Disney Crowns a B.A.P. (Sort of)
Hello, remember me?
I won't bore you with any long winded explanations about where I've been. Suffice to say I'm still trying to get the whole "balance" thing down.
I'm also getting over my amusement at Disney's latest princess - a black girl! In New Orleans! Her name is Maddy, The Frog Princess and it will be the first hand-drawn Disney animated film in years. It will be released in 2009 - only a decade into the 21st century! Cool! I have no idea why her name is "Maddy" of all things but moving along...
When I was a little girl, the idea of a black Disney princess (or any black princess!) was still
out of the question. In fact, a lot of things were "out of the question" when it came to color - even in an all black setting. I went to an all-black elementary school up to the third grade and quite often, we girls would "play Charlie's Angels" during recess. There was always a hierarchy of who would play which character - usually based on skintone and/or popularity. The lighter-skinned "prettier" girls would
always get to be Jill (Farrah Fawcett-Majors then with her famous hair and poster). "Jill's" best friend (or the next most popular girl) would get to be Kris (Cheryl Ladd, Jill's baby sister) or Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) and the less popular (and often darker and definitely nerdier) girls would have to settle for Sabrina (Kate Jackson). I was always Sabrina.
Nobody wanted to be Sabrina! Political correctness be damned!
I have to admit though, we had a lot of fun - but not as much fun as we did singing songs out of Right On! magazine (the lyrics were printed inside.)
Anyway, the kids today have it made. Maddy, The Frog Princess, is getting the full Disney rollout - lunch boxes, dolls, the works. I wonder if the little girls of today, who have grown up with black Barbie dolls as a matter of course, will really care? A black doll was rare enough when I was growing up, so I would have been beside myself. After all, the "diversity" portion of my doll collection consisted of Cher and Diana Ross dolls. I wish I still had them!
Anyway, The Frog Princess casting should be interesting. It's a singing role, so Alicia Keys, Anika Noni Rose and Jennifer Hudson are the top contenders. I love all three, but I wouldn't mind seeing Anika Noni Rose get a break like that - or see Jennifer Hudson not be a one-movie wonder with Dreamgirls. I have a feeling it'll probably be Alicia Keys though.
Keep Young and Beautiful If You Want To Be Loved
* Does Beauty Make You Smarter? Of course not - but it'll help you get a raise anyway.
* How Aesthetics Inform Our Everyday Judgments. You may want to hit the gym before you go on that job interview - or run for office.
* What If Anna Nicole Smith Had Been Black? Well, the whole "Who's The Baby Daddy?" game would take on an entirely different meaning.
More Than Just A Pretty Face
* Vanessa Williams on NPR discussing her new film, My Brother and Ugly Betty. She also celebrated her 44th birthday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
* Kim McLarin gives her take on Maddy, The Frog Princess on Michel Martin's NPR show in development, Rough Cuts.
* Oprah Winfrey opens a second school in South Africa. Note to all of Oprah's critics: wake me up when you build your $40 million school!
* Hillary Clinton's Plan To Woo Black Female Voters. Try being Michelle Obama. Just kidding Senator (sort of). How about a black female Supreme Court Justice?
55 Secret Street
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