Last month I was chatting to a friend and he brought it to my attention that there were apparently some discussions about “toning down,” or removing Tinker Bell’s presence from the Disney parks. An official Disney rep has since dismissed this news, claiming it is entirely false and while Tinker Bell does not appear in character meet and greets in Florida, she still features heavily in parades and firework shows and does appear at meet and greets in other parks. 

Now despite an official rep saying the statements about Tink being removed due to her being a “problematic character,” are false, the topic really inspired me to write about Tink. The idea that she is a “bad role model for girls,” is the point that specifically bothered me. Tink was allegedly labelled this way because of her being “body conscious,” and “constantly seeking the attention of Peter Pan.”  

I feel these labels are unfair, and I feel that I am constantly noticing a rising trend of audiences making comments about characters and texts, seemingly,  without fully understanding them. There is so much nuance in children’s literature and lately I find that is being completely missed. 

Tink is a character who has been part of the children’s literary canon since she first appeared in the original version of Peter Pan. J.M Barrie’s staged play was published in 1904 and since then Tink has made her way into the hearts of many. She is feisty, she is cheeky, she is stubborn, she is determined, she has her flaws of course, but who doesn’t? I am also aware that Peter Pan is a problematic text in other ways. J.M Barrie’s highly stereotypical and ignorant portrayal of Native Americans is an aspect of the text that newer adaptations seek to counteract. I also think that in 2024, Wendy’s character arc needs to be presented carefully because she is a Victorian character who was created in the 1900’s, meaning that her aspirations have been moulded to fit the societal norms and values of that time. Wendy dreams of being a mother, and while there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a mother in 2024, I feel it is important to present motherhood as a personal choice rather than presenting it as obvious that Wendy would want to be a mother simply because she is a girl. Wendy is a storyteller, Wendy is nurturing, Wendy is romantic, and I want her to be all of these wonderful things because that is who she is, not because she’s a girl so she must be. It is a nuanced line and many adaptations struggle with it. So we’re dealing with a text that has some undeniable flaws, why am I defending Tink specifically? 

I want to take a look at the alleged reasons behind why she is problematic. 

It doesn’t matter to me that this seems to be fake news, there are some points raised that I want to explore. 

Tink is Body Conscious, and She is An Example of Unrealistic Body Standards. 

In my opinion, this is an easy one, because I know what is being referred to here. Instantly I think of the 1953 Walt Disney animated version of Peter Pan. Margaret Kerry, actor, dancer, singer, and all-around artist served as the character model for the 1953 animated version of Tink. In true 1950’s fashion, Kerry had a figure that was considered the ideal of the time. Small waist, generous cleavage, and curvy hips. If you look up some of the behind-the-scenes images of Kerry posing as Tink, you’ll see she is wearing an outfit that would not be out of place in the wardrobe of Marilyn Monroe. 

Immediately, without even having to rewatch the animation, a scene came to mind. There are scenes where Tink is appreciating or expressing frustration about her figure. When she can’t fit through certain spaces, she angrily looks at her behind, and there’s another moment where she is quite proud of her hips in the mirror. I feel it is important to remember here that this cartoon was released in the 1950’s (and in production earlier,) and she was created by a team of men. They are even called “Disney’s Nine Old Men.” 

There are a few points to make here. Body standards and beauty standards and societal norms are always changing, so while we can acknowledge that a lot of things would not be written the same way today, remembering the time, place, and context of when certain things were created is important. The moment something is written down or captured on film, it is out of date, and who knows what will be out of date in fifteen years that are considered fine today? That is always going to be an ongoing issue to consider when it comes to consuming media. So of course, the beauty standards of the 1950’s are out of date and highly informed by the patriarchy, but I fear that is a point that we will always have to contend with in some way. This is why I feel it is unfair to critique Tink for her body consciousness, when actually, it was a team of men in the 1950’s who animated her that way. The scene of her expressing frustration with her behind was animated by a group of men who likely found that highly amusing, and I just don’t think it is fair to place the blame for that on Tink. The other issue I have with it is that I don’t think Tink admiring her own curves is necessarily a bad thing. If the message we want to send is that we should always be comfortable in our own skin and that all shapes and sizes should be celebrated, Tink being happy with how she looks and outwardly expressing that should be a good thing. 

This point leads me to another alleged issue – Note that I keep saying alleged as I’m aware these articles about Tink have been declared click-bait. 

Tink Constantly Wants Attention from Peter Pan. 

Tink has been accused of relying on male validation because she constantly wants the attention of Peter Pan. There have also been notes about Tink’s jealousy towards Wendy, and the fact that Tink does not always have Wendy’s best interests at heart. These points grate on me for a few reasons. The first being that I feel these points are overly simplistic and they ignore the source material. 

In 1911 as part of a fundraiser for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, Peter Pan was published in the form of an illustrated book. It is often credited as the first version as well as being the most beautiful one. In this version, readers can find the following quote about Tink …

“Tink was not all bad: or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time.” 

