Disney’s Frozen, loosely based on “The Snow Queen,”came out at the end of November to rave reviews. But I’m conflicted. I’m not sure if I can get behind any Disney princess, no matter how many times reviewers use the words “strong” or “sisterhood” to describe the film.
I was a cult follower of Disney princesses before the Disney Princess franchise even existed. And I’m still in recovery.
My family had a Beta machine. When VHS took over the market, my thrifty Asian dad did not follow the whims of consumerism. So I grew up on a diet of two Beta tapes:An American Tail and Cinderella. But An American Tail was boring, so I watched Cinderella over and over again.
In 2006, Peggy Orenstein made a splash in a New York Times essay called “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” This led to the release of her book in 2011: Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture,and popularized a new notion — Disney Princess is evil. But consumers weren’t listening. Last year, Disney Princess still beat out Star Wars and Sesame Street as North America’s top-grossing licensed entertainment character franchise.
Some of my childhood melancholy was channeled by an unhealthy Cinderella obsession. When I became an adult, my brain needed to be re-coded and neurons re-programmed from the following myths: […Originally published on Converge Magazine online. Read the rest here…]