Being the Halloween month, it is time to see hordes of superheroes, Ninja Turtles, dinosaurs, fire-fighters and Disney Princesses around the neighborhood. Well, maybe not a lot of princesses as one would expect.
Some are saying that being Elsa, the character in Disney’s Frozen, may not be an appropriate thing for girls.
SachiFeris, who runs Raising Race Conscious Children, had a conversation with a blog post about her daughter wanting to dress up as Moana. While pointing out that there may be problems, she also had a issue with her daughter’s desire to dress up as Elsa.
According to Feris, the problem was about the cultural appropriation and “standards of beauty.” She said that the character sent across a negative message to young girls, making them believe that they needed white skin and blonde hair to look beautiful.
“There is one thing I don’t like about the character of Elsa,” Feris told her daughter. “I feel like because Elsa is a White princess, and we see so many White princesses, her character sends the message that you have to be a certain way to be ‘beautiful’ or to be a ‘princess.’ That you have to have White skin, long, blonde hair and blue eyes. And I don’t like that message.
Feris then continued to say exactly why she had the problem with Elsa.
“You are White, like Elsa,” she told her child. “If you dressed up as a character like Moana, who had brown skin, you would never change your skin color. But I’m not sure I like the idea of you changing your hair color to dress up as Elsa – because I think Elsa’s character could also be a short, brown-haired character like you.”
And so, Feris’ daughter has decided to dress up like Mickey Mouse instead of Elsa or Moana.
