2 - ‘Lost Dreamers’: A Narrative Shift in the Princess Phenomenon
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2024
Summary
The second wave of princess films were released between 1985 and 1992. Between the release of Sleeping Beauty (1959) and The Black Cauldron (1985), the women's rights movement had taken huge strides within areas of employment and the home. In 1960, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the commercial production of the birth control pill, which gave women the autonomy to choose if and when they had children (May 2000: 513; Bailey 2004: 560). In 1962, homosexuality was decriminalized in Illinois, with many states following suit across the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. By 2003, homosexuality was completely decriminalized across all states through Lawrence v Texas. This did not however, mean that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning/queer, intersex, asexual, pansexual, and allies (LGBTQ+ ) community no longer experienced discrimination or prejudice. In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was signed into law, prohibiting women being paid less for the same work as men because of their gender (Chafe 2000: 535–6). In 1968, this was extended to government contractors, as well as encouraging affirmative action to hire more women in the workplace (National Archives n.d.). In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, preventing employment discrimination based on race, sex, and religion (National Archives n.d.). In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act was passed, enabling those outside of Western Europe to live in the US, leading to increased immigration from countries outside of Europe (History, Art & Archives n.d.a). The Indian Civil Rights Act was passed in 1968, providing American Indian citizens the same ‘protections’ under the Bill of Rights as other American citizens. However, this did cause controversy as it authorized ‘federal courts to intervene in intra-tribal disputes, a power they never had before’ (Pevar 1992 cited in Native Voices n.d.a). Years later in 1975, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act was passed, providing Indian nations with the sovereignty to self-determine and ‘control their own affairs’ (Native Voices n.d.b). Within education, federally supported programmes were prohibited from discriminating against applicants based on sex in 1972 (United States Department of Justice n.d.).
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- The Disney Princess PhenomenonA Feminist Analysis, pp. 40 - 68Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2023