Categorised the Themes

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Thematic Analysis:

According to the data collected, I categorised the themes into four parts namely princess characteristics, princess traits/personality, princess gestures and princess clothing and makeup. With this I wanted to study how evolved the princesses are according to the times they were made in and how are they portrayed in a society like ours where females are looked down upon.

As most of the data collected has been analysed under the previous heading, I would like to summarise the data in paragraphs. The data shows that in terms of physical characteristics all the princesses almost resemble each other in all ways. All have coke bottle figures, thin, tiny waist, and tiny features. All princesses are shown to be having ideal body structures as compared to the witches in the film. This portrays that one has to be beautiful and thin and skinny to be a princess. Though there are two exceptions of Jasmine and Pocahontas who is dark skinned, they are also stereotyped in their body language. Also Jasmine and Pocahontas are shown to have physically and sexually developed bodies which portrays that Disney is telling children stories through adult figures or rather adult stories through coke bottle sexy figures.

In terms of physical personality and traits, there has been a change as to how they portray princesses. Most princesses are shown to be damsels in distress who cannot save themselves but need a prince charming to do the same. Only in case of Pocahontas it was the opposite where she saved the Prince and the entire community. Also Cinderella is a very passive princess but the others are pretty evolved in a way that they have ambitions and want to explore the world. But every other princess eventually falls in love and the priority shifts to love, except Pocahontas who falls in love but does not forget her priorities and stays with the community.

When it comes to princess gestures, there are films like Aladdin and Tangled where both Jasmine and Rapunzel give suggestive gestures to the male. Aladdin's poster of Aladdin and Jasmine together itself portrays Jasmine to be very sexy and seductive. Similarly Rapunzel in a scene sits with Flynn in a very suggestive manner to get his attention. Pocahontas's sexually developed body itself is a suggestive and seductive symbol. The modern princesses have become very open when it comes to lure men.

The data shows that in terms of princess clothes and makeup, the clothes are becoming lesser and lesser thus revealing more and more. Exposing of skin has become very important and midriffs very prominent in films like Aladdin, Pocahontas and The little Mermaid. But the most modern of princesses Rapunzel is fully clothed without any skin show or cleavage show which indicates that only assets are not required to lure men but a beautiful women with long hair is sufficient to do the same.

Discourse Analysis:

The discourse analysis is based on three factors namely song lyrics, narrative of the film and the dialogues in the film. The studies of song lyrics indicate that every film has atleast one song talking about the feeling of love where the princess is ready to sacrifice anything for the prince. It is either the princess singing about what all she can do to for her love and leave her identity behind, whereas on the other side the prince sings about how she does not have to worry anymore now that he is there for her.

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