‘Into the Unknown’: Using facet methodology to explore the Disney Princess Phenomenon

Abstract

The Disney Princesses are 18 royal characters featured in Disney and Pixar animated films, merchandise, marketing, and consumer experiences, marketed towards young consumers. Whilst much research has focussed on the representation of gender in Disney Princess films, there has been little focus on the rest of princess culture. This article argues that to understand the Disney Princess Phenomenon in its entirety, a new methodology must be introduced to the field. The article introduces Mason’s facet methodology as a methodological innovation to the fields of Disney and feminist media studies. A creative and innovative approach that allows researchers to ‘play’ with different methods to explore cultural phenomenon. Facet methodology imagines the selected phenomenon as a gemstone, where each ‘element’ or ‘part’ of the phenomenon is a facet of the overall gem. By using different methods to explore each facet, researchers can use findings to refract and reflect ‘light’ on each of the different elements of the phenomenon, demonstrating its entwined nature. The paper firstly outlines Jennifer Mason’s facet methodology. Secondly, it introduces the facets identified in the Disney Princess Phenomenon: films, merchandising and marketing, and consumer experiences. The article then focuses on how facet methodology enabled a creative and holistic approach to studying each facet of the princess phenomenon through a variety of research methods: textual analysis, interviews, content analysis, and autoethnography. The paper then reflects on the approach of facet methodology for research on the Disney Princess Phenomenon and in feminist media studies and media and communication, arguing that facet methodology provides researchers with insights to phenomena we would otherwise not uncover due to its holistic approach.

An ontological turn in the sociology of personal life: Tracing facet methodology’s connective ontology

“…Besides SPL (e.g. Lewis et al, 2018), it has been used in family sociology (Barnwell, 2022), political science (Bruff, 2017; Cavaghan & Elomäki, 2022), media studies (Bramley, 2021; Muir, 2022), creative methods (Meckin & Balmer, 2021), medical sociology (Phoenix & Bell, 2019), migration studies (Sedmak & Medarić, 2022), digital sociology (Ogden, 2020; Wilson, 2015), the sociology of education (Bamsey, 2021) and STS (Fletcher & Birk, 2019). Throughout, facet methodology has provided a means of doing multifaceted and holistic research, holding sociological methods in dialogue with the social world (Muir, 2022).…”

A cultural history through the comics of Donald Duck and friends

“…Whelan goes further and states the importance of the characteristics of Disney characters “for generations, Disney has used the princess narrative to instil in its viewers an understanding of the position of girls and women in American society”—and whilst this argument might be in relation to Disney Princess animated movies, it is not difficult to apply this to the comics when considering the scale of impact and scope of Disney comics in the mid‐20th century (Whelan, 2014, 177). Adding further to this is Muir's categorization of Disney Princesses (Muir, 2023, 202) which charts the personal traits and characteristics of these characters over time. Muir herself encourages scholars to apply this primarily Disney Princess related framework to other types of characters to test her findings, and the results are clear.…”

The Good, the Bad and the Disney: Employing princesses to examine Hungarian tweens’ understanding of gender

“…The Princess brand was created in 2000 (Orenstein, 2006), following the period of the ‘Disney Renaissance’ (1989–1999), in order to satisfy the market demand through selling the existing Disney Princess characters as commodities under a single product category banner, encompassing the idealistic, nostalgic and romantic visions of a princess. Disney Princesses have become complex, internationally prominent commodities, and are thus conceptualised as a ‘phenomenon’ within this project, in a similar manner to the approach adopted by the feminist media scholar Robyn Muir (2023). These characters are also understood as definers of the concept of ‘the’ princess – at least to American audiences (Mollet, 2020) – and a subject of many debates, on the one hand, within diverse scholarly critiques, and on the other as inspiration for audiences’ cultural productions.…”