Chapter: The Whiteness of Black Disney Princesses – The Princess and the Frog as Acceptable White Ideal for African-Americans in Childrens’ Media
When it comes to race, representation in Disney princess films is rare; until now, there are only a few non-white Disney princesses, and most of them are whitewashed and their cultural attributes hidden. Over the course of the Disney princess line, several trends can be seen about race and culture – minority cultures are often shown in negative ways. In most popular culture, the lack of representation of black characters is clear – while representation is increasing, “diverse and accurate portrayals of these characters or cultures are rarely provided” (Towbin et al. 2004: 22). Disney, in its work, is “representative of this new colourblind racism, presenting diversity in such a way as to reify the position and privilege of white culture and the white cast members” (Turner 2012: 127). To that end, this chapter looks at the use of black characters in Disney films, particularly princess films, and how their white appearance does harm to black girls who watch those films and want to see themselves reflected in the characters.
The most prominent example of a nonwhite Disney princess to date is Tiana, the African-American princess of the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog, created as an attempt to bring more diversity to the Disney ‘princess’ line. Tiana’s representation is most closely linked to a nonwhite culture compared to other princess films, as the movie is set 1920s New Orleans, “historically known for its more liberal attitudes toward open miscegenation” (Callen 2010: 17). Jazz and swing music by “Award-winning composer, performer, and New Orleans native, Randy Newman” mostly replaces the show-tune numbers heard in other princess films, and instead of royalty she just wants to own a restaurant (Callen 2010: 7). This film is also one of the few to feature a mostly black cast, as most of the characters are African-American.
Despite these attempts to increase representation of nonwhite characters in the casting of Tiana as a Disney princess, there are still some problems with this presentation. Tiana’s appearance is, other than her skin color and some exaggerated Afro-Caribbean features, mostly the same as the other white Disney princesses. She is small, with a thin waist and long limbs; she has a small rear end and thin shoulders – all physical traits usually found in Caucasian women. While “Tiana looks more like the voice actress who provides her vocals, Anika Noni Rose,” this makes it even more clear that white standards of beauty are in place elsewhere in the world of media (Callen 2010: 25). In fact, despite having slightly bigger lips, a wider-set nose, and angled eyes, she looks like a color swapped version of Cinderella. Because of these things, it becomes harder to celebrate Tiana’s presence as a black princess since she does not physically represent the vast majority of the culture she is said to be a part of. This plays into Disney’s favoring of whiteness as a cultural ideal, something dangerous to think about with Disney’s cultural importance: “As a globally dominant producer of cultural constructs related to gender, race, ethnicity, class and sexuality, Disney reigns supreme, and part of that supreme reign is an unquestionable privileging of patriarchy and whiteness” (Lester 2010: 294).
Popular culture often ‘whitewashes’ black characters, leading to a set of body standards that favors white features over black. Tiana’s presentation as a black princess with mostly white features shows the overall cultural trend of hiding traditional black and Afro-Caribbean features. Statistically, Afro-Caribbean features include flat noses, curlier, “nappy” hair and larger rear ends than their white sisters – the fact that Tiana’s African features are hidden in favor of these more traditional white features is part of a systematic shaming of black women’s bodies as undesirable. Even when black bodies are desirable in media, they are usually of the stereotype of the “hyper-sexualized black woman” (Turner 2010: 136). Women are valued in these films based at least in some part on their appearance: thin women (like the princesses) are good, while unattractive, fat women (like The Little Mermaid’s Ursula) are bad. This calls back normal gender expectations of beauty and the high body standards set by popular culture and media for women: “The bad body is fat, slack, uncared for: it demonstrates a lazy and undisciplined ‘self’” (Woodward 1997: 123). Because, culturally, the kind of body Afro-Caribbean women have is thought to be ugly, Tiana was made more “beautiful,” which meant increasing her whiteness.
Tiana’s behavior and personality are also given just enough shades of blackness to seem okay on the surface, while secretly being just white enough to be acceptable to mainstream audiences. Tiana, living in New Orleans, is a young black woman who has a waitressing job in New Orleans – by putting the first black princess in such a second-class job that blacks are commonly found in, the film uses her “as a vehicle to reinforce Black second-class citizenry” (Callen 2012: 17). Tiana is shown as having a hard working job with little rest, and takes on a lot of responsibility – on the surface, these are good things to have in a role model. However, she still serves as a servant for whites, including the far richer best friend Charlotte, for whom Tiana’s mother works. This gives the white audience of the film the ability to treat Tiana as a “nonsexual, nurturing, and unthreatening” black character, who is charming and beautiful but without the capability to take anything away from them, like romantic interests or jobs (Callen 2010: 15). The film tries to have it both ways by making Tiana both a beautiful, white-coded princess who deserves the best of life, and a typical African-American working-class woman with multiple jobs and privileged friends.
