As society continues to shift away from ideas of women needing a man, Disney has updated its storylines to streamline the same thing.
The company has launched several live-action remakes, as well as new movies showing the journey of princesses fighting for themselves and others.
While Disney has had movies in the past like “Lilo and Stitch,” which have shown that women don’t need men, the forefront of this concept started to progress in Disney’s “Frozen.“ Although Kristoff was the love interest for Anna, the saving isn’t done by him.
In the past, the setting of most of Disney’s princess movies has focused on the songs and the idea of being a dainty woman who eventually needs to be saved by a male lead, who becomes their love interest.
Stories like “Cinderella” have a supporting female character who helps her, in this case, the Fairy Godmother, who still needs a prince to whisk her away from her evil stepmother and stepsiblings.
Some remakes of Disney movies, such as “Mulan” have removed the male lead, redefining the character as a strong, independent woman. While Mulan was already an independent woman, the movie also sought to rewrite her narrative, shifting the ideas from songs and focusing more on combat.
The newest movie added to their line of strong independent female leads was the release of “Moana 2.” While she wasn’t alone, the movie focuses less on Moana needing saving and more on the overall power of her strength. There is also no love interest in the movie, focusing solely on Moana’s mission and her relationships with friends and family.
While love is a realistic concept in movies, the idea of a man coming to save you during the worst times of your life is not.
There have been talks from Rachel Zegler, who will play Snow White in the upcoming live-action remake, about how the new movie will shift from focusing on the prince and more on Snow White herself.
Zegler labeled the original film as “dated” and talked about how the prince is creepy in the movie, according to GB News.
While Zegler has received some backlash, some of her reasoning stems from the concept of the prince kissing Snow White in the coffin.
The original movie sets up Snow White, who is supposed to be 14, with a prince in his 20s. While Disney has had many previous relationships with this age gap, it further sets up for young women to expect an older man who will save them.
By pushing away from the concept of needing to be saved by a man, women are then able to be less exposed to the ideas of an older man needing to save them while being exposed to the idea that women can do anything that man can
Shifting the narrative to highlight women who save themselves or receive support from others helps establish the realistic expectation that women can thrive independently without needing a man to rescue them.