Essay on The Representation of Femininity

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How does the image of Femininity and/or representations of it, construct identities? by

Janika Bea

(FDA graphics)

Lecturer: Rachael Miles UA1AD9-20-2: Creative Cultures 2 Blog address: http://janikabeauwe.blogspot.co.uk/ April 2013

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Contents

Introduction

3

Definitions

3-5

Femininity and gender roles

5-8

Sociological construction of identities

8-11

Cultural developments

12-14

Problems with the representation of Femininity 15-19 Conclusion

19-20

Bibliography

21-23

Image source

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How does the image of femininity, and representations of it, construct identities?

Introduction I have chosen to investigate this question in order to understand what femininity is - its meaning, its implications and its interpretations. I have selected texts by D Gauntlett, A C Beer, J Butler, D Kovac and A Baring, the Encyclopaedia of Women’s Health, L Heron, A Jones, L Lockford, B Parmar, S Phipps, C Sun,

N Wolf and L Shlain. These texts

explore what is meant by ‘femininity’ from the different perspectives of biology, psychology and sociology. I will also present my own ideas on the subject. I will be focusing on the influence of the media on femininity and, more broadly, gender roles, in Western culture.

Definitions According to the Oxford dictionary online the definition of image is: “The representation of the external form of a person or thing in art” “A visible impression obtained by a camera, telescope, microscope, or other devices, or displayed on a computer or video screen.” “A mental representation or idea; a person or thing that closely resembles another, semblance or likeness” “The general impression that a person, organisation, or product presents to the public.”

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Whether it is a form drawn on paper, or digitally produced on a screen, or a thought in our mind, an ‘image’ is distinct from the person or thing it represents. It is not the real person or thing, it only claims to be an imitation of it, and it could just as well misrepresent what the real thing or person is. The meaning of the word ’identity’ is complex. The identity of a person is the product of many factors combining to define one’s sense of self. These factors include, according to Gauntlett (2006, p13) : gender, class, age, ability or disability, sexuality, education, urban or rural residency, cultural background, access to communication or transportation, criminal record or persecution and aspects of the physical body. I will attempt to show how images of women in the media, which may be misrepresentations of women, impact on women’s identities – the sort of persons women believe themselves to be, what it means for them to be women. What it means to be a woman is also rooted in the biological nature of the female sex. Femininity can be regarded as the combination of biological factors reworked by socially defined gender roles into a category. It is part of the human communication system to explain an identity by expressing visual codes whether they are real or false. (Encyclopaedia of Women’s Health, 2004) Butler explains this further when she writes: On the one hand, representation serves as the operative term within a political process that seeks to extend visibility and legitimacy to women as political subjects; on the other hand,

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representation is the normative function of a language which is said either to reveal or to distort what is assumed to be true about the category of women. (Butler, 1990, p. 3).

Femininity and gender roles Gender roles are generally defined as sex-based categories that specify appropriate rules of conduct for males and females in a particular culture or society. Although grounded in biological differences between males and females, gender roles are social constructs. Simply put, based on the anatomical difference between men and women, each is prescribed varying and often stereotypical social roles that are reinforced at the individual level and by larger society. (Encyclopaedia of Women’s Health, 2004).

Femininity is the product of the role women play in society, as well as the way women construct their self image to define themselves as women or men, or to demonstrate their levels of femininity or masculinity. Gender roles are also linked to the physical abilities of each sex (things that most men can do and most women cannot, and vice versa). The above raises a question: are these stereotypical gender roles accurately and fairly allocated to each gender on biological grounds? Research projects have tried to find out how aware children in the 4th grade were of gender roles, using a pictogram questionnaire with different jobs children were asked to identify as a job for men, women

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or both. The researchers (of which are not named) found the results matched the roles typically associated with men, such as driving a truck, and those typically associated with women, such as making a hat. There were anomalies, such as a chef in a restaurant, where the children either marked a male or female, but not both. It was concluded that most children regarded cooking as a woman’s job. Such activities as moving chairs was associated with both sexes, perhaps simply because that was something the whole class had done irrespective of their gender, and I would conclude the same could be said for many other activities which are equally done by female and males. The same questionnaire was given to children in older age groups, and it was found that the divide between jobs became more sharply fixed. These children being older, one can assume that culture, experience, as well as media exposure had contributed to childhood learning of the differences in gender roles (Beer, 1990). Research in Beer’s book shows how differences in gender manifest themselves by also finding differences in body movement and body language which communicate a person’s gender as well as finding differences in personal choice which lead to the amount of masculinity or femininity a person displays. The way a woman walks in comparison to a man, and the way a man sits in comparison to a woman, is said to determine their gender.1 I would question this research, not because I believe it to be untrue but because it does not give the reasons why different genders move 1

“In experiments of observation in body language and posture masculinity was identified to be different to femininity the checklist included five aspects for standing; 1: Feet apart, 2: arm movements originate form the shoulder, 3: a firm wrist, 4: hands in pockets or tucked into belt loop. Exaggerated arm movements were seen to be feminine (Beer, 1990, p.180).

