Ever wonder how and why the Disney Princess Culture distorted and minimized girlness, leaving girls as the extra character or one that desperately needs to be saved?
My film-maker friend, Aaron Lea, sent me this rejection letter to a Mary V. Ford from Disney dated 1938. It states that she should not bother sending her portfolio because the creative talent is, by company policy, men.
Which does help explain how the Disney Princess Girl Culture became so distructive and minimizing to girls.
Dear Miss Ford:
. . . .
Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason girls are not considered for the training school.
The only work open to women consists of tracing the characters on clear celluloid sheets with India ink and filling in the tracings on the reverse side with pain according to directions.
In order to apply for a position as “Inker” or “Painter” it is necessary that one appear at the Studio, bringing samples of pen and in and water color work. It would not be advisable to come to Hollywood with the above specifically in view, as there really are very few openings in comparison with the number of girls who apply.
Yours very truly,
Walt Disney Productions, LTD.
Aaron explained how during World War II Disney was put in a position, like most companies, to need women artists, which is how one of his creative idols was given some creative power. Here is a story on Mouseplanet about how women came to work at Disney.
“Mary Blair was an art supervisor and designer at Disney when they were at their highest level of brilliancy. Disney optioned to use her artwork for storybooks versions of certain films in place of stills, said Lea.
“Blair’s influence can still be found today (she inspires a lot of us creative types). The opening credits for Monsters, Inc. is definitely an homage to her, as well as Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends,” Lea pointed out.
To illustrate Blair’s influence Lea shares a sample of Blair’s work and a sample of his own. I Can Fly illustration Mary Blair.
Claudia Carey illustration Aaron Lea.
There is an article In New York Entertainment examining whether things are that much different at Disney in 2008 than they were in 1938. “The IMDb credits for Disney’s latest No. 1 movie, Ratatouille, list 26 separate animators — of whom exactly zero appear based on first names to be women,” they cite. To check the fact, here is a link to the entire credits. Two female story participants were given the glorious titles of “additional story material,” indicative of their involvement.
Over a rainy weekend my daughter and I rented Enchanted. Disney’s newest version of it’s own princess tales. Tune in tomorrow for analysis of Disney’s new generation of Princess film.
Donate money to the GDIGM so they can wine, dine and educate the film makers who do influence our daughters.
GDIGM is running a contest for girls. They invite all girls/women 13-26 to make a Video Ad citing the organizations research points. Someone has to win – why not your daughter? Go to the < site to learn more.
For more about how exactly Disney Princess Culture really is anti-girl read on:
Over a rainy weekend my daughter and I rented Enchanted. Disney’s newest version of it’s own princess tales. Tune in tomorrow for analysis of Disney’s new generation of Princess film. Image of Mary Ford’s Disney rejection letter.
A new Internet game marketed to little girls called Miss Bimbo asks girls to compete to have the “hottest, coolest, most famous bimbo in the whole world” encourages them to “do anything” to win including pop diet pills and buy breast implants. The site originates in Europe.
Can you imagine my head exploding at this news and then the ensuing rage? What about the quiet sadness afterward as I realize this really isn’t all that surprising?
Doesn’t it sometimes seem that this the overall message message to girls anyway? You are your appearance, your sexual appeal is your value, do anything to be the best bimbo ever?
The misogynistic moron who invented this game say outraged parents – who obviously care about the message this sends to girls – are “ignoring the positive aspects” of his blatantly anti-girl website like that “girls can send their bimbo to college.”
Where I’m sure they can go to frat parties, drink too much and pass out allowing the all the frat boys to date rape them. Everyone knows college isn’t for learning – not for bimbos anyway.
“It is not a bad influence for young children. They learn to take care of their bimbos.The missions and goals are morally sound and teach children about the real world”, says Nicolas Jacquart, the creator a 23-year-old male, who obviously has a taste for young bimbos, said. The “real world” in which girls are bimbos. Right.
Really, what better way to make girls an easier lay than to convince them they’re bimbos before they even grow breasts or start their periods? Hell, it’s a wonder more parents don’t encourage their daughters to embrace their inner bimbo.
