Pop Culture's Effect On Children

From the moment we are able to think for ourselves, pop culture begins its life-long mission of influencing our entire lives. Girls are taught that what they wear and that their appearance is more important than how they feel, while boys are shown that masculinity is the most important thing a man can possess. In her essay, “Girl Power – No Really”, Peggy Orenstein presents the issue that society is not completely at fault for the way young girls are today, while Crystal Smith in “The Achilles Effect”, argues that movies targeted towards children have an impression on the minds of the younger male generation. While society and pop-culture are known to have an effect on children – positively or negatively - it is up to the parents to teach their children that regardless of what they are exposed to, they should learn to embrace their own beliefs. Making her first debut in 1937, Snow White was the first of many Caucasian Disney princesses presented throughout the mid-late 1900’s. Cinderella was introduced in 1950, Aurora in 1959, and Ariel and Belle were introduced in 1989 and 1991 respectively. Princess and the Frog, which was released in 2009, was Disney’s first attempt at an African-American princess.

In “Girl Power – No Really” from Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Peggy Orenstein describes the incident in which after watching Princess and the Frog with her daughter, she mistakes Tiana’s white and blonde best friend, Lotte, as the actual princess of the story. Orenstein dwells on the idea that Disney had presented Lotte the way they had on purpose. When watching the movie, it is understandable for younger children to make the same mistake Orenstein’s daughter did. Lotte possesses some of the same characteristics that other princesses do; she is white, blonde, she’s rich due to her father’s successful business, and she was the one Prince Naveen had planned to marry in the beginning of the movie.

Orenstein took the opportunity to talk to her daughter about the film, specifically it’s portrayal of women. She explains within her essay that there is only so much that parents can do to control what they’re children are exposed to and, like pop-culture, overtime it will lose its popularity. She continues with the explanation, “It is strategic, then – absolutely vital – to think through our own values and limits early, to consider what we approve or disapprove of and why” (Orenstein 227). However, in “The Achilles Effect”, Crystal Smith explains that when there is an absence of a father within children’s movies, the young boy will encounter a mentor or a family friend to replace the father that they have lost. While if the character does not have a mother, there are no replacements, or they are excluded from the plot entirely. Smith uses the movie Up as an example. Russell’s parents were separated, the mother taking on the role of a single parent. Russell meets Carl when trying to achieve his ‘Assisting the Elderly’ badge. Carl dismisses him, and it wasn’t until they were hundreds of feet in the air that he noticed Russell had been hiding on his front porch. The two continue on an adventure, developing a bond, and at the end of the movie, Carl stands in for Russell’s dad at the Wilderness Explorer ceremony while his mother sits in the audience. Another example to include her argument is in the movie The Lion King, in which Simba’s father, Mufasa, gets thrown into a wildebeest stampede and dies, but Simba soon confides in his new male friends, Timon and Pumbaa, to mentor him. Alternatively, in The Little Mermaid, there is no mention of a mother-figure nor the introduction of one, leaving Ariel and her sisters to be raised by their father.

Smith explains within her essay that boys are taught from a young age that they “must be stoic and emotionally detached, they need to present themselves at all times as strong and independent, and they must avoid all things feminine” (Smith 229). She continues to explain that in order to fulfill these qualities, she believes that mothers are excluded from their son’s lives so they are “free to become the real men they are destined to be” (Smith 229). It is inevitable for children to be affected by what they are exposed to. While Smith claims major children’s entertainment companies should be held responsible for the pressure on young boys to fit society’s standards of masculinity, Orenstein believes that it is important for parents of younger children to introduce the idea that they shouldn’t allow something they have seen online to alter what they believe in. Both Smith and Orenstein are correct, children are impressionable and this generation is growing up in a world that no other generation has had the opportunity to.