dark twists on disney

This morning, I was googling different Disney items - collectibles, jewelry, whatever happened to come up. As I was browsing the different websites, I came across one that said "Fallen Princesses" at the top. I was intrigued, so naturally I clicked on it. What I found was frightening, but so inspiring at the same time.

As much as I love Disney movies, I do sometimes think that these princesses are putting forth the wrong image to little girls who aspire to be just like Cinderella, Belle, or whoever their favorite princess might be.

I wanted to be Belle. I still wouldn't mind being her. But do I want to be shunned from my entire town because I like to read? Uh, no. Do I want to be harassed by the seemingly only eligible bachelor in town? Nobody wants to be badgered like Belle is by Gaston. And I certainly don't want to be the strangest girl in town because I'm not a blond bimbo who follows around men I'll never have.

I wouldn't mind ending up in a magical castle with the Beast that turns out to be the love of my life, but that's for a different day.

I just want to share some of these Fallen Princess photos. The photographer is Dina Goldstien and she began this project when her young daughters were starting to like Disney movies and the Disney Princesses. She had never really been introduced to many fairy tales as a young child, so she did some research on the more famous Disney fairy tales (Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, etc.) and found that the original fairy tales had darker sides to a lot of them. She created the Fallen Princesses project to demonstrate that these fairy tales give unrealistic ideals to little girls. Here are some pictures:

Photos from: http://www.fallenprincesses.com