Reflection

I have to say that this project was very interesting but I hope it hasn't ruined my Disney watching fun. I have never really thought about Disney princesses and their races before this project. I guess I can see how people would find Disney insulting but really people, this stuff was made for the enjoyment of small children. It takes the fun out of the movie to analyze it and only pay attention to the race/religion stuff and get all worked up about it. This project will probably make me pay attention to all the races and religion whenever I watch a Disney movie, but I'll probably just try to ignore it and enjoy it. I'd rather worry about the stuff that matters, not stuff like whether a princess is American or Turkish. This was a very interesting topic, and I sure am glad I chose it.

Conclusion

We have concluded that everyone loves Disney and it doesn't really matter what the races of the princesses are. Most little kids never even notice that kind of stuff. To them it's just a pretty princess and a handsome prince who get married and all is happy. It's only the people over say, 11 years old who understand this stuff. I think we should accept what Disney does and just enjoy the movies the way they were intended to be.
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Secondary Research Results

So we have finished watching our movies. During each movie, we counted the different races in each movie, the number of things said that could be offensive, and any mention of religion. In Aladdin, there was a lot of evidence of the religion of Islam. There were only Arabians and we only heard one thing that could possibly be taken as offensive.
In the Princess and the Frog, there were four different races/ nationalities, African-American, white, Mediterranean, and European. There were 3 different things that someone might take offense to and there were 2 bits of evidence of religion because of the marriage.
In the Little Mermaid, there was only one race, white, and you were either a fish or not. There was no religion mentioned and no offensive comments.
I think this was a success and I had an enjoyable time watching Disney movies and eating popcorn.

Survey Results

For this question, most people liked Mulan and Tiana. Next came Ariel then Pocahontas. No one liked Cinderella. I think that people liked these particular princesses because they are different. People liked the Chinese, the black, the Native American and the mermaid, not the white one. I think that this might be because everyone is tired of the old white princesses and they like the newer, different princesses. People like new things. It only makes sense.
For this one, it looks like mainly it doesn't matter what race a princess is but for 1/4 of these people it only matters some. I think for little kids it doesn't really matter because to them, they're just princesses but to us and adults it matters a bit more because we're more experienced and we understand more. According to this, it either doesn't really matter at all or it matters a little bit but I think if we had asked little kids, not teenagers, almost the whole graph might have been green.
So this graph was pretty evenly spaced. I think we all would like to see princesses from everywhere in the world. It definitely would be more interesting and give us more variety.
Hmmm, I guess people don't like the singing and they don't really care about the race. Determination seems to be a pretty big piece of the pie. As is beauty. Everyone loves beautiful girls taking charge and following their dreams!
For most people this doesn't really matter to them but for the rest of the people it doesn't matter at all or it does matter a bit. This is kind of a diverse graph. I don't really know what to make of it.
So it looks like most people want to see more diverse princesses! And then there are those other people who don't really care but the majority want to see more princesses. Come on Disney, time to make more movies.

Secondary Research

For the first part of my secondary research, I am going to watch Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog, and The Little Mermaid with my partner. We chose these movies because, a. we wanted variety in the princesses, b. we haven't seen The Little Mermaid in a long time and, c. The Princess and the Frog just came out. For the second part of my secondary research, we found an article on GALILEO. Though this article is old-ish, it has information about all the Disney princess movies up to date. The most recent, of course, is The Princess and the Frog, which is the movie with the first black Disney princess. All of the princesses from 1938 to 1991 were white then, in 1992, Aladdin was released making princess Jasmine the first Disney princess who was not white. Then, in 1995, the Native American princess, Pocahontas came out and then Mulan, the Chinese princess in 1998. After a long 71 years since the first Disney princess, Snow White, there is finally a black princess who was released just last year! 2009! Disney knew that there was no black princess but what really got the making of the princess moving was one mom from North Carolina. She had visited Disney World and was disturbed by the lack of a black princess and started an online petition. And thus began the life of Tiana (but she was known for a while as Maddy before they changed her name).

This article was written by Susan E. McGregor and published by New York Amsterdam News

Primary Resource

My primary resource is a survey. I will ask various people the following questions:
1. Who is your favorite Disney Princess?
a. Ariel
b. Cinderella
c. Tiana
d. Mulan
e. Pocahontas
f. other
2. Does it matter, to you, what nationality/color a princess is?
a. yes! absolutely!
b. sort of...
c. I don't really care
d. no, not really
e. no not at all
3. Do you think Disney should make more princesses of different nationalities?
a. yes! absolutely!
b. sort of...
c. I don't really care
d. no, not really
e. no not at all
4. What other places of the world would you like to see a princess from?
a. India
b. Russia
c. Africa
d. Brazil
e. other
5. What qualities do you like best in a Disney princess?
a. determination
b. beauty
c. race
d. clothes
e. voices
f. other
6. Is it insulting to you, when Disney characters sing things like "...It's barbaric but hey! It's home!..."? (Aladdin)
a. yes! absolutely!
b. sort of...
c. I don't really care
d. no, not really
e. no not at all

Research Questions

My research questions are:
Why is there only one native american, arabian, asian, and black princess?
Why has it taken Disney so long to create a black princess?
Why are there no Russian or Australian or Tibetan princesses?