Let’s talk about the popular Disney Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty for a bit. I’m choosing to go with her because a lot of people are not familiar with her story, and in my opinion- it is rather unfortunate. Technically, she is only thrown around the plot of the tory according to the convenience f the more powerful characters. For example, to begin with, Aurora was cursed by Maleficent solely because Maleficent was in a sour mood and poor Aurora ended up with the after-effect of infuriating n already raging evil being, not or a particular fault of her own. Again, when her three guardian fairies chose to escape the palace to live out in the forest to evade the curse of the spindle, she was unaware of the underlying “reality” f her world. She simply lived here with the animals and birds and she was nice to them until she met Prince Philip. The decision of er later being brought back to the palace was made by her father because he missed her and gradually, she had no role to play at all beside acting as the grand prize of the Prince that fought the evil and did all the heavy lifting.

Now, my point is pretty simple, that is, she was objectified through and through because the plot required it. Prince Philip as a character had more substance because of his ultimate purpose of defeating the evil. Maleficent was probably the strongest character because she did as she pleased and it was accepted for evil does as it pleases and one can’t possibly question the requirements of the antagonist, or at least it used to be the case. The three fairies had substance as well considering they were magical and hell bent on trying to save Aurora. The might of the King’s desire was also evidently greater than the purpose of Aurora. But would you take a look at the promotions, marketing and even the name of the story? Mention of The Sleeping Beauty is all it takes to remember the story, if at all. Next stop: Ariel. The daughter of King Triton had the life, mere human mortals can only ever dream of. She was a princess, which might explain her boredom towards her privileged life. So naturally she had to have anything and everything she desired. Hey, I’m definitely on board with wanting to discover the world and venturing out there on her own but tragically her real incentive arrived when she wanted to be with the guy she saved and barely knew. Seriously, what is up with Disney preppy Princesses wanting to spend the rest of their lives with men they barely knew, anyway? The Little Mermaid was one of the few Disney movies I used to watch regularly as a puny child. When I was finally old enough to analyze it, the movie took a back seat, probably one of the last seats on my list-to be precise. I just wish she had a greater, more purposeful incentive to create all the havoc she ended up creating. She could definitely take notes from Moana, just saying.

Now we will take a look at Snow White’s stepmother, I mean how deplorable was she? She just had to be the fairest of them all. Children were supposed to be taking it in but at the cost of what? All in all, the Princesses, in a way or another had the coveted duty of being the reward of the otherworldly charming Princes that save the said Princesses to exude the generalized and promulgated idea of masculinity. Take a look at Cinderella for example, she mostly cried and felt helpless while her Prince looked for her with the help of one of her glass slippers (let’s all continue to still pretend that the magic kept the glass slippers intact for the two to end up together). I’m not about to take a leap at the “animal care” seen in almost every Disney movie because, honestly, they are one of very definitions of Disney and Disney wouldn’t be itself if there were a lack of undeniably ebullient animals. For the sake of ending things on a high note, I must mention my favorite Mulan for being the powerhouse that she was/is. Not

only was she motivated by righteousness, she prevailed and she obliterated the then prejudiced notion of what a woman can or cannot do. Speaking of brilliant works, are you aware that The Lion King was inspired by Hamlet!? I only recently found that out and I felt deficient for not previously making the connection, then again can you blame me? The Lion King had a happy ending and everything did end in sunshine and rainbows unlike a certain misanthropic Prince; my point being, misanthropy does not help. Peter Pan ought to be appreciated for the story encourages wild dreams while successfully managing to engage the audience.

If you are an adult you’ve possibly have had times when you felt like going back to your golden days, so as to be able to live like a child forevermore. If you haven’t been there, then what are you doing?

* Photo credit: Collected from Internet source