Disney Princesses Face Real-Life Problems Like Drugs And Rape In Powerful Photo Series By Shannon Dermody
We've become used to seeing Disney princesses as symbols of purity, beauty, and feel-good emotions. But what if they ever got into the real world with all of its violence, drugs, sex trafficking, and all the other horrible real-life problems that we see on the daily news?
That's what a Philadelphia-based photographer Shannon Dermody set up to explore in her latest photo series featuring Disney characters dealing with drugs, alcohol, domestic violence, rape, sex trafficking and all the darkest aspects of our real life.
The photographer is seeking to raise awareness about the real-world problems by taking us out of our comfort zone with her powerful photos and talking about dramatic living conditions many people around the world face every day. Just be warned that some of the stunning pictures are quite graphic.
More info: Shannon Dermody | Facebook (h/t: demilked, ufunk)
This post may include affiliate links.
Domestic Violence
Honestly, "Beauty and the Beast" is pretty much a story of mental and physical abuse, and stockholm syndrome
Hate this movie for precisely this reason, despite his abuse of her she "learns" to love him? THINK about the message it's sending out!!
Load More Replies...This was the only one that I really liked out of all of them, and the only one I felt was sending a message.
Beauty and the beast wasn't about Stockholm syndrome, the beast freed belle before she began to see the good in him
After he kept her captive and constantly tried to make her love him.
Load More Replies...Pollution
Yes. Like how sea creatures suffer from pollution. Ariel is one too.
Load More Replies...Dang it guys were killing the mermaids, we gotta get our act together, fast
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/
Load More Replies...https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/
@ThePurpleness pollution leads to disease and hunger, hunger leads to war, war leads to rape.
Alcoholism
Reminds me of Snow White snorting the gold cocaine in Rammstein's video, "Sonne." images-590...663398.jpg
Rape
This is ridiculous.It's nothing about "raising awareness".Not everything has to be clouded and debased.The whole idea of things like "Disney Princesses" (of which I am no great fan)is that there is some small escape from the horrors of life.Of late ,there has been a real push to put an adult slant on them.To sexualize and sensationalize them.Which is exactly what this photo shoot is doing.FFS leave something for children,not everything has to be appropriated into something dark and nasty.Let kids be kids and let their safe,friendly,innocent "princesses" stay just that.
Actually, in the first known version of the tale of Sleeping Beauty, she isn't waken up by a kiss. A king finds her, rapes her in her sleep, impregnates her, and she gives birth to two children, whilst still asleep. One of them sucks on her finger and so the spike that had kept her asleep falls out. As per the photo, I'm fairly sure that it's not meant to sexualise Aurora, I suppose it's trying to contrast the ideal world of a fairy tale and the real dangers facing a young woman. I don't see how that's not good for raising awareness but each to their own I guess :)
Load More Replies...You do realize the real stories of the disney princesses are stories in which terrible things happened right? Sleeping beauty was actually raped in the original story. Snow White forces her step mother to wear iron hot metal shoes and dance until she dies at her wedding. Ariel dies after painfully dancing for Prince Erics enjoyment and he falls in love with someone else. Disney took each story and made it a more child friendly story.
Wait what? I am a kid...this site or app isn't off limits...
Load More Replies...This is necessary. At least until rape isn't a "Previous Condition" for crooked insurance corporations and until men no longer think of rape as an option no matter what thrice-damned sport you excel at. Very necessary indeed.
The negative comments here really annoy me. It's just an artistic expression of real life problems. Get over your selves, this stuff is real
Peta Hurley-Hill has a valid point and just as much right to make that point as all of you who slammed her for it. Why can't you just offer your opinion without it being about putting down someone else's? I like the photographs. I find them original and gritty, if a little less artistic than they could have been. I applaud Miss Dermody for being unafraid to do something different. At the same time, I sort of agree that this isn't an entirely appropriate area to make dark and twisty. And to Miss Hurley-Hill, I apologise for those who have nothing better to do than to go about all day telling other people their feelings are wrong. Thank you for your post. :)
No joke in the original story Aurora (makes Talia in the story) was raped. This is actually accurate to the actual story of Sleeping Beauty (Named the moon, sun, and Talia or something like that)
Suicide
No, she cuts her hair off in the original, to climb out of the tower. Didn´t you read fairy stories as a child? Or at least watch fairytail movies? The witch makes the Prince go blind, and he has to stumble through the forest to find Rapunzel. She cries, and her tears heal him. In some versions her hair grows back.
Load More Replies...Shouldn't Ariel have been suicide? In the original story she killed herself cause Prince Eric ended up with another lady.
I thought of it but I think that Ariel suits the pollution one better. Because it shows what we are doing to actual aquatic animals. While rapunzel suicided because she is lonely in her tower and I guess mother gothel hid her too well and no one found the tower. So I think rapunzel suits the suicide more. In my opinion of course.
