Racism And Sexism In Tangled - Or, Okay WHAT Are These People Smoking?
ZeldaQueen: Right. This is one bit of idiocy that threw me for a bit of a loop. Warnings folks, this will have spoilers for the movie Tangled. If you want to read the original article, it's available here
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Brown Is Not Beautiful
(This post first appeared on my blog ReelGirl which rates kids' media and products on girl empowerment)
ZeldaQueen: It worries me that seeing the words "media", "girl", and "empowerment" together in a sentence fills me with a vague feeling of dread
Renee of Womanist Musings points out, the glorifying of blonde hair - yet again - is problematic. She writes:
www.selfishmom.com
Can't get past the hair
"As a Black woman, I know all to well how complicated the issue of hair can be. Looking at the above image (of Tangled's Rapunzel), I found that I could not see beyond her long blond hair and blue eyes. I believe that this will also become the focal point of many girls of colour. The standard of long flowing blond hair as the epitome of femininity necessarily excludes and challenges the idea that WOC are feminine, desired, and some cases loved and therefore, while Disney is creating an image of Rapunzel that we are accustomed to, her rebirth in a modern day context is problematic, because her body represents the celebration of White femininity.
The fact that "Tangled" is coming on the heels of the first African American princess is indeed problematic. It makes Princess Tiana seem like an impotent token, with Rapunzel appearing to reset the standard of what princess means and even more precisely what womanhood means."
ZeldaQueen: Okay, first up, everyone take a good look at Rapunzel in that poster. I'm sure everyone can see her eyes. They're about the size of tennis balls. The color? Green. So yeah, apparently Renee wasn't trying too hard to see past it, or she might have noticed it. In fact, I do believe that Rapunzel is the first of the princesses to have green eyes. Isn't that progressive? Power to the emerald eyes!
On a more serious note, Rapunzel is one of exactly two princesses in the official princess line-up with blond hair. Everyone else is mostly brunette, with Ariel as a redhead. I also feel it's worth mentioning that it is often written in the fairytale itself that Rapunzel has "hair of gold", which is hardly racist when you consider that the tale was Germanic and that's the hair color that was considered most attractive at that time. The other thing worth mentioning is that Rapunzel is not a natural blond. In fact her real hair color (which, as we see, she inherited from her mother) is brown.
In short, I'm not really sure what Renee here was expecting from the movie. It was clearly in a vague fantasy quasi-European setting, and using source material which specifies that the heroine has long, flowing, golden hair. That would be like complaining that Mulan is Chinese even though the folktale her story came from kind of had her that way.
I also don't really get what she expected about Tangled following up on The Princess and the Frog. Of course Disney was going to do another movie after that one. It's kind of silly to expect them not to. And I fail to see how Rapunzel in any way overshadows Tiana or tells girls "She doesn't matter! I do!"
I watched "Tangled" with my sister, both of us brunettes, and when we heard the line about how Rapunzel's hair, if cut, loses its magic and turns brown, we looked at each other and started cracking up.
ZeldaQueen: I'm also a brunette. I fail to see how that's funny. It actually made sense, considering that the magic flower came from a drop of sunlight, Rapunzel is a natural brunette, and the haircutting clause was put in to make sure that Mother Gothel kidnapped the baby instead just a bit of her hair
(Also I think I remember in the movie, that there is some other reference to "brown-ness." Does anyone remember what it is? Flynn takes Rapunzel into a bar full of drunken men, and he says something, or someone says something like" "It seems very brown in here" or it "smells brown." Please tell me if you know what I'm talking about.)
ZeldaQueen: What Flynn actually says is, and I quote, "Ya smell that? It's part man-smell and the other part is REALLY BAD man-smell, but overall it just smells like the color brown. Your thoughts?" If you keep in mind that Flynn was trying to scare Rapunzel at that point, it's rather obvious what the "brown" smell referred to was supposed to be
It is notable to, as Girl W/Pen! refers to, that the princess death sentence is coming right after the first African-American young royal finally made her way to the animated screen. There's lots of internet chat about ending the only cartoon vehicle that repeatedly allowed girls be stars, but not so much discussion about the race issue involved in the timing of this decision. Also, I keep hearing that adjusted for inflation dollars, "The Princess and the Frog" did just as well as "The Little Mermaid." If this is true, I don't get why Disney execs claim the film was such a failure.
