Most parents with children who want to be princesses just buy them a pretty dress and a plastic crown. Not Jeremiah. He travelled to Africa, claimed a bit of land, named it ‘The Kingdom of North Sudan’, and declared himself and his family African royalty.
Disney’s making a movie about it. It’s going to be called The Princess of North Sudan.
That’s right. The first African princess Disney plans to honour with her very own movie is a white American.
The very first African Disney Princess movie will be a "heart-warming" story about a white colonial claiming a bit of Africa as his own all so that his daughter can feel even more special than most privileged white girls already get to feel.
What’s next, “The Princess of the Apartheid”?
The Disney Princess franchise doesn't have a history of being particularly diverse. Apart from the fact that most of Disney’s princesses have been white, Disney has even redesigned princesses that do have brown skin to appear "whiter".
Tiana, Disney’s first and only black princess, didn't even get to spend most of The Princess and the Frog being her black self (she was a green, due to being a frog). Let’s also not forget that Disney seemed to decide it was too soon for a black “Prince Charming” when they made that movie.
Unsurprisingly, the announcement of this movie has been met with wide-spread criticism. Stephany Folsom, who will be writing the script for The Princess of North Sudan, responded to this criticism on Twitter
As laid out by @THR article I can understand why you'd be upset. Rest assured that is NOT the story we are telling. #PrincessOfNorthSudan
— Stephany Folsom (@StephanyFolsom) May 14, 2015
Folsom also sent three other tweets, stating,
"Agree w/everything people are saying. Wouldn't write that story. But if you want to focus your hate on me, go for it. There is no planting a flag in Sudan or making a white girl the princess of an African country. That's gross. I've been to the Sudan. The people there are amazing. Colonialism is bullshit. Hope you all have a beautiful night."
These tweets have since been deleted, and it’s a little hard to imagine a story called The Princess of North Sudan about a white girl whose father claimed land in Africa because she wanted to be a princess can be about anything but colonialism and "making a white girl the princess of an African country'.
You might think none of this matters - that it’s just a "Disney Princess" movie, but animated movies constantly reinforcing the same stereotypes can have a very real, very negative effect on children.
For example, in a 2009 study on the effects of popular children’s media on young girls’ body image, many of the children interviewed were found to believe they’d have to paint themselves white or change their brown skin to white skin in order to be princesses.
Take this into account, and the fact that black children around the world may be about to be told that even African princesses need to be white for their stories to matter is heart-breaking.