Disney Princesses and the Modern Black Woman

Every girl dreams of being a princess but perhaps we are more of a princess than we think....take a look at the similarities and differences.

Disney Princess vs. Modern Black Woman

Poor or extremely rich

(maid, middle class worker, or princess already) (working class or owns business/entrepreneur)

Overcoming some obstacle

(fighting with evil witch or monsters) (deals with racism, sexism, job, finances, children, home)

Trying to find love

(goes through alot just to be with Prince Charming) (Pressured to be with a "good black man")

An Outcast

(forced to live in the forest or bound and confined to a place) ( Objectified by society and media constantly)

Form of Beauty

(always shown as flawless and thin) (the MBW comes in all sorts of shapes/sizes/races/ethnicity)

Aside from that the whole princess thing starts pretty young. Girls want to have princess birthday parties or be a princess for Halloween. Can our young girls identify with these princesses? At first I thought they could not I mean really who gets to meet Prince Charming and live in a big house. And honestly, me being a feminist I'm not too big on it. But does this mean that we need to take these tiaras off our young girls and not ever let them watch a Disney movie again. NO! I grew up on Disney princesses and think that young girls can learn alot from the movies. However, when I was young I couldn't identify with Snow White or Sleeping Beauty or even Belle. I mean take a look at their names snow and white means pure and all things good. People always see white as meaning "good" and black meaning "bad/evil." What does this teach our young black daughters? They begin to feel like being black is wrong or not right or unbeautiful. (Belle is the French word for beautiful)

Since I am a black female I could never relate to these characters in some sense but then they had Pocahontas, Mulan, and Jasmine. Ummm...still nothing for our little black girls. Then FINALLY in 2010, they made the movie "The Princess and the Frog" which shows a Cajun/Creole black girl in search of being an entrepreneur and opening her own restaurant WHILE meeting her prince. Now that I can relate to! A strong woman trying to be successful while getting a man, any woman should feel empowered by that plot! I have to admit it took Disney entirely too long to get a black Disney Princess but hey at least they did. Now I am waiting for a Latino/Hispanic Disney Princess or even a mixed race princess.

Positive images in the media about black women are important because there are so many negative images. Just look at one hip hop music video or a magazine. As black women we feel like outcasts in our own society. Ariel was confined to the sea and wanted to walk on land. Snow white was in a cabin in the forest. Sleeping Beauty was bound by well...sleep. The MBW is confined to her triple identity and has to continue playing this role in order to be accepted by society. The MBW in our society is American, Black, and Female. We are subconciously forced to let go of our ancestry, yet we are never "white American" enough! On top of that we are women making us the exact opposite of the most powerful being on the planet....the White Male.

As young girls we dream up this fairy tale life and only keep it as a fairy tale. We don't think that we deserve more than that. We limit ourselves to men that don't treat us right and we try to fix everything ourselves without having any help from our fairy godmothers! The reason why is because we limit ourselves to the men that we can date. Ariel's situation reminds me of the MBW's situation. Ariel was a mermaid but the love of her life was human. Was it wrong for Ariel to love someone of a different species/race? I think not but at the same time as MBW we feel ashamed to look else where and pressured to find that "good black man" so we pass up opportunities with other good men. We love our black men and are taught that they are our soulmates but should we stay with someone when they are bad to us just because of their race? Don't get me wrong there are alot of "good black men" out there but at the same time I feel that black women are close minded. Black men are reaching out to other beautiful races dating and trying new things, why do black women feel like we can't do the same. Do we feel guilty or feel like we are betrayers?

Anyway, my main point is do not settle yourself short because we all have a princess deep down inside of us. Disney has even started their own Disney Princess wedding gown line. This is where women can pick out the perfect gown for their fairy tale weddings. It may sound a bit silly, but women really do take it seriously. I don't think I need a big puffy, fancy gown to feel like a princess. I can overcome any obstacle in my life as long as I have the ones I love supporting me. And as a Modern Black Woman, I don't feel the need to be a princess because at the end of the day....we are all Queens.;-)

Disney Princess Wedding Gown

both pictures are copyrighted by Disney