Girls are given a free taste when creating their own Miss Bimbo. But, eventually they run out of Internet money and have to send a text message for around 1.50 pounds or around $3 or add money to a paypal account so they can afford more plastic surgery.
The Guardian, a British newspaper, reports that there are already 200,000 players. France’s version has 1.2 million players.
One parent in France threatened to sue when her child ran up a 100 pound bill playing the game without his knowledge. Only one?
Because it is not illegal, or even socially unacceptable, to convince children they should be bimbos or encourage them to have plastic surgery or even be a misogynistic girl-hater, parents in the UK have taken the creators to task through the phone company, claiming they have violated laws with the text messaging money aspect of the game. Parents were encouraged to contact the phone company to file a complaint if they wanted to see the game shut down. I tried to contact them, but their contact page wasn’t working properly.
Interestingly, all my attempts to log into Miss Bimbo failed.
Perhaps the creator of this game has already been escorted into Hell where he belongs.
Watch the video of the BBC World News discussing the obvious dangers of Miss Bimbo.com.
UPDATE: This note has been added to the home page of MissBimbo.com:
Due to unforseen worldwide interest in Miss Bimbo we have had difficulty in maintaining our game in the manner players have become accustomed. We are sorry for this inconvenience and can assure you that our game will be up and running as soon as possible.
As a result of this rather surprising media attention we have decided to remove the option of purchasing diet pills from the game. We apologize to any players whom this may inconvenience but we feel in light of this weeks proceedings it is the correct action to take.
We would also like to sincerely apologise to our players for the media comparison of Miss Bimbo and Paris Hilton. We feel that this does a dis-service to the players whom send their bimbos to university, tea parties or chess tournaments.
At this time we would also like to remind players that the Miss Bimbo team assume no responsibility or liability for any fashion faux pas, hair style disasters or boob jobs incurred in real life as as a result of playing the Miss Bimbo game.
Wait, HE’S offended at being associated with Paris Hilton? Bimbos are too good for Paris?
He’s removing diet pills as a Bimbo-perfecting option but not SURGERY? Hello?!?
Oh, he’s written a disclaimer – I guess that takes care of his responsibility as a terrible and outrageous influence on our girls. NOT!
Abstinence Only Sex Education, the news has recently come out, has been a complete and utter failure.
Why? Because though we’ve poured $1 billion into these programs kids kept having sex.
Unprotected sex.
Turns out not educating children about prevention against sexually transmitted diseases has translated into an STD epidemic leavingone out of every 4 American teenagers infected, according to the Center for Disease Control. That’s 3.2 million girls. Nearly half (48% of all African American girls are infected, compared to 20% of white young women.
That’s a big huge consequence for not properly educating them about disease and pregnancy prevention.
These teenagers, 25% of all girls, are now at risk for cervical cancer, Cesarean section to avoid transmission during the birth of a baby, transmitting herpes or HPV to future marital partners, infertility, self esteem and self worth issues, blindness, and death.
The numbers of teen pregnancy did not decrease during our abstinence-only experiment either.
Because we didn’t want to tell them about condoms?
Who is ignorant in this picture? Them for not knowing due to innocence or us for being too afraid to educate them about prevention?
As parents we have to grow some guts to challenge the flawed-logic of generations past. No one wants their kid to have sex. No one thinks teenagers should be sexually active. But, the reality is that it’s not our decision. We can influence their decision by talking about sex as much as possible, leaving an open door for dialogue about sexuality and its consequences, we can even brain wash them with a strong expectation of abstinence as the very best and safest way for them to mature. I’m highly in favor of all that.
But, ultimately, we have to face the fact that it’s a choice we, as parents, have limited control over. We should love them enough, however, to arm them with enough prevention education that we minimize the permanent consequences should they choose to have sex anyway. It’s evident that they are.
There should be 5 goals in sex education in public schools in America.
1. Encourage abstinence as the safest route.
2. Prevent pregnancy.
3. Prevent contraction and spread of STDs.
4. Educating girls about the biological facts of their own bodies. (By avoiding sex education we’ve also left girls ignorant of their own human biology of which they have a right to know.)
