The Daily Pennsylvanian :: Arushi Sharma | Mixing politics and princesses

In 2005, Katrina Helm received over 20,000 signatures for a petition in which she advocated for the representation of black people in Disney movies. Helm quoted Tom Joyner from The Morning Show, who signed her petition: "When you are passionate about something . change will happen."

It happened. Disney's newest animated film The Frog Princess, slated for a 2009 release, will feature a black heroine living in the 1920s "Jazz Age" in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

MSNBC reported on March 12 that Disney's CEO, Robert Iger, hoped the setting would demonstrate post- Katrina support for the city.

Scanning the Internet for public reactions to the movie, I read lines of praise quoted from parents and other writers who stated that this film would "lift the Disney ban" in their homes. As a group, parents said the lack of a black princess influenced their girls' ideas of beauty and self-esteem, whether they were girls of African descent or another minority.

By this logic, little girls like myself who "looked up" to Cinderella, must have craved golden locks throughout their childhoods. But hey, at least as a South Asian, I could "identify" with Princess Jasmine and mitigate my feelings of inferiority. But what about the black girls who grew up with me in the peak of the princess hype?

One after the other, I accosted women students of African descent in my age group to get their take on the matter. I expected opinions close to those expressed by Angela Bronner for AOL's Black Voices last year. Bronner wrote that for some parents, the experience of explaining the lack of a black princess "hearkens back to a time" when they explained why black people sat at the back of the bus.

My findings were quite the opposite. While most women had dealt with ethnicity "issues" as children, not one seemed to suffer identity crises from the machinations of children's media.

For example, Alaina Williams, Ina Cox and Tiffany Williams, all College sophomores and Disney fans, never felt inadequate watching the films. College freshman Jessica Ludd, a self-proclaimed "Disney freak," added that she had plenty of "white" Disney merchandise and her parents had no objections. Tiffany Williams recalled arguing with her parents in favor of her white Disney doll - "I'm just playing with her, she doesn't have to be my twin."

Students are wary, however, of the stereotypes that may result as Disney seeks cultural accuracy in its portrayal of black people. College freshman Monique Francis felt that the movie was doomed as a caricature of the African American community, as are most things which invoke identity politics. For example, the heroine's role as a chambermaid can be taken as "realistic" or offensive.

Cox elaborated on the problem, saying that Disney deals with minorities by "commercializing, stereotyping and creating images that inaccurately represent a whole group of people." Cox, among others, anticipated stereotypes in the upcoming film that were dead-on-a male "witch doctor," a "mammy" figure and a sassy female sidekick in a negative role, for example, all grace the screen.

However, my interviewees were not ready to pinpoint Disney as the source of these stereotypes. They rightly pointed out that the company might be trying too hard to be accurate, throwing themselves onto a slippery slope. Should Disney "play it safe" by appealing to a "lowest common denominator," or do the opposite and remove all references to "black-ness?"

Ludd argued that people cannot "support networks like BET and then get mad about Disney's portrayal of black people- where do you think Disney is getting stereotypes from?" Astrid Batchelor, a College freshman from Jamaica, personalizes this experience in referring to her unpleasant encounters with the "proud black family" drama. "I'm not like that" she said.

Ludd added that she hoped the princess would not fall prey to "jive and ghetto" speech patterns. Expressing her frustration, she said, "if the princess speaks articulately and we [the black community] are upset by that, that's our problem, not Disney's." Aliana Williams agreed, pointing out that if black people want their children to have a genuine ethnic identity, "don't stick them in front of a television."

The consensus from these women corresponded exactly to my personal sentiments. We cannot expect Disney or other media moguls to contribute positively to the development of our youth's ethnic consciousness.

It's time to look beyond children's media to guide children- and if kids don't already know it, they should be assured that Disney movies serve as cartoons and nothing more.

Arushi Sharma is an College junior from Rockville, Md. Her e-mail address is sharma@dailypennsylvanian.com. A Case of the Mondays appears on Mondays.

Comments (6)

your piece here on identity politics is hardly doomed, it's great

After reading this piece, I feel somewhat at a loss for words, and not in the positive sense. I was tongue tied at first by the simple lack of execution in this piece. Last I check, Op-Ed pieces were supposed to, well, give an opinion or make a point. Provide a conclusion based on evidence at the very least. However this particular piece fails on this account. To me it seems the query at hand is �?to what extent does Disney (or popular media) contribute to the racial identity and understanding of our youths?�? How far does this opinion piece go, or fail to give, an answer to this question? The core of the article is centered around subjective and selective comments from a few persons; they say that the ethnically limited Disney princesses of Arushi�?s youth did little to affect their perceptions. They immediately go on to discuss how Disney�?s choices in its upcoming flick The Frog Princess cannot be held against it when society expects stereotypes of the BET genre to be enforced. This is all well and good, but somehow Arushi draws from this scattered commentary the notion that �?We cannot expect Disney or other media moguls to contribute positively to the development of our youth's ethnic consciousness.�? How, amongst all that was said, can Arushi draw this conclusion? I boggles the mind; Disney did not affect some young people plus Disney not being unique in portraying these stereotypes does not amount to Disney being unable to help educate young people. The leaps and bounds which the author attempts to make simply astound. I was then dumbfounded by how little the conclusions Arushi wants to make correlate with the realities of the world we live in. With little more than a prodding of the great beast that is the internet, Arushi could and should have been able to draw some sort of accredited literature to support (or more likely contradict) her views. Firstly, her suggestion that the media goliath Disney has little power to promote progressive and constructive views of race and race issues shows ignorance to the extent which movies and television permeate children�?s life in early years. A simple Google search would yield statistics from the National Institute on Media and the Family which show that kids from birth to six years of age spend two hours a day interacting with electronic media and that one baby in four in America has a television in their room. Does this seem like negligible amount of exposure to you, Arushi?- because it certainly doesn�?t seem that way to me. We know, also, that children with poor self confidence or self image are particularly vulnerable to media imaging; what effect do you believe this has on minority groups who are told every day and in a multitude of ways that they are somehow not up to par? While I can respect the individual experiences of the persons you chose to interview, I cannot respect the sweep generalizations and the, what I feel are wrong, conclusions you chose to draw. You would be well to hold yourself to a higher journalistic standard before you make such bold statements.