Load More Replies...is this rapunzel or elsa? Based on the comments, I think it's rapunzel but it looks like elsa
This is Rapunzel, if u look closer, she's hanging herself from her own hair.
It's Rapunzel. Last time I checked, Rapunzel was a Disney princess.
Load More Replies...Sex Trafficking
I wouldn't say sex trafficking more like forced labour as that also still happens in a lot of countries.
Tobacco
I think the might have been an artist who used it, it's not the first project like that ;)
Load More Replies...I think there was some drawn version with opium with this one or some other princess, both nice :)
Unfortunately, making these images Disney princesses makes them far less powerful than just making them normal people. Thought needs to be taken with the background settings, as well. Also, the smoke effect on this image is REALLY cheesy.
oh lord, please save us from the evil of tobacco. Even though god made it
Heroin
Uhh, you're doing it wrong. Ignoring the actual injecting... how are drugs in any way related to this character?! Most of these photos touch on themes within the stories. This one does not.
I think it's a play words for heroine... and Merrida is good candidate for a strong heroine .... but that's just my feeling on it :)
Load More Replies...I feel like Alice from the "Alice in Wonderland" would have worked even better.
Police Brutality
This is a little extreme. Most police are amazing people trying to make the work a better place.
You're right, most police ARE amazing people trying to do a very difficult and heroic job. Does that mean we shouldn't acknowledge the ones who aren't?
Load More Replies...I think the sad fact that most of the people in these comments are confusing Tiana for Fiona or who don't even realize there WAS a black Disney princess is a massive part of the problem. To the others - do you also excuse rapists by saying "Well not all people rape"? No. Because it doesn't even have to be said. So why do you feel the need to excuse cops who do things like this by saying not all of them do? If you don't think there's a problem you are part of the problem.
So i already knew this princess was Tiana but the thing is I don't really get the message in this image that goes with the story or is theoretical, so could you please explain to me 😅
Load More Replies...I agree. I think the idea was there, but the pictures are kind of s**t.
Load More Replies...The princess from Princess and a Frog - note the frog tattoo on her arm.
Load More Replies...I like the idea behind the photoshoot, but I think it could be done much better. I like the "Pollution", but for example "Heroin" doesn't really show the effects of the drug - why the angry expression? "Tobacco" looks too overdone in photoshop which takes away the beauty of photography. I like the "Police brutality", very good idea to implement gun pointing and searching for a pulse at the same time - model does a great job too, I'd say she nailed it with the facial expression. But it's easy to see the girls don't have much experience in modelling, which doesn't do any favors to the photographs.
I agree. but i think its mainly the models the looks on their faces aren't convincing. they look like they are almost smiling (happy). . the only ones i buy are the first one (Belle) the frog prince princess and the Rapunsel photo.
Load More Replies...My only compliant is that girls (sometimes boys and adults) turn to princesses for the fantasy, not the reality. We see reality all over our lives. I have no interest in fantasy characters in real life tragedies. I also think there has been a real move toward making these characters their own hero; here they are represented being victimized. (okay, two complaints)
Boredpanda these days almost solely consists of creating controversial items to lure people to click. Internet 101: Create a post with a sensitive/controversial topic and enjoy high click numbers even for sub-standard art. I have found myself visiting the site less and less.
Load More Replies...Yeah take everything that is beautiful in life, even if it is a made up fantasy, and stick rape and murder on it to "raise awareness". Great stuff!
In the original sleeping beauty she was raped. She woke up cause her baby was sucking on her finger and accidentally removed the spike, not because of some kiss.
Load More Replies...What the actual ****?! When did turning children's princesses into raped and beaten women become normal?!? Leave Disney characters for kids
"seeking to raise awareness about the real-world problems " among whom? Pre-teen girls? Because... Disney princesses. :(
Is it your contention that only pre-teen girls know who Disney princesses are?
Load More Replies...Hardly recognizable as Disney princesses - looks like a bunch of girls in prom dresses.
This is ridiculous.It's nothing about "raising awareness".Not everything has to be clouded and debased.The whole idea of things like "Disney Princesses" (of which I am no great fan)is that there is some small escape from the horrors of life.Of late ,there has been a real push to put an adult slant on them.To sexualize and sensationalize them.Which is exactly what this photo shoot is doing.FFS leave something for children,not everything has to be appropriated into something dark and nasty.Let kids be kids and let their safe,friendly,innocent "princesses" stay just that.
The Disney princesses do remain that for young children, unless a parent is so monumentally stupid as to show these images to small children. Did you think they were meant for the consumption of 10-year-olds?
