What is your relationship to Barbie or any kind of children’s culture (like Disney?) How does Christiansen validate or challenge your views?

                                            (Source: Charactour.com)

In 2009, I remember the grand promotional efforts of Disney on behalf of their new film Princess and the Frog. After decades of Princesses being established and ingrained in the patchwork of our media, Disney was finally getting a Black Princess to add to their lineup. I remember feeling excited about this prospect. “What did this mean?” I knew this was an important moment in history, but it took me until college to look at this moment and the film under a more critical microscope. As someone who grew up watching Disney Channel programming, I often found myself not relating to the concept of the shows, but being able to escape my own reality. With Princess and the Frog, I wanted to relate to her, but how could I when for the majority of the film she was a frog. After years of pushing for a Black Disney princess, we finally got one, but at what cost? After noticing this aspect of the film, I couldn’t help, but feel weary about the messaging being presented to young Black girls, specifically me during that time period. By taking away her humanity, it perpetuated a harmful stereotype about Black people that many of us so longed to escape. The subtle racism in this film, by changing her to a frog, made it unwatchable for me. After this realization, I then discovered how so much of the children programming I watched as a kid reinforced negative ideas about Black girls, that I subconsciously carry with me today. The Christensen text validated a lot of feelings I have had over the years about my experience with children’s media as a kid and, then, as an adult. Her stance on the importance of being critical of the media you consume because of its hidden messages, resonated with me because of my current ability to critically interact with media in a way that I was not able to do as a child.