nevar257's comments

The Frog Princess--Disney's First Black Princess - Blog Entry

04 May 2007 03:54 PM

"I also have to say that while some adults may criticize Disney for their white heroines, my kids don't care. They adore all the Disney princesses--regardless of skin color."

While I respect your point of view, I must say that it is one sided. I happen to be one of those adults that has criticized and continue to criticize not only Disney but other toy makers as well for not providing African-American girls with dolls that look like them and depict positive images. The princess craze is huge and it nearly broke my heart when my 3 year old daughter told me that she is ugly because she can't be a princess and only white people are pretty. Did I mention that she is ONLY 3 YEARS OLD. She absolutely loves the princesses and gets so excited when the commercials come on. So, while your kids may not care, I'm over here doing damage control on a 3 year olds self image because there aren't any princesses that look like her.

Anyway, my point is that this is a HUGE opportunity for Disney to do some good and create a princess in a market that often overlooks African-Americans.

My next gripe is that they decided to make her a chambermaid (how stereotypical is that) in the South...with a voodoo practicing side kick. Of all the images to send and with an opportunity to create a VERY positive story line they continue to feed into negative stereotypes. For white America you may not be able to understand because in a situation like this you have a smorgasbord of other images to choose from; however, for us African-American's that isn't usually the case.