Many of you have likely seen this little exchange: http://themetapicture.com/brilliant-comeback/
Let me start by saying, if you are going to rant, and curse
in your rant, you’d better have your motherfucking facts correct. Brave is NOT set in Ireland. It’s set in motherfucking Scotland, you arsehole.
Germany has had Afro-Germans in the population for
centuries. It also has parts of the country where they don’t dare to go due to
the fact that they will likely end up dead or maimed. Congratulations to the
self-styled knowledge dropper on living someplace in Germany where one rarely
sees people of color. I could change my zip code and say that the vast majority
of people in my metro area were white, too.
It’s interesting that someone choosing to talk about how things aren’t
whitewashed lives in a country that attempted to whitewash itself. That legacy
continues to bear itself out in many, many ways, which the author of the little
“comeback” above apparently doesn’t recognize.
Regardless, Disney’s faithfulness to its source material has
never been strong. Frozen is so loosely based
on the Hans Christian Andersen story, The
Snow Queen, that it is nearly unrecognizable as such. By this logic, The
Lion King should not be set in Africa, given that it is based on Hamlet (and
actually is much closer to Hamlet than Frozen is to The Snow Queen). Do you
know where Hamlet takes place? Hint: Not Africa. Bigger Hint: Prince Hamlet and Hans
Christian Andersen have their country of origin in common. I won’t even get
into the fact that it’s just sort of generically Africa as if Africa isn’t a
huge continent, and that in order to set something in Africa, Disney chose to
use anthropomorphic animals instead of people.
Using Pocahontas as an “ethnic Disney lady” (note- that terrible terminology reveals both bias and privilege) is not a good
choice. Her original design was not based on any American Indian woman, much
less Pocahontas herself. They admittedly melded the features of European,
Asian, African, and Native American women to get her look. It’s worse since the
redesign. I suppose they were no more faithful to Pocahontas’s appearance than
they were to the actual history. Again, Disney seems to have a problem with the
source material.
Esmerelda never even shows up in any of their marketing crap
anymore, and she was drawn as Demi Moore with a tan, rather than a woman of
Romani descent. Speaking of the official Princess marketing, Pocahontas, as
awfully redesigned as she is (one would hope a redesign would have improved on
the mistakes of the past, but nope, even her skin tone is worse) very rarely
makes an appearance, Mulan (again with a very poorly done makeover, which IS whitewashing,
even by the meager standards set forth in the above graphic) is also mostly
left out. You have Jasmine and Tiana left, and it’s usually one or the other,
not both, on the package with all the white girls.
The idea that Disney should be faithful to the race intended/implied
by the author of the source material while otherwise completely disregarding
said source material is ridiculous. Also, let’s not forget all the
anthropomorphism. Cinderella, you can have talking mice that make your clothes,
but you and every other person in your movie need to be white or it’s just
wrong. I’m not saying that I necessarily
want Ariel to turn to sea foam or Cinderella’s stepsisters to mutilate their
feet, but I’m also not claiming that Disney doesn’t whitewash because they’re
just being true to the story, and hey, can they help it if they keep picking
white European stories? I mean, it’s not like there’s a whole world of fairy tales, fables,
myths, and legends from places that aren’t Europe. Wait a minute… (Yes, I know Aladdin and Mulan. Two ever. Within six years of each other. Two decades ago. Bravo, Disney. The diversity is truly... stunning.)*
In conclusion, that’s not a brilliant comeback, takedown, or
anything else. It’s a factually deficient screed rooted in privilege. The privilege to have your stories told in a pleasant manner with people who look like you onscreen and call it universal. Taken individually, the movies, Brave and Frozen in
particular, are not necessarily bad, and recently they have definitely tried to
move away from the “needing a man to save you” nonsense, but Disney has a
history of whitewashing. When you unnecessarily see only whiteness and forest creatures onscreen, you are stripping the world of part of its beauty, Our world is diverse. Our stories are diverse. I’d
like to see more of them onscreen.
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