The other side of your childhood favourites

I had a pretty typical childhood for a child of the 90s. I watched my share of Disney and more, and had the staple collection of Barbie dolls (sure, I didn't use them the conventional way... unless throwing them around the room at the ceiling fan was the conventional way...). Lately, there have been a few images making the usual social media rounds like this.

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Excuse me, I watched a ton of Disney, and I think I turned out just fine. Ok, not entirely fine :P but no better or worse than any other regular Josephine who hadn't watched Disney. I'm going to be honest, I never once thought to define any man that I'm with now with any Disney prince. 

Disney gave me so much more than just entertainment. Disney spurred on my musical interest, my love of art, and made my childhood dreams real (Who didn't want to meet a talking meerkat? Be honest :P). Disney taught me to not worry way before Bobby McFerrin ever did, to whistle while I work, and that bookworms are cool. 

I have noticed that children nowadays don't really watch Disney much anymore, and that makes me slightly sad. My favourite songs from my childhood days were Disney songs, and I could recite lines from favourite Disney movies from start to end, almost the same way as I do with Les Miserables now. A skill I picked up from watching Disney, no less :P So if you are ever looking for a career as a thespian...

Most of those "lessons" above are way beyond a child's imagination anyway... Political worth? What child even understands what that means? I see those images as adults reading way too much into a children's movie, and giving it adult values, that might potentially affect an adult watching Disney, just as I am reading too much into a silly little graphic meant for comedy. That said, if you were fully grown, and felt that you could be dead and still get some princely action as long as you were pretty, you may have some other kinds of issues that you may need to deal with more urgently. 

The person who did the Disney Princes' image obviously didn't watch the movies anyway, because the whole point of Aladdin was to show that lying didn't work. Pft, he obviously needed to watch more Disney :P 

Another image that caught my eye today... 

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I don't really like Barbie very much, I don't agree for what Barbie stands for and I didn't like Barbie at all as a child. I could never work out what to do with her... This artist's impression of Barbie without makeup though definitely made me pause and reflect. He chose to portray her with braces and wrinkles... I do think that this is beyond just Barbie without makeup, this is Barbie before cosmetic surgery, unless Barbie's got access to some miraculous wonder wrinkle-filler that all of us need to get our hands on! 

What do you think about these images? Did you grow up with Disney and Barbies?