For the creative project, I painted an image of a princess that I imagined would be an interesting addition to the current cast of Disney Princesses. Her name is Princess Kiara. There are several components of my painting that represent more diverse characteristics that are lacking in our current Disney princesses. I created this figure because as I was growing up I never got to experience any of the Disney princess characters that weren’t mostly white with very similar and unrealistic body types. When the Princess and the Frog came out it was an amazing accomplishment for the black community and myself, as no other princess remotely represented me. Despite this, Princess Tianna has been the only representation for black girls since her debut in 2009. I created an additional black princess and made her more realistic to our diverse society and population. The traditional Disney princesses were all the same, with similar Eurocentric features and hair, which doesn’t really encompass the image that every little girl would want to look up to or relate to. Princess Kiana was a more realistic representation of women and of our population. She is a black character and I wanted to draw on black features that are often looked down upon in society but are common amongst a majority of the black community. I attempted to highlight beautiful kinky curls and made her hair a focal point in my painting. I also created her to have a more realistic body type that didn’t fit today’s unrealistic expectations and also the body types that most Disney princesses have. I designed Princess Kiara because I wanted her to represent a more diverse population of people and if added to the cast of Disney princesses, I feel like a lot more people would be able to relate to her, strictly based on appearance, as she is more realistic to today’s society. I chose to use acrylic paint for this project. I was debating between paints and colored pencils but I chose acrylic paints for a variety of reasons. The first one is because paints are the medium I am most comfortable with, I have used them quite often and they are my go-to for creating pieces. The second reason is because of the variety of colors I had and could create as well as the ease of conveying the different characteristics that I wanted my figure to have. Overall this project was to create a character of figure that I would have liked to have when growing up that I feel represents me and would be something I could relate to. As you can see below, my character somewhat represents an already created Disney princess. Ariel was my favorite princess growing up so I wanted to do a twist on her character and while creating my own, incorporate her mermaid identity and costume.
I love you project! I agree that Disney Princess show an unrealistic body image both in terms of being Eurocentric and in that they only promote skinny princess. I really like your painting and your princess!
ReplyDeleteThank you Madeleine!!
DeleteI really like your painting! I definitely do see a big problem with the diversity in disney princesses. Sometimes it feels like they are all the same person except a different dress and hair color and you're right that their body types are unrealistic. So I really like that you drew a person of color as well as a princess who is not super skinny. Your painting is also just in general well done and I like the colors that you used.
ReplyDeleteThank you Katie!
DeleteWow I love this--I think your project is super well done and honestly addresses such an important topic. I also did something similar (altering iconic childhood figures to be more diverse) as it's definitely such a big issue for young girls and boys to be growing up in a society that doesn't seem to value them or their culture. I didn't realize until I was older how important it was for me to relate to a character and honestly see myself as a heroine; I grew up placing myself as the sidekick that you often see minority characters written as. I think the body image/beauty feature aspect of your project is also SO important. We've grown up in a society that stresses "skinny", and European features such as "blue eyes", "flowing blonde hair" as a beauty standard and you can honestly see how detrimental it is to other young girls' views of themselves and their confidence. Even now, Disney has not really released a Princess character with a "realistic" waist line which I think is ridiculous but it's interesting to see the movement in society such as with more diverse Barbie dolls!
ReplyDeleteThank you Danbi, yeah I totally agree which is exactly why I wanted to create something that was more representative of a larger population!
DeleteIFY!! This is amazing! I absolutely love this character. I agree with you about the lack of diversity of Disney characters. Disney never really captures the culture and characteristics of POC characters. Their appearance is very Eurocentric. I like what you have done and I love the hair being a focal point.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Arav!
DeleteThis is fantastic! It is sad when a lot of people who watch Disney princess movies as kids don't get to see themselves represented as these beautiful characters. I love your art piece and this topic is great to recognize and reimagine for the younger Disney audiences.
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