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.
All I can do is shake my head. Who’s next? Daisy Duck? Shame on Disney.
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!
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.
Jessica Rabbit wouldn’t fit into that dress!
I signed it.
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
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.
OMG, this is sickening! I like the old minnie and I will sign the petition!
Oops, forgot to say thank you Anya for letting us know about this wrong doing!
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.
Wow… The new Minnie is disturbing. I will be signing that petition. Young girls need postive, healthy role models… not anorexic cartoon characters.
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
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.
Wow! That is crazy and wrong on so many levels.
That is very disturbing! Who’s next I wonder?
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!!
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!
I never saw the skinny Minnie and grateful. That’s just disgusting!
Minnie needs a little more meat on her bones.
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.
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!
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.