Heteronormativity & Disney

I grew up on Disney movies. I constantly had our family’s Pocahontas VCR tape running in the VHS (I feel so old now) and my eyes stayed glued to the TV the whole time.

I loved seeing this brave, strong-willed woman doing what she wanted.

But back then, I knew nothing about what the reality of Pocahontas’s life would have been like. I did not know women were made to marry men like property. I had no idea what colonization was, and I had no clue about the gruesome event that my favorite fairytale grew from. All I saw was a tall, beautiful, strong woman showing me that I can defy anything meant to restrict me. My restriction: my Mother telling me I couldn’t have long hair unless I clipped it back…I resorted to a pixie cut for years.

I definitely grew up as a Disney queen and had these movies on tape, DVD and Disney Channel (I still feel so old), but I have recently been re-analyzing two movies in particular: Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. These movies that filled hours and hours of my young childhood still hold the childish innocence I first viewed them as because I had yet to see the other layers of the plot, but now I view them a little differently.

With increased discussion about the responsibility to increase diverse representation broadly, especially in media like movies, I thought back to how these movies may have impacted my development. I do not think Disney movies negatively affected me growing up in terms of my strength as woman or making me depend on love for happiness and security. But then, again, I am a white, cisgender, heterosexual female. I was always represented in these movies. Whether or not this reflects more on our society than Disney is a different discussion.

What these childhood movies did do to me was heteronormalize my perspective from an early age. These movies reinforced the notion that heteronormativity is “normally” or “naturally” occurring in society by way of failing to represent any other type of relationship…obviously a false and archaic idea. Similarly, I only ever saw on-screen characters represent heterosexuality. The repetition of these relationships and images creates heteronormalized conversation, pushing homosexuality, asexuality, and other non-hetero sexual orientations outside of Disney’s portrayal of “conventional” societal bounds.

If you can start to see why this may be a problem for societal development (our youth is our future type of thing), you’re on the right track.

Families in Disney movies always had a mother and father figure (but why does the mother always die?) and often centered around a young woman being pursued by a man, in need of saving, or both. This set the stage for the movie to end in the creation of yet another heterosexual, gender-normative relationship.

But as a child, I did not think too deeply about the plot lines or the underlying messages. I did not think anything of Ariel’s love story with Prince Erik. Choosing to lose your voice to love a man? Regaining your voice only when he kisses you and loves you back? What an…interesting…plot to present young girls all across the world. Only saying it now do I realize how backwards and anti-feminist it is.

I also did not think anything of Belle’s prisoner-guard relationship with the Beast, in which the Beast will not free Belle but tries to make her fall in love with him. This movie romanticizes another odd silencing and restrictive setting that depicts women as prisoners who are only set free once loved by a man and once they love that man back.

A love-your-oppressor situation, romanticizing relationships that may not start healthy, but “end” in one.

Disney films showed me scenarios in which women felt as though they were the leading role, even though a lot of their actions were strongly influenced by men. The Disney movies we watched for hours as young girls and boys did not set the stage for moving closer to a future of full equality. Rather, it showed more division of the sexes. And don’t even get me started on how unhealthy the female relationships were in Disney movies. My young idol was a princess unwittingly kissed out of her coma and poisoned by her stepmother.

The women in the roles of the three Disney movies I discussed demonstrate courage and determination. They often had to think alone and strategize. Sadly, much of this strategy work devolves into figuring out how to make a man fall in love with them, or in Belle’s case get a man to set her free from being a prisoner. I find the notion worrisome: showing young girls strong female leads that they grow to love, but then coupling these women and their efforts with literal male-oriented goals.

Although I don’t think these pervasive themes in Disney movies poorly affected me, I do believe that moving forward, it is important for media to showcase a diverse array of healthy romantic relationships as well as to stop perpetuating a narrative of women orienting their goals solely around men. Princess movies are fine, but not when the plotline is only about love and men. Take Brave as an example, the movie is a healthy step forward featuring a strong female lead…and only a strong female lead. Plotlines don’t always need a love interest to swoop in and make everything better, so let’s start writing the stories we actually will be living in the new decade so more little boys and girls can actually fantasize about.

By Harper Wayne

BU Student, self-published author, and an enthusiastic thrifter with a soft spot for rainy days.