15 Things Disney Got WRONG
Having grown up with Disney, we will always have a soft spot for the wonderful stories and characters it brought us. However, looking back on the animations that seemed harmless to us as children, we can see that there are a few things that Disney didn't do right. While stories like Cinderella and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves filled us with warm fuzziness and comforted us in hard times, they taught a few lessons that were kind of problematic. We know that little kids shouldn't have to worry about the reality of the world and human relationships, but some of the things they pick up watching Disney cartoons might set them up for some pretty huge and nasty surprises later in life! Disney got a lot right, and we will love these animations forever, but here are 15 things that Disney just got plain wrong.
15 If You Want A Guy, You Should Give Up Everything For Him
One of the lessons that came out of The Little Mermaid is that if you want to be with a guy in particular, sacrificing your life is the way to do it! In this story, Ariel makes a bargain with Ursula the sea witch to shed her mermaid tail in exchange for a nice (shaved, apparently) pair of legs, so she can walk on the land and get to know Prince Eric. Sure, that sounds romantic, but aside from the fact that Ariel has to essentially make a deal with the devil to get what she wants, she is completely changing who she is for a guy. Yes, he's a handsome prince, but this mentality will probably cause a lot of problems IRL! In the end, Ariel does end up with Eric, but only because she becomes a permanent human. She only has to leave her home, her family, and her natural anatomy to be his.
14 Waking Up Looking Perfect Is Realistic
We admit that Disney has gotten better at this as time has gone on, but they were guilty AF for at least half a century. Every single Disney heroine, up until well into the 2000s, has been flawless. In fact, some of them are even shown asleep, like Snow White here or Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, and they look amazing. We certainly hope that little girls watching don't feel like they have to look like that when they're dreaming, because in this case, reality is vastly different to the narrative. Everybody's different, but we're thinking that most people's sleep involves messy hair, possible face masks, embarrassing PJs, and let's face it, drool. Before a lot of us are even presentable in the morning, we need showers, creams, and a contour kit. Yes, we are all beautiful without all that… just not in the conventional and aesthetically pleasing way that these Princesses are!
13 There's No Happy Ending If You're Not Good Looking
This next lesson comes straight out of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The hunchbacked Quasimodo falls in love with Esmerelda, but contrary to many other Disney stories, he doesn't end up sweeping her off her feet. Instead, he's humbly involved in a happy ending where Esmerelda ends up with the dashingly handsome Prince Phoebus. The only different trait Quasimodo has to other Disney heroes is that he isn't good looking. He's actually the opposite of that, to the point where he is ostracized and mocked. The fact that he doesn't end up with the woman he loves, in a universe where your crush ALWAYS loves you back, firmly teaches the lesson that if you aren't conventionally attractive, you aren't going to get a happy ending. Sure, the ending of this story is “happy”, but we're sure that if Quasimodo hadn't been written to be content with it, he totally wouldn't have been!
12 Fall For Men Who Are Mean To You
Beauty and the Beast is filled with golden dresses, enchanted roses and everything else that's supposed to sweep young girls off their feet. The central message of this story is widely believed to be about accepting people and being kind to everyone, but we think it's really about falling in love with guys who are mean to you. Case in point: the Beast is a total d**k to Belle in the beginning. Yes, he's had a hard time in his life, but that doesn't give him the right to treat other people badly, and they totally have the right to respond accordingly to his crappy behavior. Once he has Belle in his castle, he insults her continuously, comes close to actually hitting her when he gets angry, and worst of all, holds her prisoner until he realizes that he loves her. And after all that, she falls in love with him! Not cool, Disney.
11 A Fairy Godmother Will Save The Day
We'll be the first to admit that we were shocked when no fairy godmother showed up to help us out the first time we faced one of life's serious problems! In Cinderella, just as all hope is lost and Cinderella believes that she won't get a chance to join the Prince at the ball, her cheerful and melodious fairy godmother pops up and solves all her problems. It would be amazing if this sort of thing happened in real life, but that's not how it goes. We agree that life is a lot easier if you don't overthink every little thing, and you should definitely try and stress as infrequently as possible. But heck, you still have to solve your own problems! Sitting back and waiting for somebody to come along and pick you up when you're down might be a breezy way to deal with life, but you won't get far at all!
10 Pocahontas Had A Happy Ending
Disney isn't known for being historically accurate, and we understand that they're trying to entertain, not to teach. At the same time, though, could they not deliberately paint false pictures about issues that are super important? The whole concept of Pocahontas falling in love with John Smith is wrong, considering she would have been about 10 at the time. We guess that changing up the ages to add in some romance isn't too bad, but the end of the film is really disrespectful to the Native American population. It's a Disney happily ever after, so in the end the settlers and the natives agree to get along and live in harmony forever. In reality, up to 90% of the Native Americans were taken out, and those who weren't had a lot less than a happily ever after. There obviously shouldn't be anything graphic in a children's movie, but this fake ending is just wrong!
9 Super Skinniness
We've already mentioned that many of the Disney Princesses are impossibly beautiful, but what about impossibly skinny? Quite literally, some of the Princesses are drawn to be so slim that it would be impossible for them to survive if those dimensions were brought to life. Seriously, Jasmine's voluminous hair (talk about unrealistic standards!) is actually wider than her waist. Just imagine that on a real person! We know that slim waists are in, but at the same time, you actually need space to fit your vital organs. There is no way that some of these Disney bodies would support ribs, let alone anything else. A lot of critics have claimed that these ridiculously thin Disney figures have actually inspired eating disorders and body-image issues in young girls, and when you look at how absurd some of their bodies are while being marketed as beautiful, we can see that they might have a point!
