Race has always been an issue when it comes to fairytales too. Until Tiana, when it comes to Disney movies, there was not a black princess. Because of this, many studies have shown that when told a story, every race in the group drew a white princess. I think that this mostly has to be in the United States, and has to do with disney. Although the stories the children were read were not disney, most of what they have seen as children have been the same idea of what a princess looks like. In a lecture we we taught in class, lots of facts were pointed out about most fairytales:
-prince charming is always white
-the evil character is always dressed in black
In this case, I do not see the correlation between evil wearing black, and the race. Black the color (not the skin color) is viewed as evil and dark, as the color is dark. I think this is reaching a little bit for the idea that it has to do with race, but I understand the other points.
I think a lot of this stems from the first fairytales written, the time and era it was written and who was writing them, and then it sort of trailed and followed.
In other countries they are told stories of their own princesses, so for each country, this isn't as prominent as in the United States.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
The Princess Ideal: Where did it begin?
The idea of little girls wanting to be a princess has been going on since the medieval times, maybe even before that. It's very simple to figure out where it came from.
In these times princesses and royalty were beyond magical to the peasants and others that lived. They were hated, but also envied. They got everything they wanted, while others had little, or nothing at all. To be a princess was a dream of every little girl. They envied the beautiful gowns, the delicacies, the ponies, the carriages, and the huge castle.
Has this changed? Absolutely not. The term has just transformed into many different areas of our lives. It's not only royal people who are viewed in this way, but other people viewed to be royalty. The term princess has spread all across the charts to explain certain people, even if it isn't used that way.
The United States does this more than any other area in the world. We put normal people, just because of their money and status on a pedestal that we all strive to be on.
In these times princesses and royalty were beyond magical to the peasants and others that lived. They were hated, but also envied. They got everything they wanted, while others had little, or nothing at all. To be a princess was a dream of every little girl. They envied the beautiful gowns, the delicacies, the ponies, the carriages, and the huge castle.
Has this changed? Absolutely not. The term has just transformed into many different areas of our lives. It's not only royal people who are viewed in this way, but other people viewed to be royalty. The term princess has spread all across the charts to explain certain people, even if it isn't used that way.
The United States does this more than any other area in the world. We put normal people, just because of their money and status on a pedestal that we all strive to be on.
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