Spoiler alert, I wasn’t the only one crying during Disney’s new Cinderella movie — so did Prince Charming.
In all my years of watching princess movies, there are a few normalities to be expected. There is a beautiful, young princess; a handsome, brave prince; and usually, a wedding at the end. The characters don’t tend to vary much, and they have never needed to develop. Viewers got what they wanted — true love’s kiss and an implied happy ever after.
Disney’s latest rendition of Prince Charming, however, was a hop in the right direction toward crushing the societal standards imposed on gender. Recently, modern princesses are becoming stronger, more independent, more capable and more realistically flawed. Traditional fairytale leading ladies lacked these characteristics and existed as perfect, beautiful and helpless until a prince swooped in to save them from their circumstances. But the heroic princes have more or less stayed constant, just with less to do in terms of the grand rescue.
Fairy tale princes have also been limited by their function within the story. Little girls are not the only ones watching these movies, and the roles of both female and male characters have needed to be reevaluated. Fairy tales have the potential to ignore feminist ideology — painting women as incapable and dependent upon a male counterpart for rescue and subsequent love and happiness. We are introduced to this formula at a very young age and sometimes spend our childhood assuming that we will only be as happy as the characters on-screen when we grow up and lock eyes with our soulmate for the first time.
Young boys grow up watching these films, too, and being exposed to the same formula for eventual happiness. And for them, they feel the pressure to grow up to be strong and handsome and brave and willing to fight to save the girl, just like the prince. But it does not stop there either. There is pressure to hide emotion, never to cry, to stay brave and strong and completely stoic. This version of masculinity is completely detrimental to children, immediately imposing gender standards that will develop as the children do.
Emotion is answered with being told to “stop crying like a little girl,” to “man up,” and to “grow a pair.” As boys grow into men, these same societal standards intensify. There is pressure to be sexually experienced, to provide for a significant other, to hide emotion and to be physically strong.
Disney has also been taking baby steps towards more realistic prince characters in recent movies, providing personalities that are immature at first and goofy. Cinderella’s prince, Kit, gave the character an entirely new, deeper dynamic. He was not a perfect rendition of the Prince Charming trope, but a flawed young man who was still growing and learning. Although the traditional plot remained, and the prince was still Cinderella’s escape from an abusive household, this modern take on a classic portrayed a prince that needed his princess every bit as much as she needed him. He showed emotion and fear, with the promise of growth and maturity, which is an infinitely better message to youth.
According to the actor who played Prince Kit, Richard Madden, “This is why I was into playing the part. In this version, you get to see a young man who respects women and has an appreciation for people around him and respect for them.”
After starring in “Game of Thrones” as Robb Stark, Madden took on this role as a prince (yes, in a much more Disney-esque royal family), but with similar emotion and honesty infused into the character.
Gender expectations and inequality effect everyone, regardless of how they identify. Everyone grows up adhering to what is and is not socially accepted, and the issues that sprout from this inherent problem are not for one group to fix. For future generations to be honest and comfortable in their own skins — without changing themselves to align with society’s expectations — we need to eliminate the pressure to be anything other than they are.
Reach the columnist at smmaki@asu.edu or follow @Syd_neym on Twitter.
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Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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