The Discourse on Disney Princess Culture Essay - 1771 Words

Disney is one of the biggest empires in the world. It is a brand that everyone knows about whether they invest in it or not. According to the Forbes Most Valuable Brands list, Disney ranks number seventeen in the world—behind popular brands like Apple and Microsoft and above Wal-Mart. The Disney Empire is a business, a brand that can be found almost everywhere, even in the Dollar Store. The brand’s accessibility is what makes it easy for children to become consumers. The consumerism of princess culture is what I will focus on in this essay, discussing the impact Disney’s Princesses have on young girls and their identity, and how popular culture discourse is beginning to fight back against the empire. Children become consumers of the†¦show more content†¦They see Disney Princess products in the grocery store where there are princess balloons and princess plates and napkins. Princesses are in the local Wal-Mart plastered on pajamas and lunchboxes. The Disn ey Princess line is all around them and so they easily subscribe to the culture and try to emulate these female characters through costumes and play. To consider children as consumers of Disney is not a new idea. Princess culture â€Å"includes a vast array of material objects and media representations, but also marketing rhetoric and weighty expert studies of children as consumers† (Orr 9). If a company gains the loyalty of a child then they have a customer for life. Marketing campaigns â€Å"that accompany each new animated feature† for Disney have admitted to â€Å"the targeting of children as consumers† (Lacroix 226). Not only do children consume Disney merchandise, like the toys marketed through McDonald’s Happy Meals, but they are also â€Å"taught to consume ideas† (226). Henry Giroux calls the films â€Å"teaching machines† and â€Å"producers of culture† (â€Å"Are Disney Movies Good† 53). Disney is the biggest produc er of princess culture and the Disney Princess films â€Å"comprise five out of six top revenue-generating Disney films of all time† (Wohlwend 10). When it comes to Disney animated films, the princesses are the popular kids in school. The popularity of the Princess franchise is why much backlash hasShow MoreRelatedDisney and Gender Identity Essay1426 Words   |  6 Pages2006). The Walt Disney Corporation creates childhood for children worldwide. â€Å"Because Disney are such a large media corporation and their products are so ubiquitous and wide spread globally, Disney’s stories, the stories that Disney tell, will be the stories that will form and help form a child’s imaginary world, all over the world, and that’s an incredible amount of power, enormous amount of power† (Sun). 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