There are a lot of implications for girls in society that come from this representation of women in Disney movies. Setting such high standards of how women 'should' look impacts girls negatively and affects the way they view themselves. It gives them an unrealistic image to live up to and we as humans can't live up to that image. None of us will ever be as perfect as a Disney Princess because they aren't even real, they're cartoons! Self esteem is negatively impacted, especially when girls start to believe the idea that their worth and happiness depends on whether they are beautiful or not. This can lead to problems such as eating disorders and depression. I'm not saying that Disney is to blame for eating disorders and depression, but I'm saying that their unrealistic representation of women is a factor that can contribute to these problems. There are a lot of representations of women in the media that negatively impact us, but the modern day fairytales is just one of them. No girl is happy about the way that they look, Disney Princesses aren't the sole blame for self esteem issues in society, but if there were Disney Princesses who actually resembled a normal woman then maybe they could be someone for girls to be like. Children, girls in the case of the Princess movies, are Disney's target audience and children are very impressionable. So from an early age young girls are seeing these images of beautiful women that are being set for them as models of what they should want to be like. But the impossibility of ever being able to look like that them gives this negative effect. Girls will never be as thin as Cinderella, our eyes will never be as big and bright, we will never look like her. So does this also mean that we won't get our happy ending? Does it mean we will never find out Prince Charming? Of course not, but these are the messages that we can take from 'Cinderella' and other Disney fairytales.

Women are misrepresented in these Disney movies because it shows a false image of what women should look like. It is unrealistic and it implies that your beauty also affects your happiness. The beautiful Princesses have happy endings whereas the ugly stepsisters and stepmother ('Cinderella') don't. Girls in society compare themselves to these Princesses and want to look like them but it is impossible for them to. Disney is giving out the message that girls should look this way and that if they do then they will find their 'Prince Charming' and their happy ever after. They are teaching girls that their value is also situated in their beauty. A blogger on Blogspot (http://george-argento.blogspot.co.nz) wrote on their blog about the ideas 'Cinderella' gives out through this representation. They said "Cinderella influences young girls into believing they need to be beautiful and have nice clothes to be able to get their prince. The less attractive characters did not have a chance with the prince. Young girls will see that and worry about their own attractiveness."Cinderella is a prime example of this misrepresentation because she is beautiful and she ends up happy with a boy who loves her. Her two ugly stepsisters (see below) both end up very unhappy. Admittedly the term 'ugly stepsisters' could be referring to their personality as they are both very mean and would be described as ugly on the inside. But if you compare them to Cinderella, and the other Disney Princesses, they are not as thin and they also have smaller eyes, larger noses, shorter less luscious hair, and are really just nothing compared to the princesses. This is teaching girls in society nowadays that their worth and happiness depends on how beautiful they are, but girls aren't considering themselves beautiful because they are comparing themselves with this false and unrealistic idea of beauty that these modern day fairytales have shown them.

Examples

Disney's Cinderella

In this image of Disney character Cinderella, she is unrealistically thin. Her waist is tiny and yet she still has a large chest. In comparison to each other, her chest and waist look incredibly unnatural and unattainable. Her pale and flawless skin has no imperfections.

Disney's Ariel

In this GIF of Ariel from Disney's 'The Little Mermaid', her body shape is very similar to Cinderella's. She has a waist that is far too slim in comparison to the rest of her body and breasts that are too big and perky in comparison to her slim figure. She also has long, thick, red flowing hair that is too perfect for someone who lives underwater. 

Disney's Jasmine

Jasmine from Disney's 'Aladdin' is once again incredibly tiny. Her forearms look larger than her upper arms and lack any muscle or fat. Her neck looks too long and thin to be able to support her excessive amount of long, black hair. 

In all three of these examples, the Disney Princesses have unrealistically slim figures, a chest that is too big in comparison and incredibly thin arms and legs. They all have perfect skin with no impurities and long, luscious hair. Their faces are beautiful, all having large, bright eyes, small noses and voluptuous lips. All of these features make the Princesses extremely beautiful but in a way that is not humanly possible. Disney movies target audiences of young children, particularly girls. This representation gives girls 'role models' or women to look up to that are unreachable. The Princesses each have no imperfections and are giving girls a false expectation of what they could look like. This can also lead to insecurity and self image problems among girls as they compare themselves to these Princesses that they will never be able to look like. All these Princesses get their perfect endings as well, finding the love of their life and living happily ever after. This shows children that if they are beautiful like them, they will be happy and will find someone who loves them. 

This picture, from an article on the dailymail.co.uk, compares the figure of a Disney Princess to a real life woman. There is a huge difference between the two of them and it shows very clearly how unrealistic the Disney Princesses compared to how women actually are.

Thesis

The representation of women in fairytales has a lot of focus on their appearance. Disney Princesses are all portrayed in the same way, thin and beautiful. In society nowadays, girls feel a lot of pressure about the way that they look. A lot of this pressure is from the media, like Disney Fairytales and from the unrealistic expectations set of how women should appear.