I hate that Mulan gets included as a Disney “princess.”
As a mother of an Asian daughter, I’ve always loved her story as an example of the empowered girl — she’s not a princess (even though she is marketed that way), both of her parents are alive in the story (unlike most Disney princesses who are motherless), she’s smarter than the boys, she saves herself AND she saves China from the Huns while the men poo-poo her efforts and look like a bunch of ninnies. She rails against wearing her society’s version of a gown, doesn’t ride her horse side saddle and has killer aim!
So as the media make much of the soon-to-be introduced new African-American Disney princess, (first her name was supposed to be Maddy, now it’s Tiana) I have to wonder whether we can really look to her as a role model for our daughters, whether they are girls of color or not. Of course, girls should know that princesses can come in any color, but why can’t we get past the whole princess thing when storytelling involves girls?
I know it’s all about money and profits and what works when trying to attract children and their parents to the movies and the merchandising. But what if Maddy/Tiana didn’t need to be a princess?? What if our daughters (and sons) could see an animated tale of a girl who meets life’s challenges head on without a tiara or a man, like Mulan?
Call me crazy, but there have to be more Mulans out there. If Disney and others would make movies about them, maybe we’d have to stop worrying as much about how real women are portrayed, say like Sonia Sotomayor? If we didn’t have the Disney version of womanhood running through so many aspects of our lives, maybe we’d be a little closer to terms like “assertive” would be considered positive compliments, instead of demeaning insults.
UPDATE: For all the new readers coming over for this post, just a reminder that this was written in July, much before the movie was released and the few details that were out about the movie are the ones reflected here. Thanks! But there is still MUCH to discuss about the world of Disney princesses!!
December 5th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Agreed. I believe that while the “pretty, ‘girly’, princess” outlook for girls is not inherently WRONG, it should NOT be the norm. maybe a Disney movie where the main female is a “nerdy” gamer girl. or a football player. (NOT live action by the way, live action disney movies always come off as preachy about “X can do Z just as well as Y”)
-17 year old male with a lovely nerdy girlfriend
December 17th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I agree with what you said. Also we can notice that the idea of prince charming is not a good thing to teach to girls, because life is way other than this (enven though guys CAN be charming :p)
I really like the answer of Nico.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I so agree haha wen i was younger many ppl called me mulan (cz i use to beat up guys) and i looked lyke hr 2 but many girls can embrese the power of themsevs
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:00 pm
i totally agree with you. however after wathing the movie i found that tiana spent most of her time as a frog in the movie and only actually became a princess in the last minute of the movie
March 25th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
In the movie Tiana wasn’t a princess as she mentioned many times throughout the movie, when dealing with the prince. She was a hard working girl who worked all her life trying to make her dream come true.It wasn’t until the end of the movie that she became a princess, as previously stated by movie watcher.
April 24th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
I don’t there’s anything wrong with the Disney prinsesses! All little girls want to be a princess!