Principesse Disney Article: Is Frozen /Actually/ Racist?

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posted by jacksfrost

tbh same anna prince hans is one dream pezzo, hunk

tbh same anna prince hans is one dream hunk

For my first article, I decided to start with a light, fluffy topic! Kidding, of course, but I think this is a rather crucial topic that needs to be discussed. Something to keep in mind before Leggere this article, I'm a fan of Frozen, I'm a fan of the Disney Princesses, and I'm without a doubt a fan of Disney! te can be a fan of something and still criticize it (Spoiler alert for the article? Ah well..) Anyway, onto the article!

First things first let's discuss the racial makeup of Frozen's setting. Oh WAIT, we can't because Frozen takes place in a fictional land! That's something that seems to often be forgotten when people defend Frozen's lack of racial diversity. They claim, "Oh, but Norway is filled with blonde haired, blue eyed people!" And yes, that's true, but just because Frozen's animators went to Norway for inspiration doesn't mean that it explicitly takes place in Norway.

Without them saying where it takes place, we can't just make inferences. In a land where there are trolls, talking snowmen, and princesses with ice powers, God forbid we throw one POC in there. "Oh, but look! There there and there! People of Color in the background! Take THAT!" Yeah...no. Having to look at the film frame da frame to find one POC in a sea of white people is anything but progressive.

It's not even that they needed to make the entire film filled to the brim with POC, they could've easily stuck with the Norwegian based theme while still including POC. Why did Hans and the Duke have to be white when they were both foreigners from the land? They could've easily been made into a Spanish prince and a Portuguese dignitary, but no, no, they had to be white as well. It's a real shame that Disney didn't make Prince Hans a POC, seeing as we've never seen an interracial Disney Princess couple (besides Pocahontas, but that's problematic in a lot of ways).

Of course having Hans being a POC with the current storyline would be a bit of a problem; having the only POC be the villain is problematic in so many ways (HTTYD 2 *cough* *cough*) and having Anna choose the white guy in the end would be even più racist, but all I'm trying to get across is that Frozen had chances to add in POC and they didn't take them. Kristoff could've been Saami (which, before te comment, were indigenously POC, though modern Saami often have blonde hair and blue eyes).

Another huge problem with the lack of POC in Frozen is Big Hero 6. How does Big Hero 6 have anything to do with this te might ask? Well Big Hero 6 was originally a comic that took place in Giappone with a cast full of Japanese characters, but in Disney's reboot of it only two of the leads are Japanese. Yes they added in some più diversity, but they did that da taking away the traditional Japanese setting and whitewashing it.

The fact that it was okay that they did this to a Japanese story, but that they "couldn't meddle" with a "white story" and add in POC is simply racist. How easy would it have been to make Anna and Elsa from a tribe up in Canada where they have tanned skin? "Oh, but Brother orso takes place in-" Okay, do te know how many Disney films take place in Europe? A lot, okay. Just because there's one princess from the Middle East, one princess from Eastern Asia, one princess from Native American tribes, doesn't mean that that's enough!

We need to ask for più from the largest animazione company in the entire world! We need to stop accepting the fact that there's going to be three white films for every film with a POC, that there's gonna be più films about foxes than films about POC! We need to demand for representation, because representation matters. It really does. This is a battle that as a community who idolizes the Disney Princesses we need to fight, because if we don't who will?

That's it folks! Hope te enjoyed, o at least I got te thinking!

That's it folks! Hope you enjoyed, or at least I got you thinking!

cinderella44, dclairmont and 8 others like this

sarchasm "Okay, do you know how many Disney films take place in Europe? A lot, okay. Just because there's one princess from the Middle East, one princess from Eastern Asia, one princess from Native American tribes, doesn't mean that that's enough! . . ." Great article, and the ending I especially agreed with!

MissCassecou I agree with you; there should be more movies with people from different races. I, for example, am Australian, and yes I am Caucasian but I would love to see an Australian princess/heroine that is from Australia. Since this article is more about people of colour than races, they could do a story about Aboriginal people. But I am kind of sick of seeing all the princesses from Europe and America mostly - even though I adore those places! Something different? Something Australian? There are plenty of stories they can use.

scarletunicorn Spanish and Portuguese are generally white people though, they consider themselves white (and have a white complexion). Hispanics and Latins come in all shapes and sizes and colors, and saying "all latinos are dark skinned!" is incredibly ignorant and racist. Also, I wouldn't think it'd be a good idea to make Hans or the Duke the only non-white characters, considering one turns into the main villain and the other is just all around a nasty jerk. Also, I wouldn't consider big Hero 6 a "japanese story": The original comics were written by Marvel comics writers, aka a bunch of american people who got obsessed with japanese pop culture. The comics felt more like Marvel being weeaboos than actually trying to make a good story and interesting character. The movie did it better (also, i also appreciate the fact that Honey Lemon is latina- Hollywood seems to think that Latinos only look one way (dark skinned, and the women are all spicy (like Audrey Ramirez) and sexy with big boobs and ass) and don't think there are latina girls like Honey Lemon, which there are. But tbh Frozen is not the only guilty one of being racist. Tangled and Brave had the same issues, and nobody went around criticizing them. So, overall, good article, but I disagree with a few things. (hate the use of words like problematic and "POC", though, since it puts all cultures under the same umbrella, and i really dislike that- latinos don't have the same problems, culture and history than Japanese do, so why must folks compare the two of us?). I mostly agree how it's so bizarre we can have many white/european princesses but there's only one princess for each non-white race.

Annabethandco Thank you thank you THANK YOU! I wrote a similar article ages ago but a lot of people just defended the lack of diversity and that was one of the reasons why I left. This article is so perfect and I am so thankful you made it.