5. Educate both girls and boys about sexual assault, date rape, sexual harassment and coercion tactics. We must arm girls with enough knowledge and tactics to demand respect. We must also educate boys about what is offensive and what will not be tolerated in their behavior toward their girl counter-parts. We should at least try to reduce the number of rapists and woman beaters in our society. Studies show that males develop this type of behavior in their youth and continue to escalate during adulthood.
Up before congress is a Prevention First Act (S.21/H.R. 819) which would expand access to contraception and preventative health care services that help reduce unplanned pregnancies, abortions, and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases while improving access to women’s health care. It would also provide a federal funding stream for comprehensive sex education in schools. Currently, there are three separate federal programs that fund abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, but no federal funding exists specifically for comprehensive sex education. States can only receive funding if they agree to teach abstinence-only-until-marriage while excluding information about the health benefits of contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The Prevention First Act includes a comprehensive approach to sex education – age appropriate education that promotes abstinence but includes information about contraception.
The consequences of teenage sex very obviously falls more heavily on girls. Girls are more at risk for exploitation, harassment, rape, and prostitution. Girls are at risk for pregnancy. Girls can die of cervical cancer and pass on STDs through the birth canal and shared blood. Girls are at risk of being labeled “sluts” or “whores” trashing their self image, girls are more at risk for quitting school to become mothers, girls are more at risk of becoming dependent on welfare programs, girls are at risk for infertility.
It’s morally wrong to keep putting our girls at risk by not arming them with an expansive education that relates to the issues they face today. We should not pour another single penny into Abstinence Only programs that have failed our girls.
Take action right now by following the Two Minute Activist link at the American Association of University Women encouraging the representatives that work for us to require schools to incorporate comprehensive and effective sex education.
See the press release issued by the Center of Disease Control on March 11.
Oh the roles we play. . . Is this news to anyone? I’ve always known that I play roles and even been aware of them when I’m doing it. Some of my most common roles:
When I was a teenager and young adult I played “cute flirty blond girl with a little attitude.” It worked for me. Got me attention from the opposite sex. Allowed me to blend in the newsroom. Allowed me to get away with what I wanted to do. I recall having gained quite a bit of weight and being next to the next generation of “cute flirty blond girl with a little attitude” and seeing quite clearly that this role was not going to work for me anymore. Oddly, I was okay with seeing her go.
Other roles I play are Mean Mommy and Fun Mommy. I vacillate between these two depending on the result I want from my children. I put on Mean Mommy so that I can punish poor behavior even though I really don’t want to. I put her on like a costume because inside I’m usually laughing my head off and thinking, Who hasn’t done that? Fun Mommy comes more naturally to me, it’s closer to who I inherently am. But, I still see that I’m motivated by a future “My mom was the coolest mom” scenario.
There is also the many roles of wife. I’ve been a pissed-off wife, a put-upon and fed-up wife. I’ve been a loving wife, a sacrificial wife, an affectionate wife. A wife like my mother. A wife like my friend. A wife like the Christian stereotype says I should be. I’m trying to learn to be a happy wife. A conscious wife.
I play a different role in church than I do other places. I feel it’s safer to go with the flow and the cultural norm. Maybe I come off as fake?
Black sheep who left the fold. I obviously play this role. It’s more circumstantial than anything. They love me, I love them, but they are deeply invested in a very specific religious ideology that comes with a whole culture and collective conscience that I have opted out of. Sometimes I feel it’s more a role they put me in than one I play.
I frequently play the role of feminist. I write a lot about feminism, so obviously I’m identifying with the group ego of “women who aren’t treated equally.” I think it’s a role I will continue to play. But, with consciousness, hopefully I’ll be able to do it more effectively.
Writer is a role I deeply identify with. And I realize this is only what I “do.” But it feels so integral to who I AM that when I have experimented with “doing” other things I become unhappy and disconnected from myself. I think I will also strive to do it consciously and reap the benefits of increased awareness and passion.
What roles do you see in yourself?
Are you aware of them when you’re playing them?
Again, tune into Lisa.fm today at 1 pm central to hear more about roles and consciousness.
I Can Fly illustration Mary Blair.
Claudia Carey illustration Aaron Lea. 
Image of Mary Ford’s Disney rejection letter. 