Tink has been criticised for being a highly emotional character, one who expresses anger, jealousy, and frustration. There have been comments made alluding to the idea that these traits are not something that should be modelled to children. I take issue with this. Children are people. Children grow up and become adults, and they have a full range of emotions. We all feel anger. We all feel jealousy. We all feel frustration. Why? Because we are human. We don’t feel only good things 24/7 and that does not make us bad people. Children deserve to know that it is okay to have big, negative feelings. They’re allowed to get angry, they’re allowed to get jealous, they’re allowed to get frustrated, most of all, they deserve to know that they are allowed to express a negative emotion and that does not make them a bad person or a “bad role model.” 

I actually feel that if Tink was to be “toned down,” because she dares to express her emotions that this would have a negative impact. Removing representation of negative feelings in works of fiction will not stop people, especially children, from having negative feelings in their real lives. Removing that representation will simply make people feel alone. I feel it is more important to showcase characters having those negative feelings and working through them. If characters act less than kindly because of those negative feelings, then I think it is important that we illustrate how sometimes actions may hurt others, but we can make amends. This is what Tink does. 

Returning to the quote I’ve referenced above, it is crucial to note that Tink is not a person, but a fairy. She is a mythical, magical being, and because fairies are so tiny, she can only feel one emotion at a time. This means when she is angry, she is ONLY angry, and when she is jealous, she is ONLY jealous. That is why some of her actions are very extreme, it is because she is totally and utterly consumed by one feeling at a time. Another point I want to make is that when people accuse Tink of acting in extreme ways, I think they forget that Tink exists in Neverland which is a magical place based on extremities. I also feel that if we’re going to critique Tink then we need to also critique Peter Pan. 

Peter Pan is an extremely interesting character. He is often hailed as the personification of childhood itself. He represents freedom, whimsy, imagination, and the carelessness of youth. He is also a cautionary tale. There are also darker, more tragic takes on the boy who would not grow up. Wendy represents all you gain when you grow up, and she poignantly shows what you lose too. When Wendy grows up, she is never able to return to Neverland, she is never able to fly again. This represents a child growing up from innocence to maturity. When children mature and learn things they did not know before, they can never go back to the carefree innocence of not knowing, of not understanding. Those of us who refuse to grow up, who refuse to mature, they miss out on all that adulthood gives us because immaturity means you cannot engage properly with those who have evolved. There are so many ways to explore the tale. Some imagine that Peter Pan represents children who died young, so he literally cannot grow up because he represents those who did not make it to adulthood. Neverland is sometimes viewed as a place where children go when they die and Peter Pan is a figure who helps them on their way. In other variations, he is a darker figure, a kind of authoritarian ruler of Neverland. In early drafts of the Disney adaptation, Peter Pan actually kidnaps Wendy because of how much he enjoys her stories, but ultimately Disney decided a kidnapping plot would be too dark. 

If we’re saying that Tink acts very emotionally, then we must acknowledge that Peter Pan does too. He is hot headed, temperamental, and he is only happy to play if people play by his rules and his rules only. This authoritarian style is illustrated in the type of father he pretends to be when he, Wendy, and the Lost Boys are playing house. While Wendy is nurturing, warm, and full of stories and lullabies, Peter Pan is cold, distant, and rules with an iron fist. There are even times when the Lost Boys cannot eat because Peter Pan will not imagine food for them, and he is quite harsh in his demands of what the Lost Boys can and can not do. 

They cannot speak of mothers, they cannot know more than him, and very early on in the story when Tootles shoots Wendy out of the sky, Peter Pan is prepared to stab him. Tootles shot Wendy with an arrow because in Tink’s jealousy she told him that Wendy was a “Wendy-Bird.” 

While I am not suggesting in any way that what Tink did here was nice, it does bother me that audiences will label her a “bad role model,” because she hurt Wendy, but then they will run right by how Peter Pan was prepared to kill in anger to get revenge. All of these actions are part of the make believe of Neverland and it is also crucial to note that in these critiques of Tink, her heroism is being greatly overlooked. As the story goes on, she warms up to Wendy and in the end, she selflessly drinks the poison intended for Peter Pan to save his life. The point I’m making in this discussion is that if we’re going to discuss Tink, then mention it all! 

There are two more reasons why the “Tink is too emotional,” critiques bother me. 

The first is that I feel female characters should be able to express all emotions without being labelled in any manner, and the second is that Tink is expressing some very valid frustrations over Peter Pan’s treatment of her albeit she is doing it in an extreme way – again because she can only feel one thing at a time. 

So let’s keep exploring …

The point I’m making here is very straightforward in my opinion. I really don’t like it when female characters are given labels because they are more than just happy. Peter Pan is many things throughout the story. He is happy, adventurous, jealous, angry, prideful, cocky, and then in the end, when Wendy is all grown up, he is devastated. Do we label him? No. His character is interpreted in many different ways, and he’s discussed in detail when those differing interpretations are explored, but he isn’t labelled in the way that Tink was allegedly labelled. His layers get appreciated, whereas all of Tink’s nuance gets ignored. This is annoying. 