8804 I love only one white princess. My favorite princess is Mulan. Pocahontas and Jasmine are likely going to remain in or near my top 5 because of the profound LACK of diversity in the Disney Princess lineup. I have problems with Tiana, because though they clearly made her a POC--- they depicted a workaholic, which is NOT an accurate depiction of the way all African Americans achieve their dreams. Diversity is important, and so is creating full characterization, not lopsided characterization ( as was in Tiana's case).

MaidofOrleans Wow coming in with a bang I see! Good for you! I completely agree with everything you said. Diversity is sorely needed in Disney's films, and we are the only ones who will be able to convince them to do that.

Silverrose1991 Fantastic article! I have become much more aware of/passionate about representation issues in these past few months, so I completely agree with you. Scarletunicorn's first paragraph is also correct - Portuguese and Spanish aren't POC, and I'm a white Latino myself.

Digoenes Excellent article. I would also add that in addition to Frozen having a diversity problem, the filmmakers whitewashed the original story as well. In "The Snow Queen" the protagonist Gerda meets along the way several Sami people who help her with her journey. There is also the character of the Little Robber Girl whom Kristoff is partially based off of and I think she might be Sami or a POC as well. Also, when people say that Frozen can't have non-white people in it because it's in Europe (or in a Europe-like setting) don't know history. People of color have always existed in Europe. I suggest you look at medievalpoc.tumblr.com for an excellent guide to the history of POC people in European art.

jacksfrost Wow, I'm taken aback at all the positive comments! I was for sure expecting backlash, but all these comments are really making me happy :) @scarletunicorn You made some really good points. I'm really sorry for the Spanish/Portuguese mixup, I wrote this article at nearly 2 am last night and clearly didn't do enough research. I do agree that Frozen shouldn't be the only film getting flack for this, films like Tangled, Brave, Wreck-It-Ralph and more should also be getting flack, but I just decided to hone in on Frozen because it's the "big news" as of late. Again, thank you all so so much for the comments! ^^ I'd address you all one-by-one, but I suppose it would get rather repetitive.

shanyuisboss Excellent article! That was probably one of the best articles I have ever read on here. You organized your thoughts so well and said absolutely everything I have always wanted to say yet in such perfect wording. I really loved it! Being Arab-American myself I am very disappointed at how underrepresented PoC are in Disney, You explained why in such a great way in this article.

avatar_tla_fan I'm not trying to offend any of the users above, but those comments really irritate me. Apparently it's okay to say things like, "ugh, not another white Disney Princess." Or, "Ugh, I just want a POC Princess for once!" But when somebody turns that statement to something like, "Another POC Princess? Well, okay." People get mad and state that person as racist. I find it really rude of many of you to praise the POC DPs just for being POC's, when you put down the white princesses for simply being white. Representation is a good thing, but trying to force it and putting down another race is very rude, and is actually racist. People say that they just want more representation, but some people say they like the POC's more simply because of their race. Like I said, that IS. PUTTING. ONE. RACE. OVER. ANOTHER. And honestly, I'm going to lose it if I'm called racist for this. I've been called racist before on here for spreading my opinions before, and I personally think you should save that for people who actually put down other races. -__- I support both the POCs and the white Disney Princesses. I don't try to put one over the other, praising one race while putting down another. While I do think that representation is a good thing, many people get out of hand on the subject and try to call everything racist simply because they don't "promote" other races to a large extent. Once again, I'm sorry if I offend any of you, but I hate it when people say things like this. @8804: How does just Tiana make an impact on the representation of an entire race? She wasn't the only African-American in the movie you know. And I don't see how showing somebody as a hard worker is insulting a race. "That is not an accurate description of how African-Americans achieve their dreams." Well, it isn't a way to show how all African-Americans achieve their dreams, it's a way to show how ONE African-American achieved her dream. And what do you mean by "Pocahontas and Jasmine are likely going to remain in or near my top 5 because of the profound LACK of diversity in the Disney Princess lineup." So, you place them high because there's not much diversity? That doesn't make much sense to me.

sarchasm @avatar_tla_fan: Okay, but I didn't see anyone calling someone a racist for being less than ecstatic about diversity, so it is absolutely lost on me why you are bringing that up. And no one said that they like certain DPs because of their race, actually. I don't see where you're getting all this. And people [i]should[/i] want more representation, because it really does matter. It isn't putting one race over another to want more representation, it's attempting to make the Disney Princess lineup (and everything else) less whitewashed. And finally, no one, including the writer of the article, was putting down any races. They were just saying that a multi-million industry like Disney, beloved by impressionable young children of every race (as well as adults and teens, of course), should do better with an accurate representation of races. And having more than [i]half[/i] the line up white is [b]not[/b] accurate.

princesslullaby @harijah- princesses of colors, or POCs, are NOT white. yes, POC can be European, but POC can not be white. Also, "Whenever I hear people say "More PoCs!" They usually mean "princesses of a culture that isn't European. " No, they don't. They mean girls of color, because you can have a black french girl, or a hispanic hungarian, etc etc. Would you be okay with a Polish princess who wasn't white? @avatar_tla_fan- absolutely NOTHING you said was relevant to what anyone was talking about, and it's looking like you're using the comments section of this article to go on a rant no one was asking for to gripe about something that is far less important than representation. And it's ENTIRELY fair to say it's okay to put one race as more important over the other, especially when there's so little representation. It's ENTIRELY fair to prioritize POC over white people. I have to say though, I agree with you on 8804- It's not fair to say NO african americans are workaholics.