Blog #2

Disney was and has been a huge part of my life. I was raised watching Disney movies and the Disney Channel shows. I loved all the princesses but most importantly the little mermaid. Ariel was always my favorite princess. Although I can’t pinpoint the reasoning behind my favoritism for Ariel, I believe her hair color was what drew me in the most since it is my favorite color. I grew up having princess and Barbie-themed everything. My parents would call me their princess and show me all the princess movies. I resonated with the princesses since I believed I was a princess, but I couldn’t quite find myself completely through any of them. Growing up, I was never able to connect with them at a level where I felt truly represented. All of these princesses were mostly white with one Indian and one Chinese princess to create a sense of diversity. Although I felt like Jasmine’s skin color matched mine, I was still not represented since I am not Indian. I remember when The Princess and the Frog debuted and how big of an impact that made on me. I was amazed at the fact that Tiana was the first black princess on Disney platforms. As I grew up, and rewatched this movie, I viewed it differently each time. It was great that Tiana was the first black princess but it would have been extraordinary if she would have been in human form for most of the movie instead of a frog. 

Reading Christensen’s piece, I was hit with the reality that I have secretly been running from. I did not want to face the reality of the injustice that Disney portrays because as I said, I grew up with this it was all I had known. The impact of this reading did not surprise me at all because I too was like Justine and was choosing to be ignorant and happy. As much as I watched all the princess movies, I knew I didn’t ultimately want to be a princess “when I grew up”. I grew up watching the Cheetah girls and resonated so much more with them. There were four girls in which three of them are people of color and one is white. I remember I loved watching this movie simply because I felt like I was being represented and I was able to relate to Chanel who was the Latina cast member. The songs they sang were very empowering especially “Girl Power” and “Cinderella”. The title of the song “Girl Power” says the main message that the song is sending out. The song “Cinderella” has some very powerful lyrics which send the overall message that girls do not need a man to do things for them. The chorus is important, but this one stanza is powerful “I can slay my own dragon, I can dream my own dreams, my knight in shining armor is me”. This means that they, girls, are capable of doing things that are normally portrayed to be a man’s thing and that they are also independent and capable of taking care of themselves. Because of these powerful girl role models I watched, I was able to look past being a princess and consider myself a fierce Cheetah girl instead.

PS: Just a cheetahlicious picture of myself embracing my fierce cheetah side