Final Project: The Princess Diet

Most girls grow up with the Disney princess movies among their all time favorites to watch. Starting at spongey ages before they can even begin to comprehend the world around them, girls are sat down in front of these movies, and surely soak up a good amount of the subtle (and some not so subtle) messages that are portrayed in them.

We all know about the damsel in distress motif in nearly all of these movies, and this helpless portrayal of women is not to be forgotten, but what I have focused on in my analysis of these cult classic movies, is the relationship between the princess and the food. Whether it be through cooking, rhetoric about food, or actually eating (although this rarely happens), there are clear themes relating to food and hunger that span decades of princess movies, and consequently influence the young minds of multiple generations of girls.

We know from Bell Hook’s that the power of seeing yourself portrayed in media is huge. People of all ages model themselves after the characters that they see on the screen, and since Disney princess movies are geared toward young children, the ways in which these images can make an impact on their emotional development is not easily understated.

I’ve focused on the first eight Disney princess movies, and have written about them on this blog, The Princess Diet. Since I analyzed the movies and wrote the blogs in chronological order, I encourage them to be read that way, but don’t hesitate to click ahead to your favorite movie!

https://princessdiet.home.blog/

Bibliography

Bell Hooks, In Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston: South End Press, 1992), 115-31

Kilbourne, Jean. “Beauty and The Beast of Advertising.” The Drum, The JMS Group, www.thedrum.com/news/2015/09/09/beauty-and-beast-advertising-2.

Kilbourne, Jean. “‘The More You Subtract, the More You Add’: Cutting Girls down to Size.” DeepDyve, Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company, 1 Jan. 2004, www.deepdyve.com/lp/psycbooks-reg/the-more-you-subtract-the-more-you-add-cutting-girls-down-to-size-xmQ3OQwrMW.

Pearson, Steve. “What Happened in 1937 Important News and Events, Key Technology and Popular Culture.” What Happened in 2006 Inc. Pop Culture, Prices and Events, www.thepeoplehistory.com/1937.html.