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differently. This is important as body language is a form of communication. In an attempt to explain body movement I looked at the evolution of human anatomy. Environmental factors caused a change in our human ancestors, the apes, which went from being tree dwelling vegetarians to scavengers of meat on the ground, causing a change in the conformation of limbs and the direction of the hips as they stood upright. The need to feed on meat in time turned ape-like humanoids into hunters who developed new mental skills. This development of mental skills was associated with a growth in the brain and an enlargement of the head. Babies with bigger heads resulted in difficult births, and women had to develop wider hips, causing women to ‘waddle’ rather than stride. (Shlain, 1999). This is the reason why human females have wider hips than males and why they move differently. This is also the reason why this ‘waddle’ and wide hips are classic signs used to represent femininity. Shlain also explains how the development of the infant was greatly slowed down, and was completely reliant on constant care by the female, which made her unable to hunt and feed herself. She and her offspring then had to rely on the male to bring them food. This female reliance on the male changed the female’s oestrus cycle. Males had waited and observed the females for their coming into oestrus, which was the point at which the male would be interested in a female. Once he had earned the favour of a female by bringing her meat, he mated with her, and then moved on to look for another female who might be

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ready. In order to attract the male the female needed to display oestrus and exchange sex for meat. The display of oestrus is the same as a performance of femininity in its use of, for instance, lipstick or blusher to mimic sexual arousal (the rush of blood to certain parts of the body causing a reddening of skin pigments when sexually stimulated).

Sociological construction of identities Looking at the psychological differences between genders, men are strongly stimulated by looking at women’s bodies and relatively less interested in their personalities, whereas women are more interested in men’s personalities and less in their looks. (Wolf, 2007).

This

accounts for media images of women to contain a great number of physical female attributes: wide hips, pink cheeks and plump breasts indicating an ability to breastfeed, as they seek to attract the attention of a male audience. Men, being the higher paid members of the workforce, are also the biggest consumers (Phipps, 1991). Psychologists argue that the differences between gender roles and gender identities are not solely due to biological and psychological differences, but are reinforced by influences within day to day living within a society increasingly surrounded by visual media, and are also learned from childhood with the exposure to images and media (Gauntlett, 2006). Lockford writes about the pressures put by society on women to embody the image of femininity. Lockford recalls that women in her mother’s generation were said to be unable to walk out of the house without

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having gone through a ritual of applying make-up, wearing appropriate dress, and remembering to behave in a certain manner, due to oppressive conditioning. She says that there were sanctions for not conforming to these ideals of male fantasy in the form of isolation and exclusion from society (Lockford, 2004). This influenced Lockford as a girl as she grew up. Old or traditional ways of viewing woman’s role and appearance still holds true in today’s society. They can be found in the comments made about women, especially those in a position of power who are criticized for lacking femininity (Gauntlett, 2006). This is one of the sanctions imposed on women who refuse to conform to the image of femininity. Gauntlett explains how there were books on Madonna, in the 90’s, based on her music videos. He said Madonna, showing femininity as a masquerade and performance, represented a good example of how femininity was an expression of self as opposed to a matter of being a woman. The view of gender roles in society were changing as Gauntlett wrote; ‘Masculinity’ and ‘Femininity’ have been pulled through the social changes of the past few decades in quite different ways. Masculinity is seen as the state of ‘being a man’, which is currently somewhat in flux. Femininity, on the other hand, is not necessarily seen as the state of being a woman: instead, it’s perceived more as a stereotype of a woman’s role from the past. (Gauntlett, 2006, p. 11).

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And in the introduction to her book Heron (1992) writes: Many of us writing here express a sense of not belonging, of feeling like outsiders, either in relation to others, our immediate family or community or in a singular sense of exclusion.

