When we look back on our favorite childhood movies, many of us probably think fondly of Disney movies like The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty. The common denominator in all of those movies isn't just a princess, but a thin princess.
These animated women were supposed to be the quintessential ideal of beauty — I mean, Beauty And The Beast's protagonist's name, Belle, literally translates to "beauty." So imagine how it'd feel to be a plus size girl who grows up watching only skinny women going on adventures and falling in love. It could easily leave the impression that happily ever afters aren't meant for girls who look like them.
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That's why body positive bloggers Michelle Elman and Amy Wooldridge are calling out to Disney to finally make a story about a fat princess. The two star in a new plus size princess photoshoot to make their point that princesses can come in all shapes and sizes.
"Growing up with Disney, my heart hurt a little," Elman, dressed as Snow White, wrote on her Instagram page. "None of them looked like me"
Wooldridge wrote a similar message on her Instagram page, noting that she "would stare, wide-eyed at the princesses on the screen" when she was a little girl. Although she grew up to understand that the bodies Disney represents are just one of many ways to be beautiful, Wooldridge wrote that movies and television need to do better, not only at representing people of size, but also people who fall into other minority groups.
"In all honesty, I’m tired of seeing the same bodies represented again and again," she wrote. "It’s time we had a fat princess. A princess with scars. A trans princess. A princess with a disability. A princess that hasn’t had her body drawn from the same stencil as all the others."
Elman agrees. "Alongside size diversity, we also need to be seeing more intersectionality when it comes to race, gender, sexual orientation, and ability," she tells Refinery29. "I think a plus princess would be great progress to advance the acceptance of all bodies and prove that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and will help fight this appearance-based culture that we live in."
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It's an important point, and we hope that Disney and other companies that create these happily ever afters are listening. As far as we've come with representation of all kinds of bodies in the media in the last few years, there has yet to be a plus size princess — at least, one that wasn't problematic.
It's high time we see a fat princess on the silver screen.
Refinery29 has reached out to Elman and will update this story when we receive a response.
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