Sometime in 2009 Disney released the movie "The Princess and the Frog" which featured the first African American princess. I haven't personally seen the movie. I stopped watching Disney Princess movies long ago but I have heard that the movie is typical and features a woman who needs help from a man in order to improve her life. Although this is not anything new, Disney has once again fooled us. The Disney princess cast is something that everyone should be proud of. Many ethnicities are represented. Pocahantas is a Native American, Jasmine is Middle Eastern, Mulan is Asian, and now Tiana is African American. Overall an achievement from Disney, a company who in the past had a cartoon character of a crow that was a crude caricature of an African American and whose name was Jim Crow. We should be celebrating this diverse group of women and young girls should be shown this as a way to show them that if your skin is darker than someone elses that does not make you different.
Jim Crow.However, if you don't have children and you don't spend your time in the Disney store or at Disney Land, you will miss an important fact. There are OFFICIAL Disney Princesses. For the most part, these "official" princesses are used for merchandising and marketing purposes. So who makes up these "official" Disney princesses? Ariel, Aurora, Snow White, Cinderella, Belle and interestingly enough, Jasmine. Don't believe me that there are "official" princesses. Go to google.com and type in "disney princesses" and do an image search. There may be a couple pictures that have all the princesses but for the most part, the pictures will consist of the princesses I named before.
So what does this mean and why does it matter? Putting the "white" princesses up on a pedestal while ignoring the other princesses of color further racist ideology that is still rampant in America today. Mulan and Pocahantas in particular are strong, brave women! Mulan went to war to save her family and Pocahantas built relationships with invaders of her home! Aurora slept the whole movie while everyone else did the work! These strong women are heroes and should be treated as such, not shoved in the background!
The official Disney Princesses with the addition of Alice
I have no idea where you found this picture of the princesses, but I love it. I have seen "The Princess and the Frog" and its the one Disney princess movie that I love. What I love about Tiana is that she is not weak, she's hardworking, she's smart, and she's not obsessed about love or a prince. Not only does Prince Naveen save her, but she has to save Prince Naveen. And my favorite part of all: unlike Ariel who is transformed from half-human, half-fish to a whole human, Tiana is transformed into a frog ("It is not slime, it is mucus." =) ). And her happy ending is unlike the other happy endings. But the best part is how this movie makes fun of the spoil white, blonde hair brats in the world. She just so happens to be friends with Tiana (fortunately, she cares about Tiana). This is the only princess that I let my daughter wear (and encourage).
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, it can be difficult finding Tiana on anything. For instance, I could find her on plates and napkins for my daughter's birthday, but I could not find her on any decorations.
Tiana, like Mulan and Pocahontas, is a character that girls can respect and who can hold her own.
KP