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Too Skinny Minnie

By Pam@IW

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Minnie Mouse diet
By Anya

Minnie Mouse, beloved Disney cartoon character and perennial girlfriend of Mickey (going on 80 plus years!) has been put on a severe diet. If you are like me, you probably haven’t given much thought to Minnie’s size before. She has always appeared to be perfectly proportioned for a cartoon mouse, in my humble opinion.

Apparently, she wasn’t proportioned in quite the right way, however, to wear a Lanvin dress in a collaboration between the department store Barney’s and Disney that is set to appear during the holiday season. If you are like me and haven’t heard of Lanvin, this is a designer that sells blouses for $750, pencil skirts for close to $900 and rather average looking career dresses that range anywhere from a low (ha!) of $1,800 to well over $3,000. Thanks, I’ll stick with Ann Taylor.

No, in order to wear the very high-end chic Lanvin dress, Minnie’s image had to be converted to the digital equivalent of a 5’11 woman who wears a size 0. The result is not only scary (look at her legs!), but insulting to women. I confess I don’t know what percentage of woman have the natural body type that Minnie is sporting in this ad, but I would hazard a guess that it is less than 1%. And those who have it are probably working models that are forced to remain underweight in order to book jobs. And to be very clear — this isn’t meant as a knock on very tall, very thin women. They do exist and their body type should not be negatively critiqued anymore than their curvier, shorter sisters.

Dancer and writer Ragen Chastain pointed out another very concerning aspect of the re-tooled Minnie image – the effect on young girls.

“There is something wrong with changing a beloved children’s character’s body so that it looks good in a dress that almost nobody looks good in – adding to the tremendous pressure on young girls and women to attain photoshop perfection.”

Anyone who has parented girls knows that concerns about weight begin very early in childhood. I can only imagine that a young girl looking at these two very different images of Minnie is going to be confused. The overwhelming message she is getting from many media sources, however, is that Skinny Minnie is the ideal to aspire to. No wonder eating disorders are on the rise in girls younger than 12. Shame on Disney for participating in this offensive campaign.

If you are interested in adding your voice to those expressing displeasure to Disney and Barney’s, Change.org  has an online petition that already has close to 113k signatures.

About the Author:

Anya@IW has written for ImperfectWomen.com since 2009. She dutifully follow current events and pop culture and loves having a platform to share her imperfect opinions.

Related posts:

Disney Reveals New Video Game Technology at Sea
Disney Princess Makeover Leads to Backlash
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Filed Under: News, Opinion, Our World Tagged With: Barney’s, Disney, Lanvin dress, Minnie Mouse, Ragen Chastain

Comments

  1. Chardonnay says

    October 15, 2012 at 4:00 pm

    All I can do is shake my head. Who’s next? Daisy Duck? Shame on Disney.

  2. Ann @ IW says

    October 15, 2012 at 4:21 pm

    I’ll sign it! I never saw this new skinny Minnie. I am very disappointed in her.
    I have two tall thin daughters, but they are nowhere near this thin, and I would be very upset if they were.
    I can’t stand to hear little girls turn down a treat because they are watching there figures. I was reading an article in a magazine about a novice cyclist. He started biking because he heard his 4 year old daughter turn down a piece of candy because she didn’t want to be fat like her dad. That comment really bothered him, but not for the reason it bothered me. I believe him that he did need to lose a few pounds, but a 4 year old should NOT be caring about one piece of candy making her fat. Lordy be!

  3. snickers says

    October 15, 2012 at 4:34 pm

    Ann,

    I’ll sign it also. How sad that Disney would change this and should be ashamed of themselves. I don’t think many $900.00 skirts will be on the top of Chrismas list this year, unless they think 5 year old girls are going to be purchasing them.

  4. Ann @ IW says

    October 15, 2012 at 4:43 pm

    Jessica Rabbit wouldn’t fit into that dress!

  5. Rosemary says

    October 15, 2012 at 4:52 pm

    I signed it.

  6. PattyPie says

    October 15, 2012 at 5:55 pm

    Great post Anya!

