In celebration of Disney's new trailer being released for FROZEN, here's a little bloggie because I am super pumped for this movie to come out ...
Of all the issues that have been raised about Disney's new feature film coming out this Thanksgiving, Frozen, this is the one that baffled me the most: apparently, a major complaint that many "fans" (honestly, I call them "naysayers", but I think I'm supposed to be nice about this) is "oh my God, not another Disney movie about some blue-eyed, blonde-haired heroine! Where's the diversity, Disney!?"
And, let's be real, I'm an Asian-American young woman growing up in a predominantly white country -- I should have a problem with this. For Christ's sake, I just wrote a blog about why representations of Asians in the media needs to be better! But, in all honesty, I don't. Whoops. First of all, the basis of the setting for the story is like freakin' Norway, and I get the feeling that it's also supposed to be like Hans Christian Anderson-era Norway -- read: mid 1800s. Yeah, not many people of diverse backgrounds there at the time anyways. And while Disney isn't exactly known for paying too much attention to historical accuracy, I don't know how I would feel if there ended up being a "token diverse character" just for the sake of there being one. That just feels like they'd be trying too hard.
But anyways, that's just the icing on the cake. Here's the cake: Disney needs to put out a blue-eyed, blond-haired heroine because they really haven't had a Caucasian heroine princess yet! Seriously, think about. Snow White? Had to be saved by a prince after she fell victim to her step-mother's cursed apple. She really didn't do much other than befriend seven dwarves (unless we're talking Once Upon a Time Snow White, who is end-of-story-awesome). Cinderella? Had to be rescued from her terrible family by a prince after he fell in love with her after dancing with her for like five minutes. Yup, a real badass lady right there. Sleeping Beauty? Didn't even do any dragon-fighting! Nope, she went dancing through the woods, ran into a random guy, sang a duet with him, went home and promptly passed out for a century because she couldn't resist her curiosity for the pointy-wheel thing that had magically appeared in her room. Then had to be saved by a prince who did all the interesting fun hero/heroine things. Belle? Uhm... let's not get started on Stockholm Syndrome, yeah? Gaston and the Beast are the ones who do all the stereotypical hero things, even if Belle is the one to get the Beast to love in the end.
Ariel? She did do a bit of heroine stuffs, fighting Ursula and all, I'll give her that, but anatomically speaking ... she's not exactly human (well until the very end ... and if anyone complains about "spoilers", Imma punch you, because you shoulda seen that movie a long time ago) and technically it's Prince Eric who steers the ship into Ursula's side. But I suppose she's still a "white" character, so we'll give Disney the point for that one (I personally give them half a point, but, again, I think I'm supposed to be nice about this). Tangled's Rapunzel, however? Not exactly the heroine in the traditional sense. She does adventurous stuff, way more so than her previous princess counterparts, but the story's really Finn's *cough*Eugene's*cough* ... I mean, the whole movie starts off with Zachary Levi: "This is the story of how I died ..." Not exactly, technically, a girl-driven story. And Finn does most of the saving and fighting, though Rapunzel did get a few good whacks in with her frying pan (by the way, E and I did discover that frying pans are surprisingly useful in extremely unexpected ways this past weekend while trying to get our couch set up. I kid you not).
But anyways, that's just the icing on the cake. Here's the cake: Disney needs to put out a blue-eyed, blond-haired heroine because they really haven't had a Caucasian heroine princess yet! Seriously, think about. Snow White? Had to be saved by a prince after she fell victim to her step-mother's cursed apple. She really didn't do much other than befriend seven dwarves (unless we're talking Once Upon a Time Snow White, who is end-of-story-awesome). Cinderella? Had to be rescued from her terrible family by a prince after he fell in love with her after dancing with her for like five minutes. Yup, a real badass lady right there. Sleeping Beauty? Didn't even do any dragon-fighting! Nope, she went dancing through the woods, ran into a random guy, sang a duet with him, went home and promptly passed out for a century because she couldn't resist her curiosity for the pointy-wheel thing that had magically appeared in her room. Then had to be saved by a prince who did all the interesting fun hero/heroine things. Belle? Uhm... let's not get started on Stockholm Syndrome, yeah? Gaston and the Beast are the ones who do all the stereotypical hero things, even if Belle is the one to get the Beast to love in the end.