Heron is referring to groups of women having lived or grown up in the 50s, who wrote passages in her book on the strong differentiation between gender roles at the time. Over the years, from the 60s to the 80s, lessons were learned and these representations did change in the culture (Gauntlett, 2006).

fig 1 This advert in figure 1 shows how science attempted to replace one of women’s natural roles, that of breastfeeding. The words ‘The only perfect substitute for mother’s milk’, though recognising the value of

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a mother’s breast milk, at the same time launched the idea that babies could now be fed without their mothers.

fig 2 (Formula advert) And this more modern advert demonstrates that adverts and products like in figure 1 are still being made today (see fig 2) The 90s saw a relaxing of gender stereotyping, and gender roles became more blurred (Phipps, 1991). More women entered the workforce and gained higher positions of power within it and, as they did, gained a higher standing in the consumer world and new images were needed to appeal to women as consumers. Gauntlett (2006) says that femininity is no longer the driving force of being a ‘woman accepted by society’; femininity is just a performance a person chooses to undertake for pleasure or to gain recognition for a specific goal.

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Cultural developments Darwin argued that beauty was the result of sexual selection, and not natural selection, that women competed with other women, using beauty as a weapon to win the attention of a mate. This argument presupposed that it was the male who chose the female on the basis of beauty (good genes). This contradicted the rules of natural selection observed among other mammals, and was dismissed by Evelyn Reed, Elaine Morgan and others (Wolf 2007 p. 13). When looking at human beings from a zoological angle in comparison to our closest relatives, it was revealed that: Female higher primates are the sexual initiators; not only do they seek out and enjoy sex with many partners, but “every nonpregnant female takes her turn as being the most desirable of all her troop.� (Wolf, 2007, p. 13).

In an interview by Dr Betty Kovacs, psychoanalyst and author Anne Baring, who has carried out an extensive research on the evolution of the image of women in Antiquity and medieval Christianity, argues that the image of women changed dramatically when Constantine converted to Christianity, making it the official religion of the Roman Empire: There were many women teaching in the early Church, even women bishops, but then in the 4th century it all began to change. And there were very powerful men who brought about this shift. One was ‌. Constantine in 325 who ordered the repression of all gnostic texts and said they should be banned.

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Though the status of women had been high in early Christian communities, perhaps even higher than it had been in paganism, it quickly dropped once the Church became a Roman institution, and this led to a change in the roles of women and how they were portrayed. The evolution of the portrayal of women targeted biological differences as points of weakness. Woman became the object of sin, elaborated by Augustine. Barring says: Augustine himself said that sin was passed through the act of sexual union from generation to generation, from person to person so that Adam sin was actually passed on through the sexual act now that was the most appalling belief and the most appalling teaching. I think it crucified women and it crucified the feminine in man. And it crucified children who were brought up in this terrible belief that they were sinful from birth, from the beginning. From conception. Dr Kovacs added: The very act that brought them into being was sinful, and in some churches in some countries, a woman had to be cleansed after childbirth.

Long before the great quantity of media of today existed, the representation of women in Western culture went through a long elaboration that put the emphasis on aspects which is now found associated with femininity, in particular the association of the

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physical aspects of sex and childbirth with sin. The interview concludes with a reference to modern day culture: Dr Kovacs: I think it is so difficult today because as women we are unaware that the very way we see society, and … our getting together, and … the way we share information and education, is structured by the dominance of these attitudes which have become the masculine controlling attitude, not the full beautiful real potential of masculinity, and the projection of pollution onto woman has caused society to be so that we can only function in a way that is one-eyed. Anne Baring adds: We are trying to adapt to an unbalanced ethos and an unbalanced culture.

This illustrates a ‘problem’ in the representation of women today, where femininity, or the image of it, has been taken to extremes with the increase of cosmetic surgery, most of which transforms ‘woman-made women’ into ‘man-made women’ (Wolf 2007). So, although attitudes have relaxed over time, and culture is now more aware of the realities surrounding the representation of femininity, viewers of media are still being subjected to images constructed on the basis of gender stereotypes, and large portions of society are still believing and conforming to them.

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Problems with the representation of Femininity Wolf (2007) explains that once feminist movements slammed the door and turned their backs on ‘the consumer heaven of the isolated multiapplianced home’, they found themselves trapped by ‘the contemporary savages of the beauty backlash’ meaning they were trapped in their own ideals of beauty and the idea of femininity as they also became part of the founders of culture. Comments such as; Television screen media is saying to a child hundreds of times a day you are not good enough-without this product (Kim John-Payne) Waldorf 2012). And Any parent will tell you that it is incredibly difficult to stop boys and girls conforming to gender stereotypes. This is, in part, because we've spent our own lives surrounded by them (Parmar, 2013).

