Newsflash 3: Disney's New Princess

This article, “A Successful Hop in Disney’s Latest,” indicates that Disney’s new film, “The Princess and the Frog,” starring Tiana as the first ever African-American princess, has been a major source of controversy. Weiss argues that the movie not only touches on the problematic image that Tiana expresses to little girls, but also presents both positive and negative racial implications. While there are some positive conclusions that can be drawn from the movie, including the introduction of a lead African American character, it does not strike new ground. Rather, “The Princess and the Frog” marks a return to the Disney Princess franchise, which has always focused more on the surface-level attentiveness to men, importance of marriage, and beauty than on feminist ideals, such as empowerment, self-respect, and independence. While at first glance, Tiana can be read in a feminist light as a “Girlie Girl,” in reality, Tiana is reinforcing traditional stereotypes of how women should appear and behave in society. These issues surrounding the movie suggest the need to challenge the nature of the familiar “princess concept.”

The article argues that Tiana represents the typical princess that Disney continues to reproduce. Disney builds female characters around both notions of femininity and traditional gender roles (Jacinto 2009). While the lead women in Disney films may portray qualities of heroism, they are still “pretty princesses” who are saved through partnership. For Tiana, it is only after she married the prince that she was let back into the human race. The movie further stereotypes women, confining them to specific gender norms, by showing that in order for a woman to be successful, she must get married. This concept is the opposite of feminists who have long fought against the constraints of traditional gender roles and who have argued that women do not have to be the “suburban housewife” (Friedan, 1963, pg 55). Tiana rather reinforces the idea that “pretty princesses” belong in the domestic sphere, regressing back to the traditional ways of how females had to behave in society in order to be accepted. This is certainly not a form of liberation.

In addition to the emphasis on traditional gender roles, Tiana promotes an unrealistic body image. Many young girls mimic what they see on television and therefore view Tiana’s look as the only way to be attractive. Just like all other Disney princesses, Tiana has an ideal body, perfect straight hair, and pencil-thin waist. Tiana’s “perfect body” is sending a harmful message to young girls since it focuses on looks as a measure of one’s value. Whether or not it was implied, it is as Colleen writes, “inextricably linked to patriarchy and the male vision of beauty.” Tiana’s perfect body feeds into the male gaze, fitting right into Levy’s raunch culture. “Raunch culture” refers to the nature of mainstream female sexuality, which is about “endlessly reiterating one particular-and particularly commercial-shorthand for sexiness” (30). Thus, young girls enter raunch culture because they learn that the only way to be worthy is to look just like Tiana and will therefore go to drastic measures to achieve this goal. Their bodies have become their central personal project, making young girls worry about “the contours of their bodies-especially shape, size, and muscle tone” (Brumberg, 97). For them, their bodies become crucial to their psychological well-being and provide “a means of self-definition” (Brumberg, 97). Young girls learn this from their larger culture, which Tiana is part of.

Despite the negative implications of the movie, the article highlights positive messages, yet not without criticism. “The Princess and the Frog” marks a new territory to relate to a broader audience by using an African American as the lead character. By doing so, the movie addresses issues of racism and sexism. Black feminism has often been “suppressed in feminism contexts as well as mainstream culture” (Miles, 180) and Tiana is an example of challenging this boundary by representing Disney’s first ever African-American princess. This will as Lorde envisioned, “enrich our visions and our joint struggles” (Miles, 180). “The Princess and the Frog” shows that anyone can be a princess; it serves an important step toward broadening racial representation in children’s media (Boston Globe 2009).

