Like it or not, Disney has become intertwined with the childhood fantasies of millions of little girls. Generations of women have grown up
surrounded by the grace, beauty and feminity of the Disney princesses.
And as anyone with a little girl knows, every girl love dresssing up as
a princess.
The problem was that, for FAR too many years, the princesses were only
white: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. Where the fuck were the
princesses of color? It's truly a black mark on Disney's reputation
that it took until 1992 for then to introduce a non-white heroine (a
Middle Eastern character named Jasmine in the film "Aladdin".) Later,
they introduced an Asian ("Mulan",) a Polynesian ("Lilo",) and a Native
American ("Pocahontas".)
Finally, Disney has announced a film with an African-American heroine. According to news reports,
the company has started production on an animated musical fairy tale
called “The Frog Princess,” which will be set in New Orleans and
feature Disney's first black princess. The film will be released in
2009.
Better late than never, Disney. Now how about getting started on something for all the Hispanic and Latino girls out there?
