So I was looking though everyone’s blog entries about the pirates, and I saw a link undernea
th’s someone’s post about the upcoming black Disney princess. The article itself was decent (check it out here). A bit vague, full of overgeneralizations, and of course, chock-full of Obamamania (which is not necessarily bad, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing…). Anyway, what shocked me the most was the unending chain of negative comments that followed the article. People were reacting so strongly to a relatively watered down article! Granted, some people have nothing better to do with their time, but I really recomment taking a look at the comments yourself. I felt compelled to write a reponse (which I did under the name “bxem”, check it out here, scroll all the way to the bottom), and you might feel the same way yourself. I feel as though the discussions of representations of race in Disney films relates a lot to our discussions about pop culture, about control of the stories, control of the the images used in the stories, and the way that this creates the repertories that we associate with a specific concept (one person who commented cited ‘The Lion King” as Disney’s attempt at representating black people). That being said, I also feel that the tendency to attach value judgments to the things that we observe also hampers arguments, and I saw that in many of the comments as well.
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When I read this post the first thing that came to mind was my five year old niece. She, like most every other child, loves watching Disney movies and, as kids do, formulates a very interesting opinion/perspective on what she is watching.
I remember that after watching the Lion King one afternoon we were on a public bus and some older woman asked my niece about her day to which she responded: “We watched this movie the Lion King about a light lion (Simba) and a dark lion (Scar), and it was nice but it was sad because the black lion was trying to hurt the white ones. But, the black ones are always the bad ones, anyway.”
I think it’s going to be extremely interesting to hear her reaction to this movie since she gains from most movies, on her own perception, that the “black” or “dark” characters are either “bad” or “too silly,” a fact that used to amuse her but now seems only to irritate her, even at the tender age of five.
Wow. The comments people made in response were outrageous.
I found out that Oprah’s going to be the voice of Tiana’s (the Black Princess’s) mother, maybe to counteract the racist claims.
This movie is looong overdue! The Disney Princesses represented every ethnicity (including a mermaid!) except one of African decent (Mulan and Pocahontas were occasionally thrown in the mix). Many people argue that it is controversial to place for Tiana’s fairytale to take place in Louisiana, the sight of so much African- American grief over the past few years. I’m not so sure I take complete issue with that (expect the fact that the villain uses voodoo for evil), as much as I do the little firefly sidekick featured at the end of this trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0j7EactM9s ). Also, Tiana’s suitor looks European at first glance, while I would have liked them to have shown a story of two unquestionably black people in love. I worry that some characters may play into negative southern black American stereotypes that little kids will be exposed to. For instance, when I first heard of the movie back in ’07 (I think!) they were going to name the Princess Maddy, but they later decided that it sounded close to the word “mammy”…so, this is the kind of mentality we’re dealing with, with the creators of the film, and I’m afraid might be reflected in the movie. (But, I guess I should be thankful that someone in the studio picked up on how racist that might come across, and had enough sense to get her name changed! Here’s what they wanted “Maddy’ to look like http://dolopade.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/frog_princess.jpg)
The article poses the question, “Is Tiana as necessary as she was 20 years ago?” and goes on to list big African- American celebrities and their works. Only problem is, no little kid is watching Oprah Winfrey or “Lost”. Tiana was necessary then and is necessary now. And Obama does not negate the fact that we still need a fairytale icon for our youth. Hopefully, Disney will not disappoint too much with this film.
I do think that having an african american princess for girls to look up to is a great thing, it doesnt have to be overanalyzed as to whether or not disney is still being racist because the color of her prince. Should it really matter WHAT color she is? Why can’t a young girl look up to a girl with a different colored skin? What does that have to do with the princess? I feel like everything has to include a person of every race and gender to avoid being racist or unequal. I think we need to focus on getting to the point where its okay for an ad or tv show to be all black or all white or all mexican or whatever and anyone feels like they can relate to it.
Let me say something about little girls and their toys & cartoons. Little girls are colorblind at birth. Anyone who has ever raised a baby girl knows that it is true. Small children (of any color) will love and play with any toy (of any color) and watch cartoons (of any color) and not even question it, until they are told otherwise. Racism is taught. The differences and attitudes toward people are taught to small children by parents and other influencers. Children are mimics and reflect their parents, so by paying attention to what they say you can quickly ascertain how they perceive you. This said, I think the black Disney Princess is more for the benefit of older kids and adults (and is way overdue), though by the time the girls are old enough to appreciate a “like-colored Princess” most of them have already passed the “princesses stage” and have moved on to Hanna Montana and the Jonas Brothers. All colors of girls love “Miley” and the “Jonas Bros” too BTW. Looks like this is really an adult issue after all. Perhaps in the wake of Obama-fication in America our children will force us to take a good look at ourselves and say WTF is wrong with us?