Growing up, many of us internalised toxic expectations of our bodies based on role models in popular culture - and Disney was no exception.
Anyone who grew up bingeing Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and Cinderella will know only too well how the lithe, glossy princesses impacted our perception of ‘normal’ bodies.
Thankfully, people are working hard to undo the damage done. Indeed earlier this week, Disney introduced its first plus-size female protagonist in Reflect, a Disney+ short film about “a ballet dancer [called Bianca] who battles her own reflection, overcoming doubt and fear by channeling her inner strength, grace and power”. It will be part of Disney's Short Circuit series of experimental films, focusing on the issue of body image and the importance of channeling your own identity while developing and protecting your own self-esteem and we like to see it.
Reflect tells the story of a “a ballet dancer who battles her own reflection"
News of the inclusive new Disney film has come as a video of an illustrator editing Disney princesses to have fuller body types is also going viral. A woman named Wyethe Smallish has created a TikTok reimagining Disney characters with different bodies and it's had 4.5m views and counting. "When only one body type is accepted as the norm, we pick out the special qualities that make us all different and we start to look negatively upon them," she said of her edits, which are making women realise just how much society has moulded their idea of what their bodies should look like.
One user wrote: “I will never draw another person the same. This has completely shifted my perspective. I wish I'd had this growing up as I know it would have been life-changing. Please, continue to work on social issues with your art. You have a powerful voice and ability to carry it through. Thank you so much,” whilst another thanked the artist for helping her come to terms with society's toxic body standards: “As someone who has always struggled with my body, I never really realised just how INSANE disney princess bodies are and how that shaped me growing up (I think I watched The Little Mermaid a million times, lol!). It's interesting too, because I studied fashion design, and for making my illustrations I was encouraged by numerous people to not make the women realistic. For me that was really hard because I was like, well no one looks like this, but it was all about projecting this fantasy, which I think inherently connects back to these unrealistic images we saw as children. Anyway, thank you SO MUCH for your work, both this project and your other projects; you have a unique eye and I wish you lots of success as you continue!”
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Body positive activist Alex Light shared Wyeth's videos and sent them even more viral. Speaking in her video, she told her followers: "These videos have gone viral on social media and it’s so easy to see why. We grew up watching these literally impossibly thin princesses in Disney movies and for so many of us they were our role models and who we aspired to be and they made us believe that is how our bodies should look when actually, that is so far from reality for the vast majority of us.
“As Wyeth herself said: ‘When only one body type is accepted as the norm, we pick out the special qualities that make us all different and we start to look negatively upon them.’”
Alex continued: "What’s crazy about this video is that the new illustrations are all still straight sized women and yet the difference from their original illustrations is huge. And I do have to point out that there is still a glaring lack of real plus size representation too but more realistic role models would have been a great start. One of the comments on Wyeths’ original video sums it up perfectly: “It really makes you wonder how different our lives would be.”
And that's the tea.
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