The Story Comes to Life
Disney’s new story book was released last month and received a fantastic response from parents and children. The heartwarming story follows the life of a young princess of color, Jalicia.
Her father is killed in a battle while defending his kingdom, leaving his family and the people of Apathania in despair. In a fit of anger and anguish, she hires a witch to cast a spell on the kingdom, stealing their eyesight and leaving them with life-altering disabilities. Princess Jalicia is the only one left unscathed, her mother ruled that she was too young and pure to be subjected to such punishment. So, Princess Jalicia was instead sent away to live with a measly glassmaker. Instead of wallowing in her sorrows like her mother, she decides to make it her duty to restore the kingdom their sight and happiness. Overall, the moral of the story teaches children about empathy and the importance of being able to determine what is appropriate to say and do in society when taking into consideration how it will affect others of different races, cultures, class, etc., and just in different life situations in general.
I would like to congratulate Disney and the author, Deanna Miller, on successfully crafting another princess that is again inspiring little girls all over the world to be better people.
Along with all other Disney products, when Halloween rolls around the latest princess costumes are the first to fly off the shelves. This is the way it’s been for years and as long as Disney keeps making up characters, kids will keep dressing up as them. This in particular is the topic of my post today. It turns out that this new Disney princess has seemed to have cause for the problems in her book to become the real life problems of little girls in today’s society.
My favorite holiday, Halloween, is fast-approaching and as I was pondering my costume the other day, a thought crossed my mind. The introduction of an African-American princess is a sign of a progressive and culturally accepting society, but does children dressing up as characters who are not of their race count as cultural appropriation?
Parents all over the country are now being faced with this question. Princess Jalicia is not only the new biggest fairytale, but also the most popular Halloween costume. Seems innocent right? Wrong. It has become pretty evident that these young girls, simply trying to be their new role model for Halloween, are dressing in blackface. It seems that the story truly is coming to life.
In the fairytale, the people of Apathania are being faced with learning to empathize with one another and understand what is appropriate to say and do in society, and it seems society is making these young girls and their parents also learn this the hard way.
Obviously, blackface is nothing to be taken lightly, but is it possible that the intentions of these young girls were innocent and that society may be being a bit too harsh on them? Are the children really at fault here? The gallery below displays just some of society's feedback on the situation.