Mulan and Princess Tiana in the Disney Princess Universe
In the film Mulan, Disney decided to make Mulan rebel against her parents when joining the military even though in the ballad the parents supported her joining the military. This is supposedly her going against the sexist Chinese society. Disney ignored the historical truths and emphasized that Chinese culture is inherently bad and inferior to American culture through the constant references to Chinese sexism, as if American culture does not have sexism. Not only that, in Mulan, Mulan can only achieve her heroism by being being disguised as a man, implying that Asian women cannot overtly express leadership, but only covertly. After she rids of her disguise, she limits her power by sharing her glory with Shang and goes back to conventional femininity. This shackled to her traditional gender role and reinforces that gender is binary and natural. It teaches girls that a happy ending is marrying and continuing the domestic duties of women.
Similarly, in Princess and the Frog, the protagonist Tiana is practicing her domesticity by working for an elite White family. Tiana begins her journey in the movie as a member of the working class and although she improves her socioeconomic status, she is still seen as serving the elite White family. Unlike any other White princesses, Tiana has a job and gets paid. It seems as though the other White princesses are granted high status whereas Tiana is forced to work for it. Tiana is not granted magic to further her goals but rather she is encouraged to work hard for her dream life.
Whereas, in Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, the princesses are assisted by some magical elements rather than working for it themselves. In fact, Tiana even denies the use of Dr. Facilier’s culturally appropriated magic to make her dream come true. The choice to transform Tiana into a frog for most of the movie is not only dehumanizing but also insulting. Dundes and Streiff suggest that frogs are not considered to be cute or relatable animals and therefore there is little purpose for the use of this animal in the film.
It is disappointing that Disney’s first Black princess spends most of her screen time as an animal rather than a human being when there are no magical appealing aspects either. Most of the White princesses are surrounded by the help of animals but are not morphed into animals themselves. Overall, these films may seem to be promoting feminism so little girls can be empowered in these films, but the characters still continue to embrace domesticality and are still racially unempowering.
This article is important because cultural productions, like movies, are a reflection of American society actions and attitudes. In addition, Disney is a large franchise that has impacted American youth for generations and is still influencing currently.
It is important to expose the differences between White women protagonists and women of color protagonists in Disney movies because it shows the perpetuation of stereotypes that Disney is involved in. While they claim to make an effort of being inclusive, it is more of a superficial marketing scheme and sometimes more hurtful than helpful. Instead of confronting the realities of racism, they instill racist storylines that enhance power and privilege to White protagonists. Disney utilizes stereotypical gendered and racial tropes to display the difficulties of non-White protagonists and it is crucial for their audience to become aware of their perpetuations.