The problem with Disney
Like most kids these days who were raised in the United States, I remember growing up watching Disney movies. I idolized Princess Cinderella most of all, and when my dad killed a mouse in our kitchen when I was five years old, I cried for an entire day. On Halloween that year, I twirled ecstatically in my sparkly blue dress and skipped to kindergarten, pretending like I was going to the ball before the clock struck midnight.
That day, a classmate dressed as Minnie Mouse gave me a haughty look and proclaimed, "You can't be Cinderella."
"Why not?" I retorted. She and I had been having problems all year. She always stole my legos.
"Because she's white," she explained exasperatedly, as if she were talking to... well, a five-year-old.
I didn't give it much thought at the time, being actually five years old, but I think that that was the end of my relationship with Cinderella. Pocahontas became my next favorite Disney princess, and then later, Mulan.
First of all, doesn't my experience echo this?
That brings me to this picture, which shows all the princesses in the Disney franchise in descending order. Snow White was the first in 1937, and Elsa is the most recent Disney princesses from their new movie, Frozen.
Wait, but I see people of color in there! Look, a black person! And an Asian! And a couple of... brownish people.
I see nine white princesses, and four princesses that are supposed to represent all other races. Mulan represents all of east Asia. We have Pocahontas, who covers all Indigenous Americans. Tiana has all of the African diaspora covered (let's forget that she was a frog for 90% of the movie). And Jasmine can be all of west Asia. We forgot a Latina princess in there, but oh well.
I'm sorry, but am I supposed to be happy with that?
Maybe I'm a killjoy, but I watched Frozen with my little sister with a cynical scowl on my face for most of the movie. My sister exited the movie theater wide-eyed and belting "Let It Go" at the top of her lungs, and on the way home I had to rain on her parade and pointed out to her the complete lack of representation in that movie.
"I think Disney is just trying to accurately represent the people who were there in the movie at the time," my sister said. "There probably weren't many people of color."
The historical accuracy argument is a big claim people make when talking about representation in movies. "We can't just add in a person of color in a movie that's set in 19th century Denmark, it's just not historically accurate!"
Maybe not, but first of all, Frozen was set in a made up fairytale land that was based off of 19th century Denmark, which had a lot of white blonde people but also a lot of people of color. But let's assume people of color didn't exist in that place at that time (which is wrong). How historically accurate does this made up fairytale land need to be? Did I mention it's a MADE UP PLACE? I guarantee there probably weren't many singing and dancing magical snowmen in 19th century Denmark.
That day, a classmate dressed as Minnie Mouse gave me a haughty look and proclaimed, "You can't be Cinderella."
"Why not?" I retorted. She and I had been having problems all year. She always stole my legos.
"Because she's white," she explained exasperatedly, as if she were talking to... well, a five-year-old.
I didn't give it much thought at the time, being actually five years old, but I think that that was the end of my relationship with Cinderella. Pocahontas became my next favorite Disney princess, and then later, Mulan.
First of all, doesn't my experience echo this?
That brings me to this picture, which shows all the princesses in the Disney franchise in descending order. Snow White was the first in 1937, and Elsa is the most recent Disney princesses from their new movie, Frozen.
Wait, but I see people of color in there! Look, a black person! And an Asian! And a couple of... brownish people.
I see nine white princesses, and four princesses that are supposed to represent all other races. Mulan represents all of east Asia. We have Pocahontas, who covers all Indigenous Americans. Tiana has all of the African diaspora covered (let's forget that she was a frog for 90% of the movie). And Jasmine can be all of west Asia. We forgot a Latina princess in there, but oh well.
I'm sorry, but am I supposed to be happy with that?
Maybe I'm a killjoy, but I watched Frozen with my little sister with a cynical scowl on my face for most of the movie. My sister exited the movie theater wide-eyed and belting "Let It Go" at the top of her lungs, and on the way home I had to rain on her parade and pointed out to her the complete lack of representation in that movie.
"I think Disney is just trying to accurately represent the people who were there in the movie at the time," my sister said. "There probably weren't many people of color."
The historical accuracy argument is a big claim people make when talking about representation in movies. "We can't just add in a person of color in a movie that's set in 19th century Denmark, it's just not historically accurate!"
Maybe not, but first of all, Frozen was set in a made up fairytale land that was based off of 19th century Denmark, which had a lot of white blonde people but also a lot of people of color. But let's assume people of color didn't exist in that place at that time (which is wrong). How historically accurate does this made up fairytale land need to be? Did I mention it's a MADE UP PLACE? I guarantee there probably weren't many singing and dancing magical snowmen in 19th century Denmark.