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Monday, February 14, 2011

Racial Tokenism again??

Today I was looking at my valentines, a few of which were Disney Princesses.  It was a little strange, but I started to remember what the cards used to look like when I was little, and what they look like now.  The way I remember a typical Disney princess card looked something like this.
But now, there is a new face.  Disney's most recent princess movie was The Princess and the Frog, and the main character, Tiana looks like this.
The year was 2009 when the first African American princess appeared.  I noticed her as the one who stood out on the card.  There were two white princesses, from some original movies, like Snow White (1937), Sleeping Beauty (1959), Cinderella (1950), The Little Mermaid (1989), or the most recent being Beauty and the Beast (1991), and then a very recent addition to the princesses.  The princesses that everybody recognizes are the white ones.  Even Jasmine (1992), while sometimes shown on these cards, is not as familiar as say, Ariel. (It is debatable whether Mulan (1998) is a princess per say.)  Why the famous princesses do not stay on the cards I would argue is an obvious depiction of racial tokenism.  Thanks to those who gave me the valentines that inspired this post.

1 comment:

  1. I think you have brought up a very interesting observation, David. I'm not sure if I completely agree with you in saying Disney is using princesses of other races as racial tokenism. Perhaps I am being naive, but could Disney just be attempting to show another generation a different set of values? Ideas that allow any girl, regardless of skin color, to be a princess?

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