I grew up a big fan of Cinderella.
I had no other Disney Princess options, spare Belle whom my older sister always barred me from being. So I spent my childhood wanting to be just like the French peasant-turned-princess, to the point I even spent time cleaning the small patch of tiled floors in our kitchen on all fours singing "Sing Sweet Nightingale" to pass the time.
What wasn't to love, really? Cinderella's calm, loving, hardworking, and patient. But she's also a more realistic princess than Snow and her endless lovely charm. Cinderella got fed up; she tried to fight for herself, and she found her prince after sneaking out on her own! I enjoyed the rebellion as a girl!
Where this love of the blonde beauty became dangerous, however, was in how I began to view myself on a physical aspect. I have an older sister with lips as red as the rose, skin as pale as snow, and (at the time period) hair as bright blonde as the sun. On the other hand, there was me: hair as black as sin and skin I couldn't see as anything other than the color of dirt.
So I'd spend hours on end in our small bathroom trying to cover up every ounce of skin with my sister's white powder, until she started hiding it. Later, I spent time dipping my hands into flower and wishing it would seep into my pours so I could be as pale as Cinderella, and my sister.
The most infuriating part was knowing I could've ended up like her--I could've gotten my dad's ginger Spanish genes, but I was stuck with my own Native Latin American roasted tone.
It wasn't until I asked my mother how I could make myself as pale as my sister that she sat me down and told me the Virgin Mary was nicknamed "la Virgen Morena de Guadalupe" in Mexico ("Or Lady of Guadalupe", an apparition of the Virgin Mary). He logic was that if God chose a brown lady to carry her son, then it must not matter if I'm a toaster shade of people.
I never hated myself for what I couldn't change again, but I did have problems looking at Cinderella for a few years.
The point behind racial diversity in a Disney line up isn't really because children from other races cannot relate to a white Princess. I related to a white princess! It just comes down to not wishing they didn't look different.
I don't think I can stress enough how bothersome it can be to be a darker skin tone with Spanish blood peppering my family tree.
And I know I'm not an individual case: Color is no longer an allowed subject under my aunt's roof because my little cousin asked her mommy why she can't be as white as her little brother, often praised and called beautiful for his complexion.
Could this have been fixed by raising your children differently? Yes and no: society itself would have to chose a more realistic standard of beauty to live by. In Mexico, European-looking actors and actrisess are always the leads of every TV show, while more inigenous looking people are maids and common, uneducated folk in rural villages. The United States tends to only use tolkien-minorities in every show, even proliferating the "dark guy always dies first!" trope.
Disney can't fix all of society's problems--the vast majority of that preference for a lighter skin tone comes down to cultural roots. But what a company that firmly encompasses the childhood of millions of children can do is change around the skin tone of their characters.
Now I've heard the arguments behind not doing so: Disney's a company! They need to sell their product! More people will relate to a white over a non-white princess! 3D animation is very limited in what it can do!
Most of these are true. Spare excuse two.
Saying that variation in skin tone would kill what a person can relate to, or that changing skin tones would cater to specific races is, well, racist. This is not only erasing the rest of the world outside Europe (because the US is so diverse I laugh in the face of immigration protesters), but is also insinuating a darker skin tone cannot be registered as human.
Tell that to the girls trying to powder their skin lighter.
As for what 3D animation can do: if Disney could make Paperman and Tangled happen, they can sure as hell find a way to darken skin tones if they feel like it! Don't bullshit me with that.
Paperman happened!
Brave happened!
These movies exist!
Why not try out this diversity thing some more? At least have a character who spent a lot of time out in the sun for a change, no?
With Love
Nikola Strange
--------------------------------
Notes:
Because I wanna share. :)
Current favorite Disney heroines?
Esmeralda and Kira! :D
And Lilo.
Captain Amelia too.
Princesses?
Rapunzel
Belle
Merida
I had no other Disney Princess options, spare Belle whom my older sister always barred me from being. So I spent my childhood wanting to be just like the French peasant-turned-princess, to the point I even spent time cleaning the small patch of tiled floors in our kitchen on all fours singing "Sing Sweet Nightingale" to pass the time.
What wasn't to love, really? Cinderella's calm, loving, hardworking, and patient. But she's also a more realistic princess than Snow and her endless lovely charm. Cinderella got fed up; she tried to fight for herself, and she found her prince after sneaking out on her own! I enjoyed the rebellion as a girl!
Where this love of the blonde beauty became dangerous, however, was in how I began to view myself on a physical aspect. I have an older sister with lips as red as the rose, skin as pale as snow, and (at the time period) hair as bright blonde as the sun. On the other hand, there was me: hair as black as sin and skin I couldn't see as anything other than the color of dirt.
So I'd spend hours on end in our small bathroom trying to cover up every ounce of skin with my sister's white powder, until she started hiding it. Later, I spent time dipping my hands into flower and wishing it would seep into my pours so I could be as pale as Cinderella, and my sister.
The most infuriating part was knowing I could've ended up like her--I could've gotten my dad's ginger Spanish genes, but I was stuck with my own Native Latin American roasted tone.
It wasn't until I asked my mother how I could make myself as pale as my sister that she sat me down and told me the Virgin Mary was nicknamed "la Virgen Morena de Guadalupe" in Mexico ("Or Lady of Guadalupe", an apparition of the Virgin Mary). He logic was that if God chose a brown lady to carry her son, then it must not matter if I'm a toaster shade of people.
I never hated myself for what I couldn't change again, but I did have problems looking at Cinderella for a few years.
The point behind racial diversity in a Disney line up isn't really because children from other races cannot relate to a white Princess. I related to a white princess! It just comes down to not wishing they didn't look different.
I don't think I can stress enough how bothersome it can be to be a darker skin tone with Spanish blood peppering my family tree.
And I know I'm not an individual case: Color is no longer an allowed subject under my aunt's roof because my little cousin asked her mommy why she can't be as white as her little brother, often praised and called beautiful for his complexion.
Could this have been fixed by raising your children differently? Yes and no: society itself would have to chose a more realistic standard of beauty to live by. In Mexico, European-looking actors and actrisess are always the leads of every TV show, while more inigenous looking people are maids and common, uneducated folk in rural villages. The United States tends to only use tolkien-minorities in every show, even proliferating the "dark guy always dies first!" trope.
Disney can't fix all of society's problems--the vast majority of that preference for a lighter skin tone comes down to cultural roots. But what a company that firmly encompasses the childhood of millions of children can do is change around the skin tone of their characters.
Now I've heard the arguments behind not doing so: Disney's a company! They need to sell their product! More people will relate to a white over a non-white princess! 3D animation is very limited in what it can do!
Most of these are true. Spare excuse two.
Saying that variation in skin tone would kill what a person can relate to, or that changing skin tones would cater to specific races is, well, racist. This is not only erasing the rest of the world outside Europe (because the US is so diverse I laugh in the face of immigration protesters), but is also insinuating a darker skin tone cannot be registered as human.
Tell that to the girls trying to powder their skin lighter.
As for what 3D animation can do: if Disney could make Paperman and Tangled happen, they can sure as hell find a way to darken skin tones if they feel like it! Don't bullshit me with that.
Paperman happened!
Brave happened!
These movies exist!
Why not try out this diversity thing some more? At least have a character who spent a lot of time out in the sun for a change, no?
With Love
Nikola Strange
--------------------------------
Notes:
Because I wanna share. :)
Current favorite Disney heroines?
Esmeralda and Kira! :D
And Lilo.
Captain Amelia too.
Princesses?
Rapunzel
Belle
Merida
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