As a Disnerd who also happens to be female, I think most people assume that what I love
about Disney is the whole princess thing. Doesn't
every girl want to be a princess so they can live happily
ever after with Prince Charming? Well, as much as I love happy endings, I never grew up wishing I was Snow White, Cinderella or Ariel. Pink has never been my favorite
color (it's blue, if you couldn't tell), and I'm not really into huge poofy dresses or tiaras. Don't get me wrong, I'm fairly girly in a lot of ways, but this isn't one of them. I am in no way saying that the princess thing is good or bad; it's just not me.
So, I just thought I would clear that up while also introducing to you the first
Disnographic of the Month! (Clever, huh?)
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| In actuality, only 9 of the 51 films feature a princess character. |
I would like to do more Disnographics on this blog but as the writing already takes up quite a bit of time, I think I can only commit to once a month for now. We'll see how it goes. :) Leave a comment if you've got ideas or suggestions for future Disnographics!
how about a rating scale of villains?
ReplyDeleteThe current Disney Princesses: Snow White, Pocahontas, Aurora, Ariel, Tiana, Cinderella, Jasmine, Belle, Mulan... Ok, most of them, fine, they're actually a princess... But Tiana & Mulan were only commoners. But I suppose to make this international princess thing, they need diversity.
ReplyDelete@betsy - i didn't count mulan, but i did count tiana because she eventually became a princess. (also the movie is called the PRINCESS and the frog.) i did also count rapunzel. :) belle also wasn't really a princess until the end.
ReplyDelete@Betsy and @Laura - for that matter, cinderella wasn't a princess till the end either.
ReplyDeleteif you're only counting the princesses who are born into royalty in the disney line you get: Snow White, Aurora, Ariel, Jasmine, and Rapunzel -- half of the disney codified 10. technically speaking you could consider Pocahontas a princess because she's a chief's daughter, and its the cultural equivalent of a princess, but strictly speaking she isn't one. the others (Cinderella, Belle, Tiana) marry into it, which really ought to count since (as is pointed out at the end of Princess and the frog) marrying a prince makes you a princess -- exept in the case of William and Kate who were made duke and duchess, but i digress. Mulan isn't even close to being a princess, but i think is a necessary inclusion for the cultural representation and for the girls out there who don't make role models out of princesses. Mulan saved China, come on, that's awesome.
also, i don't blame disney for having their marketing of princess movies inversly proportionate to the percentage of princess movies they make. a) if they were all princess movies they'd only be marketing the best. b) of disney's movies the princess movies generally are superior to most of their other stuff -- they make more money off it, so they create more stuff supporting it. it works.