~ icon by adisneysoul on tumblr ~
For a group of people that claim to be supporting of all women and their ventures, the mistreatment that the classic princesses very often get from them is rather surprising. To a majority of feminists, the women they are catering to is the new-age, I-can-do-it-all superwoman who don't need no man *hand snap*. They believe that all women should fit into that box and if they don't, they're deprived, misguided, and backwards. The Classic Princesses are what many feminists would think of as men-slaving monsters, whose only desire is to have a man, to cater to a man, to be loved sa pamamagitan ng a man? Is that true? Pfft, is the sky green?
Let's look at Snow White. At the beginning of the film, she's pag-awit about wanting someone to pag-ibig her, which is innocent enough. Snow White is living in a situation where the only human she's ever been in contact with, or at least only human she's been in contact with that we've seen, is her evil step mother. Snow White probably heard stories growing up about gallant knights and princes coming to save the princess and she wished that of herself. She wished to have someone who could ipakita her pag-ibig and that isn't a problem whatsoever.
She meets him, is overjoyed, but it's not as if she's all over him and has Nawawala all self dignity. She remains composed and not at all men-obsesed like the media likes to paint classic princesses. Then she loses him and doesn't even dwell on it. She sings a song about it yet, but that's far from dwelling. She takes the loss rather well, moving on from it, thinking about where she'll find her susunod shelter and all in all thinking clearly-and after almost being murdered!
susunod let's look at Cinderella. Sinderella hardly even once mentions a desire of finding a man! Sinderella seems rather content without a man, if anything her wish is just to get out of her abusive household. When she does find Prince Charming at the ball, he seems to the one madami infatuated with her than she is of him. Aurora's situation too is very similar to Snow. She's grown up all her life isolated, the only human contact being three old women, so her desires to find a prince and be whisked away are hardly irrational. She's even willing to give him up so that she can fulfill her duties, again, hardly man-slaving.
So it's rather obvious that the classics are anything but irrationally man obsessed, but the real tanong is if they were, would it be a problem? The answer to that tanong is no, in my opinion. The very mission, or at least so called mission, of feminists is to give all women the freedom to make choices, have opinions, be equals. If a woman wants to be loved be a man, wants to be a housewife, that doesn't make her backwards and misguided, it makes her someone capable of having opinions for herself.
The Classic Princesses aren't wrong in wanting a man, neither is any woman who wants to be loved sa pamamagitan ng a man. If that was their only desire it would be a bit of a problem, but each of the princesses are ibingiay desires and wishes outside of men which makes them well rounded and believable characters.
Feminists also claim that the only things Classics do is clean, and of course cleaning = brainless housewife who doesn't have a "real" profession. It's rather demeaning that the role of housewife is so often criticized sa pamamagitan ng feminists, seeing as it's such hard work. So what if Snow White enjoys doing housework, that doesn't make her less of a woman or make her less "valuable" in the "feminist cause". Women, the Classic Princesses, are allowed to want a man, allowed to enjoy doing housework, they're allowed to not be this superwoman whose 100% reliant on herself and only herself that the media so often pines over.
The Classic Princesses aren't Merida, they aren't Katniss, they aren't our culture's "ideal" woman that the feminist movement is really supporting, but they are just as important. We need to support women who kick asno and don't apologize about it and we need to support women who are dainty and kick asno through snide remarks that no one else understands because all in all a little lady loving never hurt nobody!
no feminists were harmed in the making of this article (hopefully)