Ariel? She did do a bit of heroine stuffs, fighting Ursula and all, I'll give her that, but anatomically speaking ... she's not exactly human (well until the very end ... and if anyone complains about "spoilers", Imma punch you, because you shoulda seen that movie a long time ago) and technically it's Prince Eric who steers the ship into Ursula's side. But I suppose she's still a "white" character, so we'll give Disney the point for that one (I personally give them half a point, but, again, I think I'm supposed to be nice about this). Tangled's Rapunzel, however? Not exactly the heroine in the traditional sense. She does adventurous stuff, way more so than her previous princess counterparts, but the story's really Finn's *cough*Eugene's*cough* ... I mean, the whole movie starts off with Zachary Levi: "This is the story of how I died ..." Not exactly, technically, a girl-driven story. And Finn does most of the saving and fighting, though Rapunzel did get a few good whacks in with her frying pan (by the way, E and I did discover that frying pans are surprisingly useful in extremely unexpected ways this past weekend while trying to get our couch set up. I kid you not).
So ... we're at like one of six in terms of white heroine Disney princesses.
Meanwhile, Disney's "ethnic" princesses are a whole different story. Admittedly, we don't start off very well with Princess Jasmine ... Like with Tangled, it's mostly Aladdin's story (also seeing how the movie's named ... Aladdin). Jasmine doesn't really do much hero-y stuff. But then there's Pocahontas, who is the epitome of outdoor adventure, and while she doesn't fight, she does lay down her safety to prevent war from breaking out (ayyyyy my internal historical accuracy monitor is squealing in outrage right now, but whatever, it's the portrayal that counts this time around). And I, as a proud Asian-American lady, can't forget about Mulan! If Pocahontas is the epitome of outdoor adventure, Mulan is the epitome of Hun-fighting badass! Yeah, she gets a point. And finally, the lovely Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. Her work ethic alone makes her a heroine to me, but if we're going for something physical to make her count, she does single-handedly(ish) take down Dr. Facilier at the end by destroying the voodoo talisman.
That makes the count three out of four.
So yeah. Are we counting minor princesses too? Like, say, Megara from Hercules? She had to get saved by Herc in the end. Not really a point for the white girls. Jane from Tarzan? Kind of the same boat as Meg. Giselle from Enchanted gives the girls a boost, though, considering that, despite her naivete, she is the one who slays the dragon in the end. As for Esmerelda from Hunchback and Kida from Atlantis, Esmerelda isn't a really heroic, fight-the-power character as much as she is the love interest, but Kida is literally the savior of her people. So ... white girls: 1/3; other ethnicity girls: 1/2.
The total count becomes this:
White girls: 2/9, or about 22%
Ethnically diverse girls: 4/6, or about 66%
Wow. Yeah ... I think the numbers speak for themselves. While I'm all for the promotion of varied ethnicities in films, I hate to say that Disney does not have a great track record making their white princesses into white heroines. As much as it sucks to not have good ethnic representation in the media, in the spirit of media equality, I don't even want to think about how it must feel for a white girl's media representation to solely be that of the damsel in distress waiting to be saved. That sucks even more for all us feminists out there.
So, to all you naysayers, I say this: If you're going to complain about anything, go complain about how the character design of Anna and Elsa looks exactly like the design of Rapunzel (oh wait, they don't) or that the original Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale is being beaten into submission or something trivial like that. Or, tell you what, considering the movie isn't even coming out for a few more months, why don't you wait until the film's come out, watch it, and then rip it apart if it's as bad as your fears say it might be! Because then, at the very least, you have an informed opinion on what you're bashing. And, oh right, you might actually find that you were wrong, and the movie is great.
Just sayin'.
--Tiffany.
Disclaimer: Though I'm trying to get into the animation industry, I did not work on this movie, so I am technically unbiased. I can only say I'm "technically" unbiased because my lovely roommate, E, worked on it, so she, of course, has influenced my view on it, but seeing as I've only seen what everyone else has seen (i.e. the teaser, the trailer, the released synopsis, and the design artwork), the movie looks gorgeous, witty, funny, and like it will be a great joy to watch!
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