I would support the psychologist Dale Atkins, who explains that, according to research done on young children, early exposure to images of gender stereotypes leads to a confusion of who they are, and ultimately can affect their self esteem and body image, and lead to disorders in future life (Waldorf, 2012). Grooming the ideals of identity through children is a subject explored by Gail Dines who says: What's amazing when you look at Disney and Disney movies over the years is how little the image of females really changed. You

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still have the same highly sexualized female body with the big breasts, the tiny waist, the fluttering eyelashes, the coy expressions, and the seductress. These images seemed very similar over the years, and even when they are in animal forms, you know you’ve got this very seductive little female animal. (Sun, 2001)

fig 3 in figure 3 is a scene from Disney’s

illustrated colour drawing for

the animated film ‘Bambi’ places the female rabbit behind the male, with less of her body been seen, showing her as less important. Her ‘fluffier chest’ mimicks the appearance of mammary glands, which

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actual rabbits do not have in the area of the chest. In comparison to the male rabbit, the female rabbit is also displaying plumper cheeks and longer eyelashes, which are youth attributes seen in human babies. These signifiers constructed to demonstrate femininity though this apparent biological difference do not actually exist in humans until they reach adulthood. The female rabbit is drawn of a different colour to the male, a lighter shade of brown, which indicates that the density of her colour is lower than the male’s, suggesting that she is the weaker one. This is reinforced by her ears being down and backward, as opposed to being upright and forward, which is their position when animals are alert. Ears which are relaxed and down are a sign of submission. In this image the female rabbit is playing with the male rabbit’s ear as a form of seduction, to which the male rabbit is responding by displaying signs of pleasure as a satisfied male. In other words, she is displaying feminine traits and her actions are pleasing to the male. The scene is romantic and even includes small purple flowers, a symbol of fragility and sensuality.

Gail Dines comments that Disney productions and the influence of fairytales with the depiction of woman as the princess, adorned in all her Femininity, waiting to be rescued or recognised by a prince, particularly damaging in the development of young girls growing up with unrealistic expectations of life and what it means to be feminine. In this, she is echoing Heron when she describes women

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growing up in the 50s feeling pressured into being something they were not.

fig 4 (Collection of Disney princesses as seen in Disney animations). A theory behind pushing the idealism of femininity through the continuing production of images is that feminism has forced men to reexamine their role in society (Gauntlett, 2006). Men used to know their function (besides that of sperm providers) in society. They were the rulers of convention, the protectors, the founders of families, the breadwinners, the creators of stability. But, as women proved that they could now do all these things themselves, and sometimes even felt better off without men, this triggerred a crisis in men, who started

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to question their function. And this happened at the very moment when medical science was developing ever more sophisticated techniques making males almost redundant even in their biological roles in reproduction. (Gauntlett. 2006. Commenting on the book Masculinity in crisis, by Anthony Clare in 2000.) The theory is that men are having trouble justifying their existence, and in order to reassert their position, they argue that women cannot perform all the functions that make them autonomous without losing their femininity. Women see the face and the body all around them now not because culture magically manifests a transparency of male fantasy, but because advertisers need to sell products in a free for all of imagery bombardment intent on lowering women’s self esteem: and the reasons for that are political not sexual, both men and women now pay attention to images of the face and the body. (Wolf, 2007, p. 84)

Conclusion: There is no simple answer to the question “To what extent representations of femininity in media and images actually construct identities� as research shows that, while media has a strong influence on culture, biology also shapes culture, and culture influences media. Like a loop of events making changes throughout history in shaping cultural images in general, and gender roles, and the image of femininity, in particular. Though a lot has changed, with regard to the position and identity of women, these factors will continue to

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shape the representation of femininity. This being so, it is clear that images are a product of power as much as, or even more than, the representations of real things or people, as they claim to be. It seems clear, then, that images of femininity can only become more accurate if women themselves work at changing them, as Madonna seems to suggest. This may develop as women continue to play a larger role in society. As for the redrawing of the representation of femininity will entail the redrawing of the representation of masculinity, I believe that, though women may have wished to do the job on their own, it will have to be carried out as a dialogue between women and men, leading to a parallel transformation of the roles and identities of women and men in society.

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Bibliography

Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble, Routledge.. Great Britain: Chapman and Hall.

Beer, A C. (1990) Gender Roles: A Handbook of Tests and Measures. Connedicut: Greenwood Press.

Dr Kovacs, B. (2011) PART 1: The Dream of the Cosmos: An Interview with Anne Baring. You Tube [video] Available from:

http://youtu.be/-

UbKZhDO7HM [Accessed 27/09/2012].

