After years of criticism for its depiction of female characters, Disney has released a new short focused on the issue of body dysmorphia with a plus-size heroine.
Reflect tells the story of a young plus-size ballet dancer named Bianca who is battling against her own reflection as she dances. Eventually, the young dancer conquers her doubts and fears.
While many fans and commentators have celebrated the move as promoting body positivity and breaking new ground culturally, not everyone has viewed the move by Disney as positive.
Gina Florio wrote in an article for Evie Magazine, “While there’s nothing wrong with creating cartoon characters who look different from the kind that we’re used to seeing, at some point we have to ask ourselves if it’s wise to promote this kind of content to young girls.”
She emphasized that both the plot and character development hinge on the fact that she is obese.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, childhood obesity has become one of the biggest public health challenges worldwide. It has recently become an especially serious issue in Texas, which has the eighth-highest rate of childhood obesity among all the states in the country.
“It really does make you wonder what the purpose is for promoting these kinds of characters. It also makes you wonder why Disney (and the media in general) isn’t promoting obese boys as protagonists. This is only a movement that is targeted at young girls,” Florio stated.
The recent pushback against Disney’s depiction of female characters began in earnest when a Tumblr artist who goes by the moniker “The Nameless Doll” reimagined some of the company’s most iconic “princesses” in 2015.
The Nameless Doll wrote, “I wanted to make a plus-size princess (even though [plus-size] on Belle looks like medium by real-life standards) and chose my all-time favorite princess for the test…I wanted to make her even fuller, but my skills weren’t up to the task.”
The following year, a popular YouTube personality, Loey Lane, released a video that went viral in which she lamented the lack of plus-size princesses in the Disney universe.
And last year, Disney received scrutiny for its depiction of a female character in its 2016 short film Inner Workings, Kate, who had an extremely tiny waist and disproportionately large buttocks.
Until Reflect, most overweight characters, regardless of gender, appeared in Disney animations as either villains or supporting characters. Reflect is the first time in the studio’s near-hundred-year history that the lead protagonist has been plus-size.