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Happily Ever After? A Content Analysis of Romantic Ideals in Disney Princess Films
Abstract
This study presents a quantitative content analysis of the romantic expressions portrayed in the 12 Disney princess movies. The films were analyzed for presence of romantic expressions (ideals and challenges) and the character reactions to those expressions. Results indicated that romantic expressions are prevalent in these films, with idealization of other as the most common ideal expressed. The transitional era of films (i.e., princess movies released between 1989 and 1998) contained roughly the same number of ideals as the other eras of classic (i.e., movies released before 1989) and modern (i.e., movies released after 1998) combined. Further, ideals were three times more common than challenges in classic films, whereas ideals and challenges were expressed equally in transitional and modern films. In general, across all three eras, challenges were most commonly met with punishing and negative reactions, whereas ideals were most often rewarded. Finally, there were no sex differences in terms of ideal expressions, but male characters were the dominant pursuers in 9 of the 11 films that featured a romantic relationship.
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“These romantic beliefs are developed during childhood and adolescence, through the socialization process, and they are strongly internalized when adolescents begin their first dating relationships (Hefner et al., 2017; Lamy, 2016; Tanner et al., 2003).”
From Romantic myths and cyber dating violence victimization in Spanish adolescents: A moderated mediation model (2023) · cites this paper as Hefner et al., 2017
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Cava, M.-J., Castillo, I., Tomás, I., & Buelga, S. (2023) · Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace · doi:10.5817/cp2023-2-4 · Cited by 18
“…TV series, social media, and their peers, which leads them to develop certain scripts about how their first romantic relationships should be (Bonomi et al., 2014; Driesmans et al., 2016; Eggermont, 2004; Ferrer & Bosch, 2013; Hefner et al., 2017; Martín-Salvador et al., 2021; Masanet et al., 2018).”
BackgroundInfluential
Metadata
- Authors
- Hefner, V., Firchau, R.-J., Norton, K., & Shevel, G.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Nativo, Inc
- Southwest Airlines (United States) (US)
- Gabi Events
- Corresponding author
- Hefner, Veronica
- ORCID
- Hefner, Veronica
- Venue
- Communication Studies
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2017-09-22
- Volume
- 68
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 511-532
- ISSN
- 1051-0974 (ISSN-L)
- 1745-1035
- OpenAlex
- W2757824432
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 6.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Communication Studies (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Media, Gender, and Advertising
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Feminism, and Media
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Cinema History and Criticism
- Keywords
- Disney princess films, romantic ideals, gender roles, sex differences
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- Hefner, V., Firchau, R.-J., Norton, K., & Shevel, G. (2017). Happily Ever After? A Content Analysis of Romantic Ideals in Disney Princess Films. Communication Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2017.1365092