Love it, 'rush. :-D Now my question is: should I, as a Latina, feel that I need a Disney character to identify with in order to be able to watch Disney movies....puhleez!

Hello Parthenon, Good luck to you and your children if you have them already. Why don't you just home-school them with Disney movies, which have been perpetuating inaccuracies and stereotypes for decades? The point this person made was to move AWAY from letting children think that tv means something. She didn't say children are not affected by television, note the last lines of her piece that affirm this point. As a parent, I sympathize with her contentions, which revolve around a very true fact that we must overcome the way children are perceiving television. If my child had self-esteem issues, I would help her solve them, and certainly not point to television as the source of her problems. Blaming television for the insecurities of children is a shoddy excuse for those who raise children in unhealthy environments. Your "statistics" affirm the author's statements by demonstrating the effect of the media on children and the urgent need to overcome it. This person uses positive experiences to merely demonstrate that this is possible. And if you are going to spend so much time on a comment,which reeks strongly of some sort of personal grouse, refrain from errors like "I boggles the mind." Before writing about journalistic standards, learn how to write.

To Parent: [QUOTE id="a1dbf15e-bd15-4a69-895a-2e68d0db06b8"]Hello Parthenon, Good luck to you and your children if you have them already. Why don't you just home-school them with Disney movies, which have been perpetuating inaccuracies and stereotypes for decades? The point this person made was to move AWAY from letting children think that tv means something. She didn't say children are not affected by television, note the last lines of her piece that affirm this point. As a parent, I sympathize with her contentions, which revolve around a very true fact that we must overcome the way children are perceiving television. If my child had self-esteem issues, I would help her solve them, and certainly not point to television as the source of her problems. Blaming television for the insecurities of children is a shoddy excuse for those who raise children in unhealthy environments. Your "statistics" affirm the author's statements by demonstrating the effect of the media on children and the urgent need to overcome it. This person uses positive experiences to merely demonstrate that this is possible. And if you are going to spend so much time on a comment,which reeks strongly of some sort of personal grouse, refrain from errors like "I boggles the mind." Before writing about journalistic standards, learn how to write.[/QUOTE] To begin, I don't yet have children, and certainly don't intend to home school them on Disney Movies. However, the failure of Arushi's piece to acknowledge the shaping power of media is severe; the suggestion that by simply telling children that what happens on TV isn't real is simply impractical. Simply put, it is too high an intellectual burden for a young child to be expected to carry. Heck, I saw Dracula when I was in third grade, and you can bet that I was scared of a completely fabricated monster. You'll also note that although she parts with the pleasing motto of 'lets tell them otherwise' the real conclusion which she seeks in her piece is: "The consensus from these women corresponded exactly to my personal sentiments. We cannot expect Disney or other media moguls to contribute positively to the development of our youth's ethnic consciousness.�? She fails to uphold the burden of proving this conclusion, much to the detriment of those reading this piece without a critical eye. You also misconstrue my arguments; [QUOTE]If my child had self-esteem issues, I would help her solve them, and certainly not point to television as the source of her problems.[/QUOTE] I stated that children with esteem issues are particularly vulnerable, and that society systematically demoralizes minorities, making minority children even more vulnerable to the racism in the media. If anything, the power of Disney and other media forms as tools for shaping young children oblige those companies to create better, less damaging products, and not expect toddlers to distinguish between the racism which courses through Disney flicks and what is true. Lastly, if you want to pick grammar, you may want to correct �?children are perceiving,�? �?very true fact�? (redundant) and �?comment,which.�? Parthenon

Arushi, Good column, nicely written. My daughter, 7 years old and a European/South Asian/American/Jewish/Presbyterian/Hindu probable future Penn applicant (do they have a "none of the above" box for ethnicity?) would agree with many of your points. Belle by temperment and Jasmine by appearance, she still saw a little of herself in (what was the mermaid's name again?) as well as in the plucky stories of the diverse "American Girl" dolls. Kids recognize universal experiences and admirable traits in characters. They also know BS when they see it. Good for Disney et al for doing their best but kids learn quickly that there are better places to look for "ethnic consciousness." I look forward to future columns.

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