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Sofia the First is the first Latina Disney princess. Or is she? Who knows? | Source: YouTube
A Latina Disney princess is on the horizon, and she’s making headlines before anyone has seen her show.
We’re all familiar with Disney princesses, and until relatively recently–with the additions of Jasmine, Mulan, Pocahontas, and Tiana–they’ve been pretty consistently white. And people are complaining that the new Latina Disney princess, Sofia, actually isn’t Latina enough.
Sofia, of Sofia the First, has fair skin, blue eyes, and brown hair, and she’s pretty adorable, isn’t she? Disney has announced her as being Latina, but they admit that they never call it out on the show (the only other hint besides her name is that her mom in the series appears to be olive-skinned).
Critics who think Sofia doesn’t look Latina enough are saying that Disney is only calling Sofia Latina to make themselves look good. But this is tricky in itself, and here’s why: Who’s to say what a Latina looks like? There are plenty of Latina women with light eyes and skin, so it’s almost as if Disney’s critics expect them to promote a stereotype.
What’s more, the fact that Disney never explicitly calls Sofia out on her Latina heritage on the show–that we know of, considering, you know, it hasn’t aired yet–may also not be so bad. How often do you and your parents walk around being like, “Hey, you’re still Japanese/German/Nigerian/Moroccan/Polish/etc. today? How’s that going? You’re good?” You probably don’t, right? Because it’s part of you, and something constant. You likely acknowledge it in unspoken ways–the foods you eat, the way you may pronounce certain words, or sometimes in the way you dress. That may well go down on the show somehow, but we don’t know for sure.
In fairness to the critics who say Sofia is only the first Latina Disney princess in title alone, her ethnicity in the show is described as “half-Enchancian and half-Galdizian.” We can’t find those on our map of Latin America, either. Additionally, in a lot of Latin television, the fairer-haired and lighter-eyed Latina actresses often get the most screen time, so we can see how this may be frustrating for anyone who looks like a darker Latina and doesn’t feel represented adequately.
But. Here’s the big but: Until we’ve seen the show, it’s really hard to make a judgment on whether Sofia of Sofia the First is depicted as “Latina” enough. And it’s also really hard to even narrow down what that even means. At the end of the day, everything offends someone. At least get a good look at it before judging, because otherwise it presents an irony: We’re prejudging others and assuming they’re prejudiced. All we know about the show so far is in this little preview:
Do you think Sofia the First is only a Latina Disney princess in title alone? What do you think a Latina Disney princess should look like? Who’s your favorite Disney princess? What ethnicities do you think Disney princesses should represent next? Tell us in the comments!
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These are children’s movies! theyre not propaganda videos for the promotion of one race being better than others, the people theyre targeted to entertain (little girls) are too young to even see things like that, as a little girl I never wondered why Ariel and Snow White werent brown like me, I just loved the movies… Race shouldnt dictate everything we do in society
Most princesses are European. I’m happy now that we have a Latino princess, but fair skin, blue eyes describe Germans too.
Why do people have to find racism/stereotypes/etc in EVERYTHING. Like, seriously, it’s pissing me off. Not everything is done to make white people superior.
Shows are written and made into pilots which are then tossed or picked by producers. I guarantee this show will be uber-successful. Which, if anything, is what producers care about. There are so many different races and cultures at the top of Disney. Have you ever heard of Disney not hiring someone because their black? No. So, chances are, someone at the top of Disney is a different race beside white.
I live in Texas (right by the Mexican border). I live where they’re are more Mexicans than anything else, and let me tell you, a lot of them look exactly like that cartoon. And if your going to be regional about it, Latinas come in super light shades sometimes too. So if they’d made Sofia a dark-skinned girl, all the light-skinned girls would have been left out.
Also, the other problems with the princesses (i.e. married young, cleavage, story-lines) are ridiculous. Every single one of the original fairy-tales is centuries old. And centuries ago, girls got married young and were only allowed to wear dresses like that. The issues you have with the contents of their stories can be taken up with the long-time dead people who wrote them, okay? All of the “new” fairy tales have been created specifically to satiate ignorant, self-righteous people like you all. They create new stories to add races and less gender-specific stories so all of you people won’t say their prejudiced or racist. But you do anyway.
Read a Brother’s Grimm book or a really old fairy tale book with the original stories in them. There are NO 21-century ideas in them I guarantee you that. And I’ve never heard of people complaining about them until this last decade.
STOP reading into everything.
Create your own damn fairy-tales if you want there to be every color, race, and shape of the rainbow included.
But I bet you’ll never be as famous as Disney is. Remember, white people aren’t the only buyers of their merchandise.
Bigists.
I sooo agree!
I’m Mexican (I live in Mexico City) and I’m really sick of the stereotype that so many people around the world have in mind when they think about Mexico. I have friends with fair skin. I have friends with dark skin. I’ve met blonde and brunette people. I’ve met people with brown, black and ginger hair. Actually, I have black hair and fair skin. I seriously think that stereotypes and prejudices are some of the facts that are destroying our society.
I totally agree, I’m Puertorrican and pale as can be, and I was born with blond hair and light eyes.
I agree!, i´m from Argentina, and almost all of my friends, and i, have fair skin or light eyes.
Well of course Alice isn’t one of them: Neither is Mulan. Yes, they are well-known and important female Disney characters, but ‘Princess’ implies royalty: Daughter of a king/queen and and all that… saying they aren’t princesses isn’t a bad thing or an insult, but they don’t come from royal families, nor do they marry into them. (Shang isn’t a prince, but a military captain).
Honestly, Disney is sugar coating this and playing it safe basically. It’s typical from them, and media, to have some “whiter” looking suppose Latina, and calling it DIVERSE. Well duh, Latina’s come in different shades, looks etc. But however, let’s not forget that Latinas also come in darker colors. Disney knows we need a Latina (I hate disney btw, but let’s speak as in general), but realistically to them it’s more appealing to have this kind of looking Latina.
If anything, I think it would be more proper to call her SPANISH. I think I’ve read before that those who are Spanish are not called “Latina”. Really. For example, the movies Aladdin, Mulan, etc (while some of them are ‘white washed’) they showcase the culture. Why not do the same, with let’s see- a Mexican princess? Or do something Atzec, mayan, something! Disney can be creative. Look at nick’s dora the explorer. Even though the kid is annoying or corny, they successfully display what is in a LATIN CULTURE. It’s not stereotypical if you do it right.
i´m from Argentina, and almost all of my friends have fair skin and light eyes… so…
I understand what you are saying about prejudging, but they are kinda asking for it when they tout her as the first Latina princess. And yes who is to say what Latina looks like. But it seems to me that European ideals trump authenticity. Why wouldn’t they make her a fair skinned blue eyed girl, when telenovellas have no problem doing the same. Latinos come in so many different varieties, but she is no different than the images already portrayed on tv. So what would be the point in touting her as Latina. Why can’t they just make her Spanish or just stop fronting and make her European. To me this move is like saying of the first African princess, but she would be from South Africa and look like Charlize Theron. That’s why it matters.
I was never into the disney princesses when I was young and even now they don’t really interest me. But my favourite would probably have to be Mulan. I like the film itself and I like that she can prove she doesn’t need a man to rescue her. They should maybe do a European Princess next time,maybe England? And Merida is also a really good one.
Most of the princesses ARE European, or at least mimic the culture of renaissance and medieval Europe. Belle and Cinderella are French. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are not assigned a specific country, and have their own kingdoms, but they are based on Europe. Merida is Scottish, I believe (I haven’t seen the movie), which is also European.