8 Aurora's Dance With Phillip
This is a little heartbreaking, because Princess Aurora's waltz in the clouds with Prince Phillip at the end of Sleeping Beauty might just be our favorite Disney moment of all time. But if we're being real, there's no way this could have happened in real life. During the period in which the animation is set-the 14th century-that kind of contact wasn't accepted in public. A male-female waltz would not have happened at a royal event, and in reality, Aurora and Phillip would have been doing something more along the lines of line dancing. It's pretty annoying of Disney to have gotten this so wrong, because like we said, this moment is totally iconic, and it's all a lie. Really, seeing a couple behaving like this would have been akin to seeing Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke at the 2013 VMAs: completely inappropriate, but nobody can look away from it.
7 You Can Fall In Love After Three Minutes
Speaking of Princess Aurora, the sister (or her creator) has some explaining to do! The first time she ever meets Phillip (that she's aware of) is in the woods, where she dances with him after he creeps up on her. Next thing she knows, she's in a deep REM sleep, and when she wakes up, he's on top of her, kissing her. Then she is filled with happiness and decides that he's the love of her life! Is that really the reaction you'd have if someone you barely knew was on top of you as you woke up? Probably not. They also take no time to get to know each other to find out if they're compatible, let alone for real feelings to develop. And Aurora isn't alone in this either! The thing is, you can immediately be attracted to someone upon meeting them, but love takes a little longer to develop.
6 All Stepmoms Are Evil
If our calculations are correct, just about every single Disney stepmom is a monster. Snow White's stepmother tries to have her assassinated via a hunter, and then tries to do the deed herself, all out of jealousy. Cinderella's stepmom enslaves her, destroys her confidence, and then tries to ruin her chances at a happy marriage. So children could be forgiven for growing up thinking that all stepparents are evil. The truth is, though, that while some stepparents might be less than fantastic, many of them are just as great as real parents! And we all know that real parents can sometimes be pretty evil, and in those situations, a stepparent might be a total savior! So while the concept of stepmoms being jealous, vindictive gold-diggers makes for a great story, it isn't exactly the truth. Unlike the nasty, tone-deaf and entitled Drizella and Gabriella in Cinderella, stepsiblings can actually be pretty great too!
5 Being Positive Is Easy
Cinderella's top quality is that she is unmatched in her positivity. The girl does go through a lot in life-her parents both die, her stepfamily treats her like a slave and emotionally torments her, and she is forbidden from living the life she wants to live. And through it all she remains positive and dare we say it, chipper. Don't get us wrong-being positive is a great thing, and you'd be surprised how much easier life is when you're looking at the bright side of things. However, when things go wrong, being positive is difficult. It takes a lot of emotional and mental strength to look at your world that is falling apart and still smile. It would be very hard to only know loneliness and abuse, and still look for the good in people. So while we do love Cinderella for being like that, it probably isn't normal!
4 Evil People Are Always Ugly
According to Disney, evil people are always unattractive. Examples? The evilest Disney villain of all time, Maleficent, has green skin and yellow eyes. Cinderella's stepsisters are literally known as “the Ugly Stepsisters”. In Aladdin, the Genie says that Jafar is a “tall, dark and sinister, ugly man.” Ursula the sea witch is overweight and appears heavily made up, only becoming beautiful when she puts herself under a spell. And even then, her face still has harsh features! Another example is Madam Mim in The Sword and the Stone, who even calls herself ugly. The Queen in Snow White is perhaps the only villain who is actually beautiful, but she still has nothing on her stepdaughter. And of course, Disney makes her as horrifying as possible to deliver the poison apple. If we've learned anything from life, it's that some of the most terrible people on this planet are very pleasing to the eye!
3 Good People Are Always Attractive
Likewise, some of the best people in the world with the biggest hearts, aren't what you'd call conventionally attractive. But not in the Disney world! With the exception of Quasimodo, and a few other rare characters, Disney heroes and heroines are always good looking; if there's one thing that every Princess and every Prince have in common, it's being hot. Even as Disney has gotten slightly more realistic in their portrayals, the good characters are still attractive. It's actually at the point where being beautiful and being morally good are associated with one another, and when watching Disney, you learn to immediately trust anybody who's pretty or handsome. In the real world, looks don't have anything to do with whether or not somebody is a good person. Judging whether a person is trustworthy or not based on what they look like is a pretty horrible habit for young people to get into!
2 All The Stereotypes
A pretty significant thing that Disney has got wrong is the constant stereotyping. Released in 1941, Dumbo is a great example of Disney's racial stereotyping. The crows depicted in the film are obviously intended to represent African Americans, and not only add to the already harmful stereotypes existing in the world, but only contribute comedy rather than being vital to the plot, as the characters representing white people are. In The Aristocats, the gang of alley cats features felines who are British, Chinese, Russian, and Italian, and the portrayals feed just about every cultural stereotype there is! The same thing happens with the evil cats Si and Am in Lady and the Tramp, who are clearly intended to be Asian with their accents and physical characteristics. Another stereotype takes place in Aladdin, where Arabic culture is depicted as being something totally barbaric (seriously, cutting off people's ears is mentioned!). Step it up, Disney!
1 You Need A Prince
The biggest thing that Disney totally missed the mark on in our eyes, is the need for every girl to be saved by a prince. Even as the Disney Princesses get more and more independent as the years go on, they still more or less all end up with a Disney Prince by their side. The overwhelming majority are actually saved by their men, which teaches girls that they should rely on a guy to help them when they need something done. This is wrong on so many levels, and is going to leave a lot of women bitterly disappointed. The Princesses who are a little more active in their own rescues, like Tiana and Anna for example, still mostly end up with a man, which shows girls that even if you don't need a man to save you, you do need one to be happy. Total hogwash, in our opinion!