The Princess Mentality?

A Response to The Trouble With Disney's Princess Tiana

There has been a little controversy over the new Disney movie coming out later this year, The Princess and the Frog. It's the first Disney movie to feature a black princess. Much of the controversy I've read has been over her "prince" who is not a black but instead a racially unidentifiable tan man named Naveen. However, this isn't the problem writer and mother of two, Monique Fields, has with the movie.

Fields doesn't see this as a milestone or good that her daughters see someone of their race as a Disney princess, but instead feels that the movie is just perpetuating the "princess mentality." In The Root, she writes:

Disney and other toymakers are selling a fantasy, pure and simple. What is troubling is when fantasy mingles with reality. Some little girls are telling anyone who will listen that they want to be princesses when they grow up. If nothing else, I expect a more ambitious and attainable goal from children who haven’t yet learned to read or write. Their goals don’t have to be engraved in their scrapbooks, but thoughts of becoming lawyers, doctors or entrepreneurs is a start.

A princess? Whatever in the world do princesses do? More importantly, how do they get paid? Real life is not a fairy tale, and few folks live happily ever after. So just what are we telling our girls when we dress them up in frilly dresses, dust them with makeup and put glitter in their hair before they really know who they are? We’re telling them outward beauty is more valuable than being responsible, trustworthy citizens who don’t always get what they want. If we aren’t clear what’s acceptable now, we’re setting them up for a time in the not-too-distant future when they want something they can’t have and have no way of dealing with rejection.

Reading this article, I was taken aback. Fields is taking the whole princess thing a little too far. These are children (hers are 4 and 2). They don't need to be planning out their future, worrying about bills and studying for the LSATs! Kids are meant to be carefree. Most children grow out of that phase and don't plan to be the same thing they did at 2. Who cares if they like sparkly things, pink and tutus?

It seems to me that Fields is taking the influence of Disney movies too seriously. Disney isn't raising your child, you are! If anything/anyone has a say on what type of mentality your children grow up with, it's the parents not some two hour long Disney movie. That's what parents do, bring their children up and teach them the reality of things and how they should act as a person. Fields should take this as an opportunity to teach her daughters. Show them what she thinks a princess is, not what the stereotypical, commercial qualities are. This is the time to tell them that princesses have responsibilities, they give back to their community, they work hard, they have jobs, etc. Tell them that if they want nice things they have to work for it and that nice things aren't everything. This is an advantage not a disadvantage.

Fields, in my point of view, has also missed the message of many Disney films. She should definitely be proud that her daughters see a beautiful black woman on the screen. Disney films do not say that outward beauty is what's important, emphasize a lack of responsibility or that everyday people can't have a happy ending. If this is what she's getting, I wonder what movies she's been watching. Maybe she's the one who isn't looking past the external.

Countless Disney films have sent the opposite message. Beauty and the Beast was saying to be kind, don't judge someone by how they look but by who they are. The person on the inside, who they are, is what's beautiful. Cinderella worked hard and despite of her circumstances became a princess. Mulan took a risk to help her father and family and ended up saving her country, China, and getting the man. Aladdin was homeless and married Jasmine. Simba grew up, took responsibility and saved his pride and the land. These examples if anything perpetuate what's good, in people and in general.

I can't pass judgment on the content, especially that of racial concern, until I see the movie. But can say I have no problem taking my cousins and godson to see it.

Photo provided by Nerdles.com