Female characters should be able to be as emotionally complicated as male characters, and appreciated for the many ways they can be interpreted instead of just being smacked with a one-dimensional label. 

The other point that grates on me in regards to this idea is that up until Peter Pan meets Wendy, Tink was his best friend. They did everything together and then when Peter Pan meets Wendy and becomes enamoured by her and her stories, like a child with a new toy, he quite coldly discards Tink. He ignores her, he does not consider her feelings, but he is all too happy to use her pixie dust so everyone else can fly. I think Tink is absolutely right to express that she is upset and angry about being discarded. She expresses her frustrations in a fantastical, extreme way, yes, but that is because Neverland is a fantastical, extreme place. Crocodiles bite off hands, pirates chase children, mermaids swim in lagoons, and flying is possible. Tink’s fantastical expressions fit, they are part of what makes Neverland Neverland. At its core though, the point I’m making here is that I do not like the implication that Tink expressing valid frustrations over being cast aside makes her a ‘bad role model,’ nor does her wanting some respect and appreciation from Peter Pan mean that she is ‘constantly seeking his male validation.’ 

If we say that Tink is alway seeking male validation because she does not appreciate being tossed aside, then what we’re teaching children, what we’re teaching young girls specifically, is that if they stand up for themselves over being mistreated or ignored and if they say that this is unacceptable, then they are going to be labelled and that is not a lesson that I’m okay with teaching any child, especially not young girls. If you do a lot for someone, if you’re a loyal friend, if you’re always there to help, if you give parts of yourself – in Tink’s case, her pixie dust – then you are absolutely in the right to express anger and upset if you’re tossed aside in favour of someone else. Peter Pan is completely dismissive of Tink’s feelings and I think if she gets labelled as a ‘bad role model,’ because she does not let him dismiss her without standing up for herself then I think we’re heading down a slippery slope. 

Tink’s Adventures Continue … 

In all of my above points, I’ve been speaking about the version of Tink in the 1904 version of Peter Pan and in the Walt Disney animated film version. I have not even touched on the fact that Disney created an independent set of films, the first was released in 2008, centred around the character Tinker Bell. 

Tinker Bell is a tinker fairy, which means her talent is fixing things, tinkering with things, she is an innovative, creative, inventor and her fiery, determined spirit is what fuels her to keep going despite any obstacles that block her path. 

In these movies, Tink worries that she is useless because she can’t figure out her talent, and then she worries that being a tinker fairy is not exciting enough. She struggles to find her place, but she does not give up. She perseveres, she makes friends, and she learns that her skills are important. She learns how to best use her talents for good. The themes of these movies, particularly the first one, is that everyone has different skills and all those skills are important. We all can’t do the same thing and instead of doubting ourselves, we can find what makes us stand out and be proud of that talent. They’re full of feel good messages and in my opinion, they are great movies for young children to enjoy because they teach that even if you can’t do one thing, there will be something else that is for you to do and you will thrive. They teach young viewers to never give up. The ironic part of all of this is that when you go to meet Tink in the Disney parks, you’re meeting her and the other fairies in Pixie Hollow, which is from the Tinker Bell fairy movie franchise and not the original Peter Pan canon. So the version of Tink that was being judged (the 1904 version,) is not even the version that is supposedly being presented to audiences by Disney. We’re meeting the Tink who has starred in her own stories, and I think it is completely unfair to ignore all of the individual character development that Disney created for Tink. 

To wrap up…

I think it is unfair to only critique one side of Tink while ignoring her heroism and determination. 

I think it is a terrible idea to suggest that children should never see negative emotions in fiction and the idea that experiencing and expressing a negative emotion makes one a ‘bad role model,’ is one that I think is the truly problematic idea. 

I don’t like the fact that these labels reduced Tink’s very valid anger at Peter Pan down to being her supposedly ‘constantly seeking male validation.’ I think there needs to be more care given to how we discuss these kinds of characters, because if we’re going to say that Tink should never have expressed any sort of bad feeling or upset over how Peter Pan treated her, then I think we need to stop and question what sort of message that would teach young readers and viewers. 

If anything, we should want to teach them to speak up when they feel someone is being mean or treating them unfairly. We don’t want them to allow themselves to be dismissed. 

I’m aware that this discussion was fuelled by what ended up being click-bait, however I don’t care. I felt the points raised were worth exploring and there were points that I wanted to make even after learning that the initial article was, thankfully, false. I strongly believe that we need to remember that nuance has to exist in children’s literature, and I really feel that material needs to be understood before labels are thrown around. Children are highly intelligent and I don’t want their literature to be talking down to them, which I worry will become the case if we continue to label stories and characters in this way. There needs to be good and bad, light and shade, stakes and triumphs. There needs to be characters like Tink! 

Let me know your thoughts. 

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