    How sad about Minny. She looks like Cruella de Ville (Sorry Minnie) all she needs is a puppy wrap.

    It’s just a bad idea on so many levels. I just don’t understand why Disney who is usually so careful with their brand would do something like this…I’ll be signing the petition

  7. snickers says

    October 15, 2012 at 6:12 pm

    When you sign the petition, you will receive a e-mail back from Change.org. Please pass this along to friends or family for them to sign.

  8. GeeWhiz says

    October 15, 2012 at 6:57 pm

    OMG, this is sickening! I like the old minnie and I will sign the petition!

  9. GeeWhiz says

    October 15, 2012 at 7:02 pm

    Oops, forgot to say thank you Anya for letting us know about this wrong doing!

  10. JennieIW says

    October 15, 2012 at 9:37 pm

    This is really disappointing – I completely agree that something like this has an insidious negative effect on Minnie’s main fanbase, young girls. This Minnie makes Olive Oyl – a “naturally” skinny classic cartoon character – look positively zaftig.

  11. mojito says

    October 16, 2012 at 7:12 am

    Wow… The new Minnie is disturbing. I will be signing that petition. Young girls need postive, healthy role models… not anorexic cartoon characters.

  12. Sarah De Diego (Journeysof TheZoo) says

    October 16, 2012 at 8:03 am

    What was the matter with the previous Minnie? Disney thining tha kids couldn’t relate because she was normal sized. What a shame. Just proves how important it is to speak with your kids about the images they see. Thanks for highlighting this issue.

    Besos, Sarah
    Zookeeper at Journeys of The Zoo

  13. Lily@IW says

    October 16, 2012 at 8:37 am

    No way! I can’t believe what they did to Minnie! I hope Mickey, Donald and the rest of the Clubhouse gang are gathering for an intervention, because Minnie looks like a heroin addict.
    Nothing magical about a size zero Minnie. Another sad day for Disney. Ugh.

  14. Diana Stanhope says

    October 16, 2012 at 8:56 am

    Wow! That is crazy and wrong on so many levels.

  15. Chelsea says

    October 17, 2012 at 7:23 am

    That is very disturbing! Who’s next I wonder?

  16. Kelli Avery says

    October 17, 2012 at 7:55 am

    REALLY!! That’s insane.. It’s like they are trying to turn Minnie into Olive Oil from Popeye. Weird. I think they will learn soon enough that the general population and Disney supporters are not going to accept this!!

  17. Susan Bewley says

    October 17, 2012 at 10:07 am

    This is sick! Disney should be ashamed of themselves for even MAKING or condoning this! Girls need to have realistic expectations! Crap like this is why anorexia is on the rise with children under 14!

  18. Michele says

    October 17, 2012 at 10:48 am

    I never saw the skinny Minnie and grateful. That’s just disgusting!

  19. sam says

    October 17, 2012 at 5:14 pm

    Minnie needs a little more meat on her bones.

  20. Jennifer Williams says

    October 17, 2012 at 6:15 pm

    That is horrible, I was recently sick and because of my health I was 5’5″ and weighted 85lbs. I had people telling me “you lost so much weight, you look amazing. How do you do it, I wish I were you.” What they did not realize is I covered all the mirrors in my house because I knew I looked horrible. It is terrible that Disney is caving and putting this out there for our little ones to look up to. Shame on them.

  21. Tracy Robertson says

    February 23, 2013 at 3:58 pm

    This is not good. I’m sure some people think that a “cartoon mouse is not going to affect the self esteem of young girls”, but those people must have never been a 12 year old girl! Annorexia is not funny!

  22. erin says

    April 11, 2013 at 10:10 am

    Late to the party, but when I saw the ad it didn’t really come across to me as “thin is sexy”, nor that the ad was in any way directed towards children. I’m all for body positivity, and I understand the concern here, but to me the intention was to resemble fashion illustrations, which do traditionally feature ladies of those proportions.

    What bothers me more is when female cartoon characters that are drawn in a more “realistic” style, eg Disney princesses or superheroes, always have a bizarrely thin hourglass figure.

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