What comes to my mind when I think of a Disney Princess are 2D waists, impossibly sweet voices and lightly coloured, buff Prince Charming by her side.
I have a love/hate relationship with Disney. They've come a long way from the red-faced "Indians" in Peter Pan; the monkeys in The Jungle Book speaking jive and singing songs like "I want to be a real man, walk like a man, talk like a real man" and jive speaking crows in Dumbo.
They even have a Middle East Disney Princess, Jasmine. Did anyone notice that Jafar, the bad guy in Aladdin was substantially darker than everyone else, and the Sultan looked like a stubby British Professor?
Disney is fighting back the accusations of racist characters with the recently released The Princess and the Frog. The movie is set in New Orleans with an full black character list, voiced (mostly) by black people. Which is great, isn't it?
Unfortunately, the story is the same. Even though the main character Tiana is working hard to make her dream of opening a restaurant come true, there's still a "Someday my prince will come" attitude. As it turns out, Tiana and Prince Naveen have an egalitarian relationship, saving and protecting each other from numerous obstacles in the movie. However, in the end Tiana has to rely on Prince Naveen for her dream to come true.
I understand people have different ideological stances on gender roles, but what is Disney teaching our kids? That women can't undertake big responsibilities by themselves? That women can't achieve something without the help of a man? Or that a woman can't be happy being single? Egalitarianism is part of the Canadian Baptist mantra, and we have wonderful female leaders, single and married. What do you think about Disney?
