Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us by Linda Christensen (Extended Comments)

 

Cinderella

 

One of the most famous princesses in the world is Cinderella. She is blonde, thin and perfect. After her mother died, he father remarried and her family grew to a stepmother and two step sisters. After her father's death, her stepmother began to think of her as a servant instead of a daughter. I'm sure you all know the rest of the story.....Cinderella is brought to her breaking point, her fairy godmother comes in and repairs her dress and she marries the prince to live Happily Ever After.

 

 

I was reading Austin's blog and one thing that stuck out most to me was his question of whether there will ever be a black Cinderella. But there already has been.......

 

Meet Brandy Norwood. Brandy was a singer in the 90's and also had a short acting career. One of her most famous roles was Cinderella. This was a TV movie made by Disney. I remember being a young girl and watching this film on Disney Channel and thinking it was odd she was black while her stepmother was white and the prince was Hispanic with both a black mother and white father.

Even Christensen has a section in her reading that talks about a black Cinderella. "'Women who aren't white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess,'" (Christensen 131). There are films and stories out there that feature women or men of color and different ethnicities. However, they are difficult to find. I went to IMDB (Internet Movie Database) to look up this version of Cinderella and it did not come up in the search. I had to type in the actress's name in order to find information on it.

That was shocking to me. With this being a Disney movie and based on a major fairy tail, I would have expected it to be one of the top movies in the search. This makes me wonder if Disney made this film only to satisfy some of the complaints that may have started coming up such as why are there no princesses of color?



Austin also included the above picture in his blog showing the major princesses: Ariel, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty (Aurora) and Snow White shoving other Disney Princesses out of the way. These other princesses just happen to be of other races and color such as Mulan, Pocahontas and Jasmine. Disney has been announcing new films with colored princesses coming up. One of the biggest is a girl from Hawaii. Disney is making efforts but is it enough to overpower what they have been doing for so many years?

Growing up as a girl, the majority of my movies consisted of Disney princesses. This reminds me of a quote from one of Christensen's students: '"The idea of not being completely responsible for how I feel about things today is scary. So why dissect the dreams? Why not stay ignorant about them and happy?'" (Christensen 129). This exact quote is the epitome of what Johnson talks about in regards to privilege. Christensen's student was brought up with these films just as I was and realized after dissecting her life that many of her beliefs and feelings about things are based off the hidden messages of these films.

As a child, Disney movies make you happy. You come home every day and watch them for entertainment and dream about one day growing up to be a princess and marrying a prince or a boy marrying a princess. Christensen's student was like this and wished to go back to her happy place before she knew what hidden messages she had learned. Johnson talks about those who have privilege don't see it. Christensen's student had the privilege of believing things could work out for her because most likely she is white. After she is made aware of her privilege, she wants to go back to when she was happy and didn't know about it. It makes you wonder if a simple movie or cartoon could give so many people hope, why can't we make one for the underprivileged and give them hope to be better?