Communication, Childhood, and Gender: Girls Around the World Interpret Non-Western Disney Princesses

• In Event: Women and Girls Respond to Media: Using and Interpreting Media Texts and Spaces

Abstract

The authors of this paper noted several multicultural shifts in the Disney Princess brand, and asked: Have Disney princesses surpassed monoculturalism? To what extent are girls learning about multiculturalism from the Disney princesses? We sought answers to these questions by studying 120 girls of various ethnicities from four countries (the United States, India, Fiji, and China) within three age categories (8–10, 11–12, and 13–15). We aimed to investigate what these Western and non-Western girls were learning from Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Mulan, three Disney princesses with non-Western heritage at the time of our study.Our findings, grounded in a comparative consideration of themes emerging from the data, indicate several areas of consensus among our research participants, and several areas of disagreement between girls in Western settings and girls in non-Western settings. Many girls in all the countries included in the study defined princesses, including Disney ones, by reference to an appealing physical presence, and described the Disney princesses with non-Western heritage as not much different from other princesses in Disney animated films. However, most girls in the United States regardless of ethnicity characterized Disney princesses as wealthy and free, expressed a strong desire to be like them, and felt a strong identification with them; yet most girls in India, Fiji, and China characterized Disney princesses as having numerous duties but not being free, lacked the desire to be like them, and did not identify even with the Disney princesses with non-Western heritage.

Authors

• Sorin Nastasia, Southern Illinois U

• Diana Iulia Nastasia, Southern Illinois U

• Charu Uppal, Karlstad U