Certainly you’ve noticed the drop in princesses in the last few decades. Royal stations in the real world are quickly becoming a thing of the past, and even the ones that are left are totally unlike the ideal version of the station. And as the world of fiction steadily marches on into the more realistic and modern reaches, even imaginary princesses are feeling the sting, and their numbers are sadly dwindling. The problem we face is two prong: not only is there a very low supply of princesses, but there’s also a sad and distinct lack of demand.
Perhaps no better indicator of this is Disney’s recent announcement to outright abandon princesses from here on out. Their official release seemed to imply a certain sorrow on the subject, and pointed an accusatory finger in the direction of all boys everywhere, because they stink and have cooties and just suck in general. But let’s face it, Disney is a huge conglomerate company that runs with property based on what’s in demand. If princesses were on enough of the paying public’s mind, then no matter how much these boorish boys bullied them, like the fetid troglodytes they are, Disney wouldn’t have given in to their constant demands for robots and aliens and basic “boy stuff”.
Because this is totally something all boys would want to see.
Case in point with Disney, you can check out their Rapunzel, which despite heralding from the studio’s very princess-centric roots, was adapted closer to release to be more boyish and Shrekified, even being renamed to Tangled, removing that unsightly “princess” name from the title. Similarly retitled is their forthcoming project A Princess of Mars, now called John Carter of Mars just so none of these princess enthusiast upstarts got any ideas. Now I’m not necessarily complaining about the new name, or even the prospect of a new name. After all, the book upon which it was based was only published under the Princess title after being changed from the original Under the Moons of Mars. But Princess was the title that truly said all you needed to know, relating to the audience who was the character that served as the entire purpose of the tale, the catalyst and reason for all the events, even if she wasn’t the main character or had the most screen time. But, sadly, the public’s desire for that character’s importance has waned, and Disney’s chance to successfully marry epic sci-fi action with the princess theme has been passed over for a chance to get with the times.
Again, Disney isn’t just doing this because boys told them to (no matter how much they want you to think this is the case), they’re doing this because princesses are just not that popular today. Girls don’t even want to be princesses when they grow up anymore, they want to grow up and be president or something stupid like that (note: I’m not being sexist; I don’t trust any child that wants to grow up to be president. In a perfect world, every girl wants to grow up to be Princess Leia and every boy wants to grow up to be Batman.) Used to be, there was princess stuff for girls and action stuff for boys, and that was perfectly fine with everyone. Boys got their Ninja Turtles and Transformers who would gladly beat the crap out of each other all day, and girls got Disney princesses who were wholesome and nurturing and had armies of fiercely loyal animal friends who were ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. But then one day, animal friends just weren’t enough.
And sometimes, they’re too much.
I don’t know if it was too many boys going “eww” at all the pink frills and singing, or too many girls growing up, or feminism or communism or whatever, but everyone started focusing on all the bad parts of princesses while overlooking the great parts. They started looking at how weakly docile and pretty much useless Princess Aurora is, and forgetting just how awesome Princess Leia is, or how morally courageous Cinderella is, or how much of a firecracker Princess Jasmine is, or how powerful She-Ra is.
She is after all, a Princess of Power.
People started decided that everyone being equal meant everyone being exactly the same, so our female cartoon characters that girls could look up to had to stop being so royal and be more like all the male action heroes. Now they absolutely must have all sorts of villains and action and gadgets, just like all the boys. Dejah Thoris, the earlier mentioned princess of Mars, in the original books possesses power and strengths stemming and gained from her royal standing; she is a powerful diplomat, a brilliant scientist, and clever strategist. These attributes make her a perfect compliment to her counterpart, the sword fighting wunderkind John Carter. Wonder Woman, perhaps the greatest princess of them all, owes everything she has in terms of strength, power, weapons, and allies to being the Princess of Themyscira, and heir to all of its vast wealth of resources (physical, mental, emotional, and philosophical). But modern audiences and writers just can’t see the greatness of princesses through their modern tinted glasses, and feel forced to strip away this aspect in favor of making them more like the guys. If script rumors are to be believed, Dejah Thoris now grabs a sword and “blitzes” enemy soldiers, foregoing the peace seeking diplomat and the planet saving atmosphere scientist she was in the original to make her good at exactly what the main character does for the whole book. Wonder Woman in the comics is now forced to be less mythological princess and more Street Fighter rip-off, and now on TV she’s forced to be less mythological princess and more CEO turned urban vigilante.
Pictured from left to right: “Hadouken!”; “I am Batman.”
Well, I for one stand by my principles that women should not be made to be more like guys. I say it’s high time we celebrated princesses and action heroes alike for the unique merits they both bring to the table, to create a more balanced world for our children.
For our children.
