Bravery, Compassion, Determination, and Patience
The next time you’re going through difficult times, tap into one of these 4 Disney characters traits that will get you in touch with your stronger self.
Princess Jasmine: Bravery
Princess Jasmine had no problem leaving the castle. Jasmine almost gets her hand cut off, but she stands up for what she believes in with both her father and her boyfriend Aladdin (the film’s namesake character). Make your voice hear, ladies. Princess Jasmine champions bravery.
Belle: Compassion
Belle refuses to be distracted by Gaston’s bravado and typically good looks. I’m sure there’s also an SPCA lesson here, but that could get sticky…because, well, the romance. Just do you best making this film a grounds for critical convo with your under elevens. Belle’s love for her books teaches us to keep our minds on what matters to us most. Belle’s relationship with Beast also reminds us that everyone deserves a friend. Sometimes, people react angrily, and its ugly, but the person reacting angrily might be masking pain. Princess Belle champions compassion.
Snow White: Patience
Okay, sometimes you set out to safety and you find a group of people among whom you feel safe. This safety in a new place might only last for a time before the same danger rears its head again. Snow White had to flee her demons until she escaped them. Disney represented this recurring demon as an old crone’s jealously. Hopefully, as modern women we know that jealousy can seek our achievements natural or acquired at any age from a person any age. Fearing jealousy is not what I glean from Snow White, jealousy is just one many challenges.
Rather, Snow White has taught me patience. Good friends and good decisions are not always their own reward, but neither is trying to undermine someone who for all intents and purposes isn’t worried about your agenda. The energy the Witch, the antagonist spends on trying to undermine Snow White eventually burns her out. Meanwhile, Snow White sleeps spell induced in a glass case her friends have lain away for her. I’m choosing to look at the sleep here as representative of laying low, eventually controversy can blow over, and who knows? When it does, your goal may be right there kissing you in the face. Snow White champions patience
Arielle: Determination
The young lady I tutor is an eight year old black girl in the Bay view District of San Francisco. During my first meeting with her she expressed how much she loves The Little Mermaid. Growing up in the suburbs of Maryland in a black middle class immigrant family, this was also my favorite movie. Ariel understood the importance of friendship and changing her immediate environment for greater opportunity. That change required strict determination when nobody else believed in her cause and isolation set in. Ariel’s plans didn’t always pan out the way she’d hoped. In fact, when she was between a rock and a hard place she gambled her beautiful voice away for her legs. How many of us, immigrants, women, people of color have had to make an impossible decision and forsake solid culture to literally keep our heads above water? Ariel champions determination.
