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When Disney’s First ‘African’ Princess Looked Nothing Like Me
As a child, I loved Disney princesses. As an adult, my concern goes beyond the problematic stereotypes.
“This entire scenario played out multiple times during our childhood. We’d anxiously await VHS gifts from our parents, and upon their return, we’d become completely consumed by the films. But Hercules wasn’t like the other movies — it had Black women in it, more than one! In my childhood, I lacked a critical, analytic lens to interrogate why five Black women, all beautiful and singing gloriously, formed the entertainment backdrop for a white woman’s love story. It would take me several more years to grasp the gendered stereotypes within Disney’s go-to damsel-in-distress trope. Now, I understand a blunt reality: I was never intended to be Disney’s target audience.” — Dr. Furaha Asani
Read Dr. Asani’s story in its entirety below.
