Disney and their
notprincesses.Can I say that this bugs me?
I thought we got past this with Brave. Being a princess isn’t a bad thing. You look at it critically: getting ready to run a country is a fuck ton of hard work. Politics is serious shit. Sure, you get to look pretty and wear gowns but diplomacy is way more intricate. It can cost your country and stability. If anything, being a princess is more akin to being Leslie Knope than some fragile stereotype.
Besides, I work with kids often. Girls like being princesses. It’s not the thought of “I’m being reduced to a lesser woman” that they have at play. It’s the idea of “I’m powerful, awesome and my dress sparkles.” I’ve seen boys that want to be princesses. That’s an amazing philosophy to have as a kid and it’s inspiring.
So Disney, stop taking these bullshit meta ass-backwards steps away from something you’re really good at. If a girl wants to be a princess, let her know that’s okay. She can still be a smart princess, a chief, a warrior princess, a fucking princess accountant. It’s fine- she knows it’s about more than being pretty. It’s about being the most potentially awesome version of your young self.
This is true, titles such as Empress, First Lady, Queen carry so much deep meaning while we’ve made Princess sound like an overall “damsel in distress”, while we ignore the actual political statement of what a princess really is.
I agree with the point of the post, but I disagree with using Moana as an example. Her denial of the title wasn’t about refuting the validity of princesses. She (and the creators, some of whom are indigenous themselves) was making a point about her culture and her own status within it. She is NOT a princess. She is a chief’s daughter. They’re different things and indigenous people have to put up with pop culture-influenced ‘Princess Pocahontas’ shenanigans all the time as it is.
You’ll note that after making the point, the creators let her have the ‘princess’ title anyway. They just wanted to be clear that she has her own traditions.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2pmD3c3