feministdisney:

A nice conversation I had with “the youngest graduate intern” Disney has. And she supposedly had access to their marketing decisions thoough I’m not sure she wasn’t bluffing b/c she didn’t actually seem to understand it.

It went on for a while but I’ll highlight some of the gems, and some of my responses, since unfortunately, this attitude is hardly limited to her.  So it all started with my friend posting a link to the Merida redesign issues. So this girl responded…

• Making her more traditionally feminine, A Brilliant Strategy:

I worked in Disney I saw it. she looks about 17-20 now and thats the age of the majority of the disney princesses. the marketing strategy behind this is to add another age group to sell to. Its actually quite brilliant. In all reality its not that bad because it will now increase the amount of teens that will be attracted to the movie.

…U can have opinions but sometimes u get more out of life if u hear from people who have actually been there. [referring to her working at Disney]

 Me to her: Was your marketing internship actually in the princess section? You’re full of bs if you’re saying they redesigned Merida to appeal to 18 year olds. ALL their redesigns look like that. The majority of their merchandise is still in the YOUNG CHILDREN’S section, or have I missed something? And anyway, it’s beside the point. Daniella is saying there is a problem- there is. Them marketing it to people doesn’t make it holy or above criticism.

• Fat shaming and not really understanding the basic issue of why refusing to show a diversity of sizes and continually making the princesses skinnier than they already were is problematic:

and yes disney’s business strategies are fuck smart wrong or right. that was my point. and studies or no studies. if a little girl is focusing how skinny a disney princess is… maybe mom needs to get her ass to the gym as well

Not only do studies about how media influences young girls and their perception of their bodies not matter, but if your daughter is having trouble with the ubiquity of the only-skinny-is-pretty underlying message, clearly, the solution is for you to work out

every little girl has a right to want to be a princess and look up to them. And Disney has a right to make their princess’ skinny.. thats the way our celebs look. And honestly being skinny is wht children should drive for our nation has the largest problem with child obesity on the earth… the first fucking lady has tried to get on disney to teach kids to eat healthy.

I find this intentionally ignorant since we were concentrating on how this media issue led to eating disorders and poor self esteem the whole time. And she decided to assume skinny=healthy anyway, which isn’t true, and even if it were, chubby and fat kids still deserve to look at themselves and love themselves.

Daniella you and your girlfriend are just as rude. I am educated about Disney marketing. They are damn Disney princesses I saw 1000s of little girls all shapes and sizes and colors wearing their customs little girls do not look at the size of a disney princess

If your ten year old daughter says look how beautiful she is mommy its normal if she says look how skinny she is.. you got a problem and its not coming from the disney princess its coming from what shes hearing mommy say when she looks at herself in the mirror at home, or little girls at school.

The problem isn’t media, it’s moms. Because moms and other little girls are also never influenced to think certain things about their bodies and those of others, because of media. All their ideas of skinny=healthy beautiful for everyone and fat=bad occur in a vacuum.

• Getting the REAL message:

  Its important for parents to pull the proper messages from the movies not jsut the princess’ image. Tatiana’s ambition and drive, Cinderella’s hope, Snow white’s non judgmental character and compassion, Ariel’s sense of adventure… these are the things Disney was going for.

… I think its sad how parents get so bent out of shape, you can educate you daughter and make her love herself and think shes a disney princess to. Look at me im doing above and beyond and I have a little of all them. 

She is a Disney expert which is how she knows about the long lost twin of Tiana, Tatiana. And how can you not recognize that there is something wrong if you require a parent to be explaining things in order for it to be okay? Esp. when not all parents have the time to constantly re-educate their kids.

i am the youngest person to have a graduate level internship in Walt Disney world. As well as continue to work with them while I acquire my Masters from Michigan in marketing and project management. I would however like to commend you on your eyesight, yes they all look the same it is a marketing ploy the damn cartoon look like our celebrities… so what i dont see you girls bitching about the fact that Aladdin has a 6 pack.. so does Channing tetum.

A) If there were a prince line that altered all the princes, why wouldn’t we complain? B) not talking about Aladdin doesn’t make other points less legitimate C) celebrities are all thin and princesses look like celebrities so there’s no problem… what?

 The problem is your reading way to much into it. Little fat girls don’t have to get insecure because they dont look like ariel in a bikini, instead their feminist mothers could point out how independent she is.

The defense of “you’re not concentrating on the right messages” is getting stale. No one is saying not to appreciate the Disney princesses for the good their personalities have. We’re critiquing the bad. If someone handed you a hot dog with a moldy bun, would you insist we were ignoring the hot dog to ask for some fresh bread??

• A long way of saying you’re missing the point:

Me to her: It saddens me when women (or men) think there’s something superior about chivalry rather than common courtesy. If you would agree doors should be held open for women, why slam then in the face for men? There’s no reason to gender it. If what mattered was what is in the inside of the princesses, their bravery etc, then why can’t we have some warrior princesses? chubby princesses? etc?

(warrior like, Merida & Mulan not getting changed)

it’s not just a disney issue but a media issue when young girls almost never see leads who aren’t skinnier than humanly possible. It shapes how young girls see themselves. there is a reason eating disorders are rampant. If disney had a prince line equivalent to the princess line, yeah, we’d probably find issue with that. but the very presentation of men in media is gendered in itself. Men are often multiple sizes in film whether it is animated or not. lead women, again, are rarely presented as being something other than very thin. this is not difficult to observe. 

• Who let this girl into the country:

I’m not friends with her but my friend showed me this that came up as her fb status:

Reason number 28935798236589436582765 why i love Africa.. there are no feminists running around to strangle chivalry

Pretty sure the entire country of South Africa might have a few feminists in there somewhere who don’t agree with you (just in case you’re wondering, she is not African, she is a white girl from America studying in SA). 

this is actually making me laugh

 talk to them about their African Bush meat project I started. This is pointless. you guys want to deprive ur future daughter of a lifetime of magic do it… but while ur add it you might as well do homeschooling, and get rid of your tv. Theyre fucking cartoon characters.

(them=me and someone else.) Apparently if you have a white savior complex about your work in Africa, you don’t have to be accountable in unrelated conversations about problematic marketing. Also just to point out, no one was even talking about not letting their kids watch Disney. Guess not worshipping Disney’s every move means it’s time to chuck the TV forever

• Step back though:

but i also know what im talking about. Debating must have gotten me somwhere since I was captain in high school and public speaking captain in university.

ok that has nothing to do with anything I just want to point out that we’re all in our mid 20’s… betta not cross the high school debate captainnnn!

• More about the Disney Experience which really helped her growth as a professional in all senses of the word:

And I was treated really well while I was there made a ton of money at a young age and it boosted my career. Are we done here? Cause honestly I think its gonna be a long time before you get it Mari and have a daughter to teach cause your going to end up a lonely dried up bitter fucking hag…

mmm by the looks of a cat lady to lol

cat lady and proud thanx. She also called me a carpet muncher and Catzilla when messaging my friend… b/c implying or assuming someone is a lesbian obviously means their critique isn’t valid, and assuming I’ll end up not married obviously means I’m a failure at being a womannn!

disneycrossover:

If Harry Potter was made into a Disney movie [x]

Harry (Eric), Hermione (Belle), and Ron (Hercules) in Hogsmeade

(via shadowstrawberry)

emmyc:

;__;