Disney Quiz

This morning Facebook prompted me to complete and online quiz to discover what kind of Disney princess I am, the results were interesting....

You are Tiana from "The Princess and the Frog" (2009)!

"You are very sassy and smart. You are a big dreamer and you are very caring and hardworking. You would do anything to help a friend and yourself, and you think twice for doing an action. You don't care what others think about you nor certain things. But, sometimes you can have an attitude and you refuse to do the right thing and have fun. But, you are great to be around with."


This result left me with several questions. Why is the only princess with "attitude" the black princess? Is this some kind of comment on the personality of black people? Also when the picture popped up I immediately realized that her prince is white. Is it too progressive for a black princess to have a black prince? Are black males still so under stereotype that Disney does not believe society at large can see a black male as a charming and perfect prince?

Alternative Stories

Today in class several people brought up "alternative stories" or "spoof stories" of certain fairy tales. These included talking about the Brandi version of Cinderella as well as several funny versions of certain tales. This made me remember and think back on a book my mom had when I was a kid called The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieska. I distinctly remember loving this book and laughing at the silly takes on the fairy tales I knew by heart at this point. I marveled the amazing illustrations by Lane Smith which made the silly characters come to life almost as if they were jumping off the page and into my lap. Our discussion today reminded me of this book and the alternative stories in it, maybe these stories have some insight into the culture behind fairy tales and the deeper meaning of the stories?

First Impressions

I was so excited upon reading several weeks ago that a seemingly boring class (ENG-102) was going to be taught from a new and exciting perspective. I have always loved fairy tales and have been an avid reader of them since receiving my first book of them around age seven. I distinctly remember the book, shiny blue cover, picture of a beautiful castle on the front, and the edges of all the pages were a bright metallic gold. It was the kind of book that looked as though it held magic inside, and in fact it did. For years I was captivated and transported to worlds I could only find in books where prince charming actually existed and animals could talk, witches were sometimes bad and sometimes good, and the hero always triumphed. These were the innocent tales of my youth, and innocence I now wish could be as easily obtained as it was lost. I am looking forward to looking at these stories again from and older more knowledgeable perspective and to find what wisdom and magic they hold for me now.