Disney’s Potrayal of “Other” Women

Disney stories and princesses have always been filled of subtle or not so subtle racism, (horrible stories), and not knowing how to not reinforce stereotypes.

After looking at the previous post’s video, I wanted to express what I think of Disney princesses. Most people don’t like to hear what I have to say about Disney because it ‘ruins the magic’.

Let’s take a look at the major princesses of Disney:

From Left to Right: Jasmine, Snow White, Mulan, Tiana, Aurora, Cinderella, Pocahontas, Belle, and Ariel

Most of the skin tones are light. The only ones who are different are Jasmine, Tiana and Pocahontas. If you notice as well Jasmine and Pocahontas (in my opinion) are the least clothed out of all of the princesses. There’s something ‘exotic’ about them because they aren’t common. Looking at it from a USian perspective, Native Americans and Middle Easterners are rare. Just interesting that the other less exotic princesses are almost completely covered up.

Ariel, oh the beloved, Ariel, the only red-head out of the group. One major problem I have with her plot… she’s not even ****ing human! Let’s remember that “Gingers Do Have Souls”. At least all the other princesses are human. This is just a giant ‘face-palm’. I think it would have been a more acceptable story if the prince was a mermaid and she went after it.

Belle, I feel this is typical view from many USians, which is that if you don’t date a white man he must be a beast. Note again, none of the princes are of color, all are white. The only time the prince doesn’t have a race associated, he’s a beast. I totally forgot that, the Beast is white as well. Great way to lie to little girls telling them the only good dates are white men. When I heard Disney was FINALLY going to have a Black princess, I was already gearing myself for disappointment. Whoever wrote the story was walking on egg shells for every stupid, stereotype-reinforcing thing they wrote. A couple of questions for the author are: Why New Orleans? Why 1920’s (definitely not a good time period for Blacks)? Why do you insist on having a white prince?

It’s the 21st century and we still don’t have a Latina princess or a lesbian princess. I’m assuming the second half of my wish won’t happen (soon) since parents are so touchy on things related to sexuality, even though the princesses are already highly sexualized and most of their fortes in the movies is their sex-appeal.

Self-Hatred Within The Black Community

Through the video above you can see how self hatred is very evident within the Black community (as well as in other communities like the Latino community). There are many possible reasons for this to occur.

There’s Disney*, there’s the media that glamorizes certain celebrities over others, there’s society’s imposed self hatred. There are so many ways to get exposed to the disease called self hatred.

Some of the most common signs is the lightening of the hair and eyes. A couple of days ago while sitting in an UN conference room,  a friend noted to me that almost 99% of the people in that room had dark hair. It’s interesting to see that blond hair and light eyes (and goes without saying lighter skin) is a virtue yet most of the world does not possess those traits. I guess this shows how northern European traits used imperialism and exposure to infect most of the world with the idea that they aren’t attractive. Thinking about it now, it might be because it’s ‘exotic’.

A woman in the video gives testimony of going through a surgery to lighten her eyes. The fact that there’s even an available surgery for that shows the racism that this country has. You very rarely hear, “I hate my eyes, they are too light, I wish they were darker”. Very, VERY interesting that the procedure was done in Panama, which as far as I know has a majority Black/ancestral Black/darker skin/etc population.

Straight hair, that seems more related to Afro-self hatred. A good portion of the world’s population (geographically) have straight/wavy hair. The media also glamorizes the hair that you can ‘hair flip’.The clerk in the video mentioned that straight hair “looks more natural”. I’m just wondering what does that even mean? and Who defined natural?

The bleaching is another serious topic. Bleaching is very prominent within the Black community and the Indian community. In some societies like in India, lighter skin means higher position in society.I know that in Dominican Republic this is still a fact. When I watch television, I count how many of the reporters are light skinned and dark skinned, who is doing what. Most of the presenters or public figures are white. It’s unfortunately no surprise. Although most of the women do not have blond hair, they most definitely do have straight hair. It’s very difficult to tell someone they’ve been lied to their whole life about how they aren’t beautiful when a person has fully internalized it and believed it.

There must be a strong force somewhere it to make people to bleach their skin in lieu of the fact that they may get all sorts of horrible skin diseases.

How Exactly Did Obama Win the Election?

No one can deny that the election of 2008/2009 was historical; we had a woman close to winning for both parties and (now) we have an African American president. The election was marked with change, possibly the oldest president, two female candidates, or an African American president.

I feel the election was like playing the “which one is not like the others” game. I feel many people voted for Barack Obama because he’s an African American and not because of his politics. People were so stirred and excited for the new face they saw on television talking about becoming the next president of the United States, that they didn’t realize he wasn’t going to change much. I don’t think the ridiculous rumors created were really helping the situation either:

Various other rumors were being spread, the hopeful and the bad. There was a rumor spreading that the White House would be painted black (right because a federal building would ever be touched in that manner). There was one that he is actually a gangster and that he was ‘hood’. The other silly rumor was that he would end the war in Iraq (although he has said multiple times at debates and speeches that he wasn’t going to).

I also think his platform definitely helped him win the election. All the speak of hope made people hopeful, maybe even too hopeful. Because their hopes are so high, the people of the United States are expecting superhuman feats to come from him.

The yearn for something new and the fact that he’s an African American most likely allowed him to win the election over other candidates.