Even in her whitewashing, Tiana is oppressed because of her friendship with Charlotte. Tiana and Charlotte are shown to be best friends, but there is an unspoken inequality between them that is taken for granted – whites are expected to be rich, blacks are expected to be poor – that is not really changed by the end of the film. Tiana serves the role of the ‘mammy’ stereotype, the ‘mammy’ being a happy, peaceful black woman who supports their white master happily and dispenses advice. Tiana’s role as ‘mammy’ shows Disney’s work “to keep the mammy figure in a constant state of evolution while the basic principles of her functionality remain the same” (Callen 2012: 26). In order for Tiana to actually have her victory at the end of the film (winning Prince Naveen’s love and equality with Charlotte), she has to have her race removed from her by becoming a frog, and be helped by Charlotte in the end through her kindness. Socially as well as physically, Tiana is set apart from people shown to be successful, which backs up the social idea of black people not being as successful as whites. Though she is meant to be the ‘princess’ of the film, she “does not really move beyond the stereotypical image of black women as invisible or as solely attached to labor” (Gregory 2010: 433).
The black men of The Princess and the Frog are also made to reflect whiteness as well. Prince Naveen, the primary love interest, is just as whitewashed as Tiana – his appearance is essentially a darker-skinned version of normal white Disney princesses. His hair is flowing and straight, he is thin and muscular, his nose is flat, and his lips are thin. At the same time, “He has no money; no skills set, and for much of the movie, little desire to do anything other than play the ukulele,” making this darker character just as useless as Tiana (Callen 2010: 34). The voodoo character of Doctor Facilier does take on the more traditional parts of African looks, with his large lips and flat nose, and he possesses an “ambiguous sexuality” (Callen 2010: 32). His status as a villain basically colors those features as ‘bad.’ The choice for the main characters to spend the majority of the film as frogs cancels out these representations totally; it would seem that, even in a film that is supposed to be mostly blacks, the filmmakers at Disney are more comfortable having their characters be green frogs instead of their black selves.
This problem does not just extend to The Princess and the Frog; the black characters of other Disney princess films have also been shown to compare Afro-Caribbean features with evil and white features with good. Black characters are rarely shown in Disney films, but when they do, they are either best friends or sidekicks. Frozone from The Incredibles, for example, is merely a sidekick, a supporting character for the white leads. Other characters are just meant to be black – Flo in Cars is voiced by a black actress, and conveys those “sassy” traits found in black supporting characters; “instead of being cast in the lead or starring role, black female actors are being cast more and more in the role of best friend to the white lead” (Turner 2012: 126). Tiana is, to date, the only black lead in a Disney princess film, which makes her working class roots in Princess and the Frog an issue: “it should raise case for concern that Disney would develop a story that had a Black princess working in the service industry” (Callen 2012: 28). Making the black princess a waitress has a significance that is not the same if Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty were a waitress.
White as the default for appearance and behavior is not a new thing; studies show that “Blacks, at least at the national level, serve as the anchor for Whiteness” (Warren and Twine 1997: 208). African-Americans are seen as different enough in physical appearance and attitude that they are thought of as the ‘other,’ the thing to compare yourself against to make sure you are ‘normal.’ This extends to media as well; in the case of Tiana, the fact that she is black on the surface, but still has all these white features, establishes her as just on the right side of ‘normal.’ However, without a truly real representation of an actual black woman in Disney films, instead of a half-hearted character with white features like Tiana, full-figured and normal women with Afro-Caribbean features are being taught that their appearance is not ‘normal,’ which can lead to further despair and oppression by the white standards of media. In most Disney films, “Characters of color were portrayed as villainous or scary,” which is an image that must be fought with more dedication (Towbin et al. 2004: 36).
In conclusion, this chapter focuses on the whiteness of even the nonwhite characters in Disney princess films, and the problems that come from playing up whiter features in their appearance. To date, the only black princess is Tiana from the film The Princess and the Frog; despite having some cultural traits connected with African-Americans, she is shown as having mostly white features. This whitewashes her and makes her less of a representation of more normal black and Afro-Caribbean features; the character with the most traditionally black features is the villain. Because of this, this film is simply another in a long line of Disney films that treats blacks and black features as something ugly, and keeps black girls from having a princess that looks like them. In order to fix these problems, more accurate and positive representations of black men and women should be included in Disney and other popular films – only then can cultural images of black women become a good thing for those who see them.
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