Load More Replies...WTF is wrong with people? How in god's name is it ok to perpetuate the Disney princess myth, and teach girls that a prince will swoop them off their feet and take care of them forever? That kind of thinking is the basis for secrecy and denial later in life. No prince beats the s**t out of a princess in the fantasy, so many young women are convinced that they have done something wrong and deserve the abuse. Real life is not a cute little forever after story. Stop lying to your daughters and teach them their own worth and that it is never ok for anyone to hurt them!
I've already seen the same idea executed so much batter. Ariel with pollution, which is the best here, was there and with much better photo; Jasmine was a guerilla fighter in the war-torn Middle East and not ruddy tobacco smoker (seriously? tobacco? that totally deserves to be mentioned in one breath with rape, right?), Snow White was a single mother with seven kids. In this series, I first had to stare for a while to even realise which princess is this supposed to be and then even longer to figure out what's the connection. I still don't get the sex trafficking and police brutality. Important issues are important, but you can rely on that alone. Not when you make it conceptual.
ST aka Cinderella-was forced to hard labor and wasn't allowed to go outside by her step-mother. PB aka Tatiana-because she is black. That's it I think :-( But I agree that these are somewhat poorly executed...
Load More Replies...I like the idea behind the photoshoot, but I think it could be done much better. I like the "Pollution", but for example "Heroin" doesn't really show the effects of the drug - why the angry expression? "Tobacco" looks too overdone in photoshop which takes away the beauty of photography. I like the "Police brutality", very good idea to implement gun pointing and searching for a pulse at the same time - model does a great job too, I'd say she nailed it with the facial expression. But it's easy to see the girls don't have much experience in modelling, which doesn't do any favors to the photographs.
I agree. but i think its mainly the models the looks on their faces aren't convincing. they look like they are almost smiling (happy). . the only ones i buy are the first one (Belle) the frog prince princess and the Rapunsel photo.
Load More Replies...My only compliant is that girls (sometimes boys and adults) turn to princesses for the fantasy, not the reality. We see reality all over our lives. I have no interest in fantasy characters in real life tragedies. I also think there has been a real move toward making these characters their own hero; here they are represented being victimized. (okay, two complaints)
Boredpanda these days almost solely consists of creating controversial items to lure people to click. Internet 101: Create a post with a sensitive/controversial topic and enjoy high click numbers even for sub-standard art. I have found myself visiting the site less and less.
Load More Replies...Yeah take everything that is beautiful in life, even if it is a made up fantasy, and stick rape and murder on it to "raise awareness". Great stuff!
In the original sleeping beauty she was raped. She woke up cause her baby was sucking on her finger and accidentally removed the spike, not because of some kiss.
Load More Replies...What the actual ****?! When did turning children's princesses into raped and beaten women become normal?!? Leave Disney characters for kids
"seeking to raise awareness about the real-world problems " among whom? Pre-teen girls? Because... Disney princesses. :(
Is it your contention that only pre-teen girls know who Disney princesses are?
Load More Replies...Hardly recognizable as Disney princesses - looks like a bunch of girls in prom dresses.
This is ridiculous.It's nothing about "raising awareness".Not everything has to be clouded and debased.The whole idea of things like "Disney Princesses" (of which I am no great fan)is that there is some small escape from the horrors of life.Of late ,there has been a real push to put an adult slant on them.To sexualize and sensationalize them.Which is exactly what this photo shoot is doing.FFS leave something for children,not everything has to be appropriated into something dark and nasty.Let kids be kids and let their safe,friendly,innocent "princesses" stay just that.
The Disney princesses do remain that for young children, unless a parent is so monumentally stupid as to show these images to small children. Did you think they were meant for the consumption of 10-year-olds?
Load More Replies...WTF is wrong with people? How in god's name is it ok to perpetuate the Disney princess myth, and teach girls that a prince will swoop them off their feet and take care of them forever? That kind of thinking is the basis for secrecy and denial later in life. No prince beats the s**t out of a princess in the fantasy, so many young women are convinced that they have done something wrong and deserve the abuse. Real life is not a cute little forever after story. Stop lying to your daughters and teach them their own worth and that it is never ok for anyone to hurt them!
I've already seen the same idea executed so much batter. Ariel with pollution, which is the best here, was there and with much better photo; Jasmine was a guerilla fighter in the war-torn Middle East and not ruddy tobacco smoker (seriously? tobacco? that totally deserves to be mentioned in one breath with rape, right?), Snow White was a single mother with seven kids. In this series, I first had to stare for a while to even realise which princess is this supposed to be and then even longer to figure out what's the connection. I still don't get the sex trafficking and police brutality. Important issues are important, but you can rely on that alone. Not when you make it conceptual.
ST aka Cinderella-was forced to hard labor and wasn't allowed to go outside by her step-mother. PB aka Tatiana-because she is black. That's it I think :-( But I agree that these are somewhat poorly executed...
Load More Replies...
