorite fairy tale is something the idolized. Children, parents and teachers use fairy tales as a way to teach children lesson and children use fairy tales to understand the real world. Teachers are able to use because it is a great way to guide a student into understanding how things are. In Kate Paterson's research on Using Fairy Tales in the Classroom to Explore Children’s Understandings of Gender she explained that, “Baker-Sperry argued that fairytales offer highly structured and recognizable forms of storytelling for children to interpret and navigate gender norms and expectations” (475). To make things easier for children they use fairy tales to realize that they should be accepting in every way.

Princess Tiana & Princess Elena 

Up until the 21st century majority of Princesses had a very light skin complexion. Until 2016, when Disney came out with the movie Princess and the Frog starring a beautiful African-American Princess, Princess Tiana. By Disney doing this they opened a lot of doors for accepting all types of races. With that, they also decided to air a new show with a beautiful Mexican Princess, Princess Elena. I personally loved that because I am Mexican and to have a Princess on Disney that is apart of my race it feels at home. Through these new princesses it shows that they are willing to bring in different races instead of sticking to one race and not wanting there to be a superior race, an equal thing. Disney has been able to introduce a multiracial fairy tale instead of sticking to one race. I believe this helped a lot with the way children view the real word, since we all see all types of races everyday. It is normal and Disney brought it to film. Not only does race allow children to be accepting, gender has a lot to do with how children view people.

Children can get influenced by the way princesses on film are presented. The gender norms are very stereotypical. In the article From Damsel in Distress to Damsel of Distress by Anna V. Ortiz Juarez-Paz, Rhiannon Kallis and Yiwei Xu they explained that, “The importance of recognizing this notion is because children may begin to believe the stereotypes of people that are shown on television (Signorielli, 2001).” When a young boy sees that a male characters had to save the day, it showed as a male dominance. When a young girl sees a skinny, beautiful princess they feel as if they have to change their appearance to be exactly like them. Eventually, Disney was able to change these gender stereotypes of a prince always coming in to save the day. In 2012 Disney came out with the movie Brave with a strong female role, Princess Merida. She played as princess who would break tradition and become her own version of a princess. In Heather Hamilton’s ‘Brave’ attempt at a New Disney Princess Movie claimed that, “Brave, in this respect, completely breaks the Disney mold in an attempt to acknowledge that not all girls will grow up wanting a prince to take care of them; some want to take care of themselves.” This movie brought a new way of thinking that even a women can save the day and be dominant. By Disney breaking the gender stereotypes it allows children to see that anyone can be the hero of the day and strong independent individuals.

Princess Merida, Brave. Going against the Princess Norms.

Disney helped in enormous ways for children to understand how the real world.  They use fairy tales as a teaching mechanism to understand the reasoning for imagination, race and gender. Also, to teach children to be accepting and understanding of others. Disney was able to uphold that representation by breaking the fairy tale norms with bringing in multiracial characters and non-gender stereotypes. I grew up with all these Disney fairy tales and to see Disney change their ways through race and gender is actually a great thing for generations to come.