ZeldaQueen: I might be mistaken, but I believe the announcement came shortly before or around the time when Tangled was actually released. If my memory serves, I'd hardly call that "right after" The Princess and the Frog".
And Disney never said The Princess and the Frog was a failure. In fact, it got them a good bit of money, a cash cow in the form of a new princess for merchandise, and a good bit of praise. What they said was that the movie didn't do as well as they had hoped. Their expectations for the movie were high, perhaps ridiculously so. It was fairly clear, through interviews and talks about the making of the movie, that Disney was desperately hoping that this would be that movie that would revive things. The movie that would start a second Disney Renaissance. The movie that would put their 2D animation back on the map.
Instead, it did good but not great. It made back money, but didn't have nearly the splash they'd hoped. And I'd hardly consider Disney excommunicating the movie, as this article seems to imply. Tiana and Naveen are both official members of the Disney Princess and Prince line-ups. Their merchandise is everywhere. Disney would not do that if they didn't want them sticking around. After all, look at how eager they were to drop poor Princess Eilonwy or Kida. Those two were in movies that didn't do well, so look at how much media attention they've gotten
Again, I don't want to be defending princesses here. I don't like them. But I also don't like the way they're being used to get rid of starring girls roles all together.
ZeldaQueen: Um, it is possible to make movies with non-princess leads. Granted, I know Disney made princess protagonists very popular, but they do exist. Susan, from Monsters vs. Aliens? Coraline? Heck, Lilo and Stitch had both Nani and Lilo, who were well-rounded and likable characters, and neither of them were royalty. And hey, Disney has exclusive rights to the release of English dubbed Miyazaki films. So we also have movies like Howl's Moving Castle or Spirited Away, which also have strong, interesting, non-royal female protagonists. Saying "no more princess movies" doesn't mean Disney will do away with female leads, it just means they'll have to get more creative
Natalie Wilson writes the cast of "Tangled" isn't quite all white. On Rapunzel's wicked mother:
Notably, Mother Gothel, Rapunzel's evil abductress, has dark hair and eyes and non-Caucasian features.
According to Christian Blaulvelt of Entertainment Weekly, "Mother Gothel is a dark, dark character. I mean, she's a baby snatcher." Ah yes, and she is dark in more ways than one - her dark skin, hair, and clothing contrasting with the golden whiteness of Rapunzel.
Alan Menken, the musical composer for the film, similarly notes that "Mother Gothel is a scary piece of work. Nothing she is doing is for the good of Rapunzel at all. It's all for herself" Emphasizing her manipulative relationship with Rapunzel, Menken admits, "I was concerned when writing it. Like, will there be a rash of children trying to kill their parents after they've seen the movie?" Wow - how about worrying if there will be a rash of children who will see DARK-SKINNED mothers (and non-wedded ones) as evil and sinister?
In addition to carrying on Disney's tradition of problematic representations of race, the film also keeps with the tradition of framing females beauty obsession as evil and "creepy" (Flyn's words) rather than as understandable in a world of Disneyfied feminine norms. A mirror worshipper to rival the evil queen in Snow White, Gothel is presented as a passive-aggressive nightmare - she is the tyrannical single mother that is so overbearing Rapunzel must beg for the opportunity to leave the tower.
ZeldaQueen: First, on the matter of those "non-Caucasian features". This is Mother Gothel
ZeldaQueen: So yes, she has dark hair. While I'll admit I'm not the best at judging facial features though, she looks rather European to me. So...yeah. And I would not call her "dark skinned", by any stretch of the imagination.
I'd also like to remind the jury that it was just last Disney movie that we had Eudora, Tiana's mother who was, in fact, clearly black and a wonderful, caring mother.