Encyclopaedia of Women’s health. (2004) Femininity. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.: [UWE library online] available from: http://www.credoreference.com.ezproxy.uwe.ac.uk/entry/sprwh/femininity [Accessed 28/01/2013]

Encyclopaedia of Women’s health. (2004) Gender Roles. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. [UWE library online] Available from: http://www.credoreference.com.ezproxy.uwe.ac.uk/entry.do?id=9299959 [Accessed 06/02/2013] Gauntlett, D. (2006) Media, Gender and Identity: An introduction. London: Routledge.

Heron, L. (1992) Truth, Dare or Premise. London: Virago Press.

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Jones, A. (2003) The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. London: Routledge.

Lockford, L. (2004) Performing Rewriting Gender Identity Femininity. USA: AltaMira Press. Parmar, B. (2013) Barclays has pinked up its new ad – how lazy and depressing. [Article online] Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-janemartinson/2013/jan/17/barclays-pink-new-ad-girls

[Accessed

10/02/2013]. Phipps, S. (1991) A Woman’s Place: The Portrayal of Women in Advertising. London: The Advertising Association. Shlain, L. (1999) The Alphabet Versus The Goddess: The conflict between word and Image. Penguin Group. Arkana. Sun, C. (2001) Mickey mouse monopoly;Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power. Northampton uk : ArtMedia Production. [PDF online] Available from: http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/112/transcript_112.pdf [Accessed 10/02/2012].

Wolf, N. (2007)The Beauty Myth. Great Britain: Random House LTD.

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Image sources Fig 1 Description: This is an advert for Mellin's food for infants & invalids. Artificial food for children and infants became available when Justus von Liebig advertised his ‘perfect’ infant food in 1867. The first mixture was of wheat flour, cow’s milk and bicarbonate of potash. It was initially sold as a powder and later was available as a liquid. Soon other manufacturers like Mellin’s, Nestle's and Horlick's started to produce their own food. Mellin's was made with desiccated malt extract. Image from the British library online gallery available at http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/evancoll/a/014eva000000000u042 55000.html [accessed 12/02/2013]

Fig 2 Description: Modern Formula advert: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=formula9&hl=en&client=firefoxa&hs=QLr&rls=org.mozilla:enGB:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=I580UZte0YWFBWjgJAN&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=984&bih=643#imgrc=fZVH6UF0AuB46M%3A %3Bc1AfdzITPJ9jqM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com%252FzM8WbPc1ZSo%252FTo3vuSP4WhI%252FAAAAAAAAAag%252FX_T3qpVuWCw %252Fs320%252Fformula9.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.thealphaparent.com %252F2011%252F10%252F15-tricks-of-formula-companies.html%3B232%3B320 [Accessed 20/02/2013]

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Fig 3 Description: Thumper with female rabbit in Disney film, Bambi https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=formula9&hl=en&client=firefoxa&hs=QLr&rls=org.mozilla:enGB:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=I580UZte0YWFBWjgJAN&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=958&bih=643#hl=en&client=firefoxa&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB %3Aofficial&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=bambi+and+thumper&oq=bambi+and+thumper&gs_ l=img.12..0l9j0i5.256.45631.8.49247.13.11.0.2.2.0.553.1799.2j8j51.11.0...0.0...1c.1.5.img.APQE122tTEw&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf. &bvm=bv.43148975,d.d2k&fp=d8c6dcfe8582e556&biw=958&bih=643&imgrc=Oc6H_ qY3UpVLkM%3A%3BvH6N6V4cukLUyM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com %252F_bDpg9dX2RY0%252FTI46xz15UpI%252FAAAAAAAABzM%252F43jdTbsOMdI %252Fs1600%252Fthumper%252Bin%252Blove.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F %252Fdibblyfresh1.blogspot.com%252F2010%252F09%252Fmovies-in-minutedisneys-bambi.html%3B758%3B563 [Accessed 20/02/2013]

Fig 4 Description: A collection of Disney princesses. Available at; https://www.google.co.uk/search? q=disney+princesses&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=AUW&rls=org.mozilla:enGB:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Ppw0Ub6SJqKx0QWD6oCoAw&sqi=2& ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=984&bih=643#imgrc=VgUE5krnMjorPM%3A %3B6wTAnrUDNlWpzM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fimages2.fanpop.com%252Fimages %252Fphotos%252F6200000%252FDisney-Princesses-Wallpaper-disney-

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princess-6248012-1024-768.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.fanpop.com %252Fclubs%252Fdisney-princess%252Fimages%252F6248012%252Ftitle %252Fdisney-princesses-wallpaper%3B1024%3B768 [accessed 12/02/2013]

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