"Unlearning the Myths That Blind Us" by Linda Christensen

     For this week's blog entry, we were all assigned to read "Unlearning the Myths That Blind Us" by Linda Christensen. As some of you might know, I am a SUPER hardcore Disney fan; my family and I go to Disney World every year, I always make it a point to see any new Disney movies that come out in theatres, I have my own collection of Disney items/souvenirs and own practically every Disney movie ever made. So upon reading this article, my personal defense system went up within the first minute of reading and as a result, I've decided to write a reflection post for this specific blog entry to defend Disney.

     The first issue I'd like to discuss that people seem to have a problem with, most recently that is, is the waistlines of the Disney Princesses. In an article from The Huffington Post, images were discovered from Buzzfeed's Loryn Brantz where she digitally edited the figures of 6 Disney Princesses. In Christensen's reading, she states " My waist didn't dip into an hourglass; in fact, according to the novels I read my thick ankles doomed me to be cast as the peasant woman reaping hay while the heroine swept by with her handsome man in hot pursuit" (Pg. 126). 
     I personally took offense to these statements. All my life, through no intent of my own besides my genetics, I've always been extremely tiny; tiny waist, tiny chest, tiny feet, everything on me is tiny. Surprisingly though, I was made fun of because of my small features that contrasted with my "unnaturally huge" eyes, according to classmates, much like what people use to describe Disney characters. This is just all in my DNA; I can't help what I look like. My legitimately diagnosed fast metabolism has kept me thin all my life and even though I eat the most unhealthy things every day like bacon burgers, pizza, chicken wings, steak, french fries, tacos, etc, nothing changes my tiny figure. And several months ago, I found some article that listed the various Disney Princesses' measurements and mine almost perfectly aligned with Ariel. So reading articles like the one from The Huffington Post, or Christensen's book, or even hearing songs like "All About that Bass" by Meghan Trainor where they put down and shame skinny people, is hurtful to me. These kinds of articles or songs makes me sound like a freak, when I love myself just the way I am. I've only just turned 18 two months ago, Ariel was 16 in "The Little Mermaid", so obviously people so young are supposed to look small; they haven't grown into their full selves yet. Plus, people always say, including Christensen, that the Princesses always get the handsome Prince in the end because of their figure and pretty features, but if you're not between a size 2 and 6, you're never going to find your "Prince Charming". Again, this is an unrealistic assumption; I've been called the living stereotype for a Disney Princess and I don't have a boyfriend and my friends who are older or look different than me in amazing ways have boyfriends. How you look, how pretty you are, or how much you weigh doesn't always necessarily mean your life is going to go a certain way.

     The second issue I'd like to argue concerns the problem people seem to have with Disney "white-washing" all their Princesses and heroes. Even Christensen makes nods to this belief in her reading, stating that "'Have you ever seen a black person, an Asian, a Hispanic in a cartoon!? Did they have a leading role or were they a servant? What do you think this is doing to your child's mind?' She ended her piece: "Women who aren't white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess" (Pg. 131).

     First off, I'd just like to say how ridiculous this sounds. I know I'm an intense Disney fan, but this isn't even a valid argument. Disney Princesses and other Disney characters look the way they do racially based on the intended location of their films. Example; in Disney and Pixar's "Brave" set in a fictional part of Ireland/Scotland, the main character, Merida, is a pale, red-headed young girl with a thick Scottish accent. Most people in Ireland and Scotland are fair-skinned with light colored hair, ranging mainly from blonde to light brown with red in between. It wouldn't make sense geographically to have this young Scottish girl be Hispanic or African American because it wouldn't make sense with the location of her story. The same goes with other tales as well; "Aladdin" = Middle East (tan/dark skin), "Frozen" and "The Little Mermaid" = Norway/Denmark (mainly fair-skinned to lightly tanned), "Tangled" and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" = Germany (again, mostly white to lightly tanned), "The Princess and the Frog" = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A (various, diverse skin-tones because the U.S. is a racially diverse nation). The creators of Disney aren't trying to "white-wash" their characters as some people apparently believe they are. They're simply creating characters based on stories written by people (The Brothers Grimm in Germany and Hans Christian Anderson in Northern Europe, ex. Norway/Denmark) in a way the authors intended for their characters to be made based on their respective locations.

Conclusion/Point to Share:

     Okay, now that I've had my little rant, I'd just like to bring up one final point for you to think of. These things are CARTOONS, caricatures of real life. They are in no way meant to mirror real life people, only to satirize the way people act and do things. There are stories about mermaids, flying carpets, and magic, glowing hair that heals people when the owner of said head of hair sings, for crying-out loud! So personally, and I'm not just saying this because of my love of all things Disney, if you take the time to pick out the most insignificant problems of cartoons because you don't agree with somethings or make uneducated assumptions about it, then you should find something better to do with your life. Gerri August said in "Safe Spaces", her book co-written with Annemarie Vaccaro and Megan S. Kennedy, "Assumptions, if left unchallenged and unexamined, can devolve into active bigotry. Bigotry is a heat-seeking missile- it will find its target" (Page 88 of "Safe Spaces"), so if you choose to make assumptions about something like the waistline of a Disney Princess or the racial diversity of a cartoon, you should think before you speak; there could be some little girl out there who's being bullied because of how small she is, like I was, or even some child being picked on for being the only Caucasian student at an almost entirely African American or Hispanic school. There are always more sides to the argument than just being black and white.

(YouTuber, PAINT, parodying the issues/jokes in various Disney Princess films. Love them even though they make fun of Disney!)