Nonetheless, the movie still poses an important question about the manner in which African Americans are depicted. While Dan Cook notes that Tiana is finally a black woman, “the backdrop of the film continues to drudge up tired racist stereotypes about the black community, attempting to separate cultural components of African-American history from the violence of slavery and racism” (Jacinto 2009). Furthermore, the movie does not reflect the ideals of African American women. The movie, like most previous Disney movies, stereotypes the image of a princess by reinforcing the “white standard,” which entails that one must be thin, have flawless skin and straight hair, and possess what society considers the “perfect body.” These are not the images of beauty in the African American community, which rather embraces more curvy bodies and varieties of hair styles. Ironically, Tiana’s perfectly straight hair is not even characteristic of women in the African American community. Thus, the movie demonstrates that true beauty must follow this “white standard,” implying that African Americans cannot be princesses unless they mimic the appearance and behavior of white females. These notions indicate that we must be weary of the message movies like this send out to our youth.

In this article, Cook states that Tiana is a source of inspiration for women. Despite girls who pretend to be princesses, princes are not part of their play. Rather, they concern themselves with dressing up in fancy outfits, primping, and holding “princess parties to which no boys are allowed” (Boston Globe 2009). This reveals that no matter one’s ethnicity, young girls can be independent while holding notion of femininity intact. Tiana, who “hits most benchmarks of ideal girldom,” (Boston Globe 2009) reflects the “Girlie Girl” image, which assumes power with femininity (Manifesta, 2000). To be “Girlie” and find empowerment is “to reclaim traditional models of heterosexual power relations as pleasurable rather than demeaning and to embrace feminine sexuality” (Showden 2009). Does this notion hold true for young girls who emulate Tiana?

While on the surface level the “Girlie Girl” image may sound empowering, there are also problems with this stereotype. This Girlie chauvinism narrows rather than expands young girl’s liberation. While wearing lipstick and dressing like a princess might feel empowering and freely chosen, such freedom and empowerment are often misleading given the individual’s inability to control how her actions are understood in society (Showden 2009). Furthermore, “Girlie” denotes a submissive and an unthreatening attitude, certainly not characteristics of women’s empowerment. Therefore, while many believe the message of the movie is positive, one must be cautious as to how far it goes in assuming liberation for women. Baumgardner and Richards are interested in an enlightened “Girlie Girl,” but Tiana does not possess this enlightenment as a princess. She is stuck in the traditional gender roles that Disney constantly recycles movie after movie. In this way, Disney has not in fact offered us a strong, independent, woman who never gives up her own dreams, but rather a women who ends up in a stereotypical heteronormative marriage who does not fight for liberation.

The hype that has emerged from this movie makes us weary of what the media is teaching our children. It is important to consider both sexism and racism in media representations as children are constantly bombarded with these issues. The faults in “The Princess and the Frog” bring up the following questions that Jacinto (2009) states: "When will people of color be adequately represented?" and "When will girls have leads to look up to that aren't princesses?" We must find an appropriate way to show diversity in children's films so that they are true to form. While it is clear that “identity is complex and multifaceted,” creating characters that can be heroic and relatable should not depend solely on how they look or where they are from (Jacinto 2009). Having strong women, girls, and minority representation in popular culture that challenge stereotypes is a necessary step to move forward in society. What will Disney come up with next?

Work Cited

Baumgardner, Jennifer, Amy Richards. Manifesta: young women, feminism, and the future. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.
Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. New York: Random House, 1997.

Friedan, Betty. “The Feminine Mystique.” Feminism in our Time. Ed. Miriam Schneir. Toronto: Vintage Books, 1994. 48-70. Print.

Jacinto, Nina. “The (Racist, Sexist) Princess Problem.” N.p., 5 June 2009. < http://community.feministing.com/2009/06/the-racist-sexist-princess-pro.html>.

Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs. New York: Free Press, 2005.
Miles, Tiya. “On The Rag.” Listen Up: Voices from the next feminist generation. Ed. Barbara Findlen. New York: Seal Press, 1995. 173-181. Print.

Showden, Carisa. What’s Political about the New Feminisms? Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. Volume 30(2). 2009: 1-34. Print.

Weiss, Joanna. “A successful hop in Disney’s latest.” The Boston Globe. N.p., 12 December 2009. Web. 20 March 2009. < http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/12/12/a_successful_hop_in_disneys_latest/>.