There was an interesting article I found on Yahoo the other day. The article said that Tangled will be the last princess movie that Disney will be making for awhile. The two reasons were because of changing expectations and demographics of sorts among Disney's viewers. The first reason is "because the studio is fearful of alienating young boys, who supposedly won't see something like last year's The Princess and the Frog." The article later says that nowadays, Disney's main competition is movies such as Iron Man and Transformers, which are now attracting elementary school age kids, despite their PG-13 ratings. The main reason for girls is that "young girls consider themselves too cool to want to be princesses." Dafna Lemish, a movie critic who has previously written on media's influence on children says "By the time they're 5 or 6, [girls are] not interested in being princesses. They're interested in being hot, in being cool. Clearly, they see this is what society values." What does it mean that girls are no longer valuing being a princess but rather being hot? I find it amazing that girls are wanting to be hot, rather than princesses. And I would wonder what that would mean for boys? When I was a kid, I wanted to be a police officer, a firefighter, or a professional athlete, but what do boys nowadays want to be when they grow up? I mean, I guess a professional athlete could be considered a girls equivalent of "hot", but would a police officer or firefighter count? Or would they want to be iron man or a transformer? Or something that society values more now, maybe they just aim to just be rich or powerful. But my main question is if girls now want to be "hot," what will another 30 years bring?
Here is the link to the article, in case anyone wants to read it...
http://blog.movies.yahoo.com/blog/177-disney-will-stop-making-princess-movies-because-boys-think-theyre-icky
