Warning: this post has no real hypothesis or thread of reasoning. It's just the musings of a confused smag...
This past week I (Smag-Lydia) got to spend some time with my second-cousins. (I'm actually not sure what they are, but I'm going to call them second cousins. They're my mom's cousins' kids - so if you know, please tell me.) These six kids are all adorable and range from 3-14 years old.
We ended up playing a Jeopardy-style game with the buzz-in system "Eggspert", which was surprisingly fun. To level the playing field for the range of kids present, I asked questions such as "What is 1 + 1?" and "What color is Tyler's shirt?" Naturally, my hosting duties were quickly usurped by a hilariously self-centered 12-yr old cousin. After posing questions like, "What outfit do I look best in? This is multiple choice: (a) a panda suit (b) a crocodile suit (c) a gorilla suit, or (d) a fedora and sunglasses?" it quickly morphed into a full blown Disney princess quiz show. Here are my thoughts on the questions asked, and the answers given. These below are all apparently true and objectively undeniable facts, or so I was told.
1. "Who was the best Disney Princess?" - correct answer: Mulan.
My thoughts - Nevermind that she's not technically even one of the Disney princesses... Was she the "best" because all of the cousins present were at least half-chinese? What makes a princess better than the others? What are qualities a princess should have? Are sword play and archery are included? Must you have an awesome sidekick? I would love to poll other kids and figure out the statistics there. I bet Disney Inc. already has this information.
2. "Who was my favorite Disney Princess?" - correct answer: Rapunzel (from Tangled)
This doesn't surprise me much. Tangled was the most recent movie, so they probably feel a sort of ownership over this film as I did with The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast. But man, it doesn't take much to win the heart of a 6 year old, or a 5 year old... or a 12 year old. I will add that these girls gave a surprising set of answers to this question in the end. It was agreed that the favorite princesses went in this order: (1) Rapunzel (2) Mulan and (3) Tiana (from Princess and the frog). Diverse, right?
3. "What was the best movie, ever?" - correct answer: Tangled
Hey, I guessed "The Shawshank Redemption" but that answer was met with a bunch of blank stares. Except my brother who thought it was mildly funny. I just really wanted to beat everyone to their buzzers and answer first. I guess I should have guessed better, given question #2. More importantly, all the other little cousins got this right - as if it was the most obvious truism in the world. This didn't have to be limited to Classic Disney animated films. How were they all on the same page? Freaky. Maybe if I proposed Justin Bieber's concert movie, I could have changed some minds.
4."Which Disney princess is the ugliest?" - correct answer: Cinderella
Again, I buzzed in first and guessed Snow White, on the basis that the animation is really old, and her face looks kind of funny to me (mostly because of the dated animation style). Also, I figured her "princess dress" was the least attractive of them all. I was, however, brutally rebuffed. The word Cinderella was met with a chorus of "yuck!" and "you're right!" - much to the confusion of the older cousins. Hadn't Cinderella been kind of the benchmark for all other Disney Princesses for us? "But Cinderella was really nice, and hardworking...!" I proffered. Right... because that's DEFINITELY what it takes to be the least ugly princess.
I'm still not sure how to feel after that game. On one hand, I was proud of those girls for having a list of best/favorite princesses that included some with spunk and/or some sort of true goal in life. It also included an impressively diverse set of ladies. But there weren't any good reasons for why they liked each princess. I know I shouldn't expect, "I like Tiana, because she knows that hard work is a much better path than wishing on a star [like that idiot Jiminy Cricket tells us to]." But even a simple "I like Mulan because she's brave" would have been nice. I still think they might just think they were prettiest. (Also, why is Cinderella the ugliest? I'm still trying to figure out their reasoning for that one)
But perhaps kids only really love what's newest and most relevant to them. In that case, it really is Disney's burden to provide empowering Disney princesses, provide good role-models. But most likely, I'm over-thinking this. Are there truly any good ways to teach young girls that life's not just about being pretty and becoming a trophy wife?
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