Mulan – Interesting case because her virtue is traditionally thought of as masculine. She promotes the idea of living as one rather than life being a struggle for dominance. In her case, it's a spiritual strength that puts her in tune with not only her fellow man but nature as well.
Pocahontas – Similar to Ariel, Pocahontas has a strong sense of compassion. Jasmine spends most of the episode convincing her of its importance (while Aladdin and the others try to figure out a way to fight the menace), and the Ethereal isn't convinced she should spare Agrabah until Jasmine proves she's willing to sacrifice her life for a child. In "The Ethereal", a god-like being comes to Agrabah to judge its worth as a civilization and threatens to destroy it if it comes up short. By the end of the episode, she straight up tells the Sultan "We have to do something about the poor people in Agrabah". In "Do The Rat Thing", Jasmine is transformed and gets a rats-eye view of what life is like in Agrabah.
There were a couple episodes of Aladdin the series that show Jasmine's capabilities as a leader. Still, we do see her desire to be among her people rather than live away from them. Okay, this doesn't really come across in the movie, but as I mentioned, she isn't the star of it. Jasmine actually shows leadership qualities and a desire to do what's best for her people. Jasmine – A princess, by definition, is someone who exists as part of a ruling family. She understands that beauty isn't everything but that being curious and learning is what connects you to the world.
Her beauty is emphasized in the movie (being the first word in the title and all), but Belle herself values her smarts over her looks and deserves credit for that. Ariel is able to break through that by proving to them that everyone is special in their own way and the world can be beautiful if we all consider each other's points of view and embrace the fact that we're all unique.īelle – While fairy tales do tend to set things in simpler times, Belle still manages to personify the virtue of intelligence and a thirst for knowledge. Her life under the sea shows how important compassion is as well, and in one episode of the animated series, the Evil Manta uses the differences among the fish to drive them apart. She could sense Eric's goodness just by watching him, and she risked danger to save his life. Her respect for elders and those in authority helps keep her out of harm's way.Īriel – Her primary virtue is her compassion. It's this virtue that wins her the help of others and her reward in the end.Īurora – Not sure about her, but I'm going to go with respect. She had all these positive traits while being dirt poor. She comes from humble beginnings, works hard, and is never greedy. Showing kindness and being shown kindness in return is a great trait to have, winning her friends and loyalty.Ĭinderella – The classic rags to riches tale, Cinderella's virtue is her humility. Snow White - While her beauty is a plot point, her strength in character comes from her kindness. Let's go down the line and discuss the virtue each of them represents, shall we?
Rather, it is their strength of character and goodness which proves that they have earned the right to be a princess. Disney princesses aren't good just because they are princesses. So what kind of values do they express in their movies? Does being a princess mean they get to enjoy the riches and royalty while their parents worry about things like running a kingdom? Those not born into royalty get to marry a rich, handsome prince as a reward? The movies and characters aren't nearly as shallow as their detractors would have you believe.
Looking back on the original movies, the princesses are all heroines in their own right (with the exception of Jasmine, who isn't the star of her movie) and all go through story arcs. My argument being that each princess represents a different virtue, and that they are good role models for exercising these virtues in their movies. I wrote this brief essay in defense of the Disney princesses, the hype backlash, and the criticism that they promote vanity and materialism. I joined about a month ago, apologies for not making a proper intro (hi, I'm Chris, 29, huge Ariel fan).