Finally, I'm rather confused about that quote. So it's wrong that Mother Gothel is a vain bitch who would rather kidnap a baby than let herself naturally age and is portrayed as evil for it? I'd say that is plenty good reason for a person to be considered evil
I always ask my daughters when we're watching these movies: where are the moms? Belle in "Beauty in the Beast:" no mom. Ariel in "The Little Mermaid:" no mom. "Jasmine" in Aladdin: no mom.
ZeldaQueen: Mulan - mom and grandmother. Aurora - mom, plus three adopted mothers. Tiana - mom. Rapunzel - evil mom plus good birth mother who she reunites with. I also feel it's worth noting that in most of those cases, the fairy tales themselves specify "no moms". After all, how could Snow White or Cinderella have wicked stepmothers if their birth mothers were still alive? It's certainly preferable to the earliest forms of the tales, which had that it was the birth mothers who tormented Snow and Cindy and abused them.
Now granted, some cases were by Disney's choice. For example, Aladdin's mother was supposed to make an appearance, but was cut out of the story. In general though, the lack of mothers came from the fairy tales, which used the deceased mothers as metaphors for how children see their moms (the "good" side of mom, who is portrayed as the angelic but dead birth mother, and the "mean" side of mom, who is portrayed as the wicked stepmother)
Maybe us moms should get together and start making some movies.
ZeldaQueen: Good idea. I'm sure that none of the women on the Disney staff, after all, have children. The idea is ludicrous
Update: Billjitsu,one of my biggest fans, comments: "Little Mermaid (1989): $111M Princess and the Frog (2009) : $104M As I suspected and adjusted for inflation, "Mermaid" positively annihilates "Princess and Frog".
Um, no. Annihiltates? Since when does a 7 million dollar difference make one movie a "blockbuster" and another "a flop?" If your figures are correct, you're proving my point. Thanks! (though it isn't really my point anyway, but reporters.)
ZeldaQueen: Actually it proves my point, that The Princess and the Frog did well, but not as well as expected. Which, what a surprise, was also Disney's point. So everyone's point is proven! Hooray!
Second update: About the brunette princesses, yes of course, there are some, but their hair doesn't have magical power that when cut, loses that power and turns blonde!
ZeldaQueen: Right. About that. And if there still are people here who are bothered by spoilers, you might want to skip this. I'm pretty much talking about the end of the movie.
So as the movie goes, Rapunzel's hair is magic. It's her big thing. It can heal injuries, provide people with eternal youth, and makes a kickass lasso and whip. So on the surface, I see the author's point. Unfortunate implications, yeah.
Except, look at how Rapunzel views the magic hair and what it does to her life. She never asked for it. It was the only reason at all that she was kidnapped. The woman who raised her, who she thought was "mother" only ever took care of her because of the magic hair. In other words, Rapunzel was raised without love, by an abusive woman, who essentially tricked a young girl into thinking she cared, just to use her. It was because of the magic hair that Mother Gothel never let her leave the tower and tried to drive a fear of humanity into Rapunzel. It was because of the magic hair that Rapunzel was nearly kidnapped by the Stabbington brothers, why Mother Gothel wanted to keep her captive for her entire life, and why Rapunzel wasn't able to fully trust Flynn's love for her until the very end. The one guy who she meets who shows her genuine love, she can't bring herself to fully trust because she thinks it's because of the hair.
In short, the magic hair has given her nothing but heartache and grief for her entire eighteen years of life.
Now, let us look at the inverse. At the end of the movie, Flynn cuts off all of Rapunzel's hair, turning it brown and robbing it of its power. What happens? Mother Gothel dies about two seconds later. No one has any reason to want to hold Rapunzel captive. She's able to go back to the castle and be with her own parents, who genuinely love her and have spent eighteen years trying to find her.
In other words, it looks a lot more like it's the other way around. Yes, Rapunzel's blond hair is shiny and magic, but it also symbolizes her captivity and miserable life. Her brown hair symbolizes her freedom and ability to go home to her loving parents (parents who have the exact same shade of brown hair). At the end, she's thrilled to be ride of her hair.
So yeah, what is this stuff I don't even
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