Introductory Post

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My name is Kincey Smith and I am a freshmen here at Duke University. I took Decoding Disney as my writing course because I had heard about it from several of my teammates. I was also drawn to the idea of watching Disney movies for class. I had been told that it was not an extremely difficult writing course but that it was very interesting. I am planning on being a psychology major, so I figured that many of the skills used to decode Disney might go hand in hand with many concepts in psychology/sociology.

Personally I grew up watching Disney movies and loving them. However, I was never the biggest fan of the princess movies. This may have been due to the fact that I grew up with an older and a younger brother. My favorite Disney princess is Pocahontas because of her love for nature and her free spirit. I always fantasized over how cool it would be to run around in the forest all day, talk to animals and trees, and jump off huge cliffs. Pocahontas is a real bad a** in my opinion.

I am interested in obtaining a better understanding about how watching Disney movies, especially about princesses, affect young girls. I have always been interested in how social media has played a huge role in self-esteem and confidence in teenage girls. I feel as though these Disney princesses play the same role for young girls as the models and movie stars do for teenage girls. I am excited to see how my views of Disney change throughout this course.

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