If Disney Princesses Had Normal-Sized Eyes

I'm gonna go ahead and bring up another buzzfeed article, because I spend my entire life on there. This one is entitled "If Disney Princesses Had Normal-Sized Eyes." I encourage you all to follow the link and look at a few pictures, at least, to get an idea of what I'm going to be discussing here in a second.

At first glance, this seems to be pretty amusing. The photoshop genius behind the article so kindly gives us an idea of what Disney princesses would look like if they had a "normal" eye size, instead of the incredibly large, bashful looking eyeballs that they have in their depictions. The pictures definitely look funny when compared to the pictures we constantly see. However, this idea is helpful in revealing the unattainable standards that the princesses represent in almost all aspects of their physical appearances - ones that many young girls look up to and want to attain. The tagline of the article is "Forget hair. Disney princesses gave me unrealistic expectations of eyes." This line points out that Disney does give an unrealistic expectation of hair beauty and what that concept "means" in society. Of course, it leaves out the countless problems with passive personalities that these princesses represent, as well as the numerous other body image issues (small waists, large breasts, etc.). That being said, the small critique is an important one in my opinion.

With the change in eye size made to these images, the ridiculousness is put on the table and in the spotlight. I think one of the most telling images is that of Mulan. One can very easily compare her eyes in the original image with those of all the other characters behind her. And, looking critically, her eyes are SO much bigger than theirs. That was when it really clicked for me that this was something done only to the princesses to "feminize" them, sexualize them, put more importance on their physical appearance, and to create extremely unrealistic standards for female beauty.

One last thing that I also saw as very revealing of social problems was the first comment on the article. It read, "Movies that involve singing lobsters, dancing teacup, pumpkins that turn into carriages and you're worried about unrealistic expectations when it comes to eye size?" ----Wait. I forgot that people don't really think that these things matter. This commenter doesn't get that the "fairy tale" aspects of these stories aren't really all that problematic, nor that the disgustingly fake bodies of these women are actually a huge issue that lead to body image issues and eating disorders in girls and women of all ages. Ugh. Brb, banging my head against a wall.