What's With the Princess Hate?

You’ve probably already seen the Nostalgia Critic’s editorial:
[url]- YouTube

So what are your thoughts on princesses?

I love them! I wish people would stop saying they’re bad role models because they get married. That is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard. Personally I think each princess has her lesson to teach.

Also I LOVE the new Nostalgia Critic. I’m so glad he does more serious videos now.

I’ve only seen this one and the nit-picking video but they’re not bad. I still prefer the real Doug Walker but I think I should look up some of these newer ones as well!

mmmm…I cant say I personally hate them. I’m kinda indifferent toward them, mainly cuz i’m not really a princess-y type girl. I dont have a favorite princess or anything. Although, I was totally into Ariel when I was 4 and I did have a Jasmine dress up set…

I’m honestly disgusted when people hate on the princesses because they’re not Feminist enough. What does that even mean? Why does every female character have to be a functioning Feminist? That’s pretty limiting. And since nobody seems to have noticed in the 30’s/50’s/whatever it wasn’t really okay to make a family film show casing a woman going around kicking butt. It’s all about the conventions of the time. Each princess/heroine has a pretty clear lesson to teach. And personally, I think kindness and generosity, are more important than anything else you can take away from a movie.

And that’s sort of the problem I have with some (not all) fans of Merida. Its one thing if you like this characters, but I’ve seen fans diss the other princesses as if they were just 1950s housewives with no importance. In fact, I don’t really think Merida is a good example of feminism; if anything, her mother was the stronger character.

I like Merida, but there I agree 100%. I HATE it when people who are obviously too simple to understand differences in personality and time period use Tiana, Mulan, Merida etc as a battering ram with which to pummel Snow White, Aurora and Cinderella. There is nothing “wrong” with femininity and kindness. :imp:

We don’t really need this thread, there’s already a NC topic. One of the rules of this board is not to make duplicite threads or threads that are in relation. Because this is about the NC it goes in the NC post. Now, if this was Doug being himself it coulf be it’s on thread, but it’s not. We have a Disneycember thread becsue it’s diffrent from the Critic, it’s Doug being Doug. We don’t need a thread for every NC epsiode, this isn’t a NC board. You can make a thread for Chester A Bum, Dreamworks-uary, Sibling Rivilary, etc, as long as it’s not NC or Disneycember. While it is Disney related it still shoudln’t have it’s own thread because it’s NC related, might as well just make a thread for every NC epsiode. You’re new so I won’t blame you for this.

Thanks. David

I’m kinda indifferent toward them, mainly cuz i’m not really a princess-y type girl.

I understand lots of people have different views of how exactly to define “feminism”, but to me, all of the Disney girls are important in various ways.

I do think Merida, Tiana, Mulan and the other more recent, more typically “feminist” princesses are excellent additions to the line and help to add diversity. But above all, for me, I admire a heroine who is kind and caring. I think those three girls are fully capable of that so I like them, but people practically scold earlier Disney princesses because they’re more passive or gentle. Um, pardon, but why would you expect movies made in the 30s and 50s to be a modern-day definition of feminism? :confused: How is that even realistic?

I think heroines like Cinderella and Snow White are still excellent because they chased their dreams, and were kind people. Why can’t we just value that? If we’re really to celebrate diversity, we should include the less assertive girls as well. It’s like people that think characters like Fluttershy in MLP are “less feminist” because they don’t have a rougher personality. I think feminism should be about embracing who you are regardless of what others think, and if what you are is a dainty, pretty, feminine girl, then you shouldn’t be told you need to be anything different. :confused:

Okay, I flew off into a mini tangent. 8D I’m sorry. But I’ll always defend Disney girls, man

I loved your tangent! I have favorites, and least favorites. But they are all good, and they all have a good lesson to teach. :smiley:

I cant say I personally hate them.

I remember some people saying things about how “Disney should make a princess with no hair so that every girl suffering from a cancer (from which they’ve lost all their hair) can feel beautiful.”

That’s a nice sentiment, but I don’t think people understand. Cancer is not something beautiful or uplifting. It would be insulting at best to have a fairytale about cancer.

I’m moving this to the Other Animation forum.

I can kind of understand some of the criticisms of the princesses. A lot of them do get married to guys they haven’t known for very long. But then again, when I was a kid I already knew this wasn’t realistic, so I doubt there are many little girls out there who are using the movies as a model for real life (and besides, the more recent films have tried to show the relationship developing more gradually). And Snow White and Aurora don’t really get to respond to the villain themselves- their friends have to confront them for them. Which isn’t a bad thing in itself- Snow White’s pretty kind, so I doubt she’d go seeking revenge or anything- but it kind of puts them in the position of being victims of the villain without having to do much themselves to recover.

That said, I wish people who criticise the movies would remember that they are based on pre-existing stories. I’ve seen so many people complaining about aspects of the films that were taken from the fairy tales as though Disney came up with those story elements themselves. And the time periods the films were made in too- how many films from the 1930s receive the kind of scrutiny that Snow White does today? And a lot of people tend to act as though ‘Disney’ is a single homogenous mass- they don’t seem to realise that the new films are made by entirely different crews to the old ones.

I also wish that when people say they want a certain kind of Disney protagonist to be created (of a certain race, sexuality, appearance, or disability) they often phrase it as ‘I think they should make an X princess/prince’. I suppose this is Disney’s fault for marketing their princess characters more than most of their other characters, but honestly I’d rather not see Disney release a hundred films about princesses. This is not to say that these characters shouldn’t be created, just that they shouldn’t all be required to be princesses.

I find real-life princess obsessions kind of weird though. I’m English, but I find the fascination some people have with our Royal Family (and its existence in general) kind of baffling.

What you said about the time periods, yes. A thousand times yes. I hate everyone comparing Snow White or Aurora to Mulan or Merida to disparage the older one. It isn’t correct, and it’s not fair.

I don’t know if it’s so much hate as hype backlash; basically, Disney being able to churn out REALLY similar formulas multiple times over and still make a killing because PRINCESSES while more original works are on the back burner.

I mean, I don’t hate Frozen. I like Frozen. I thought Frozen was cute. When it became the highest grossing animated film of all time, I wanted to bang my head against the wall. Same goes for the hype around Brave - I might not be so “MEH” about it if it wasn’t hyped up as some beacon of feminism when the rebellious princess has been done 1000 times.