In the late 2000s, the Walt Disney Company expanded, rebranded, and recast itself around "woke," empowered entertainment. This new era revitalized its princess franchise, seeking to elevate its female characters into heroes who save the day. Recasting the Disney Princess in an Era of New Media and Social Movements analyzes the way that the Walt Disney Company has co-opted contemporary social discourse, incorporating how audiences interpret their world through new media and activism into the company's branding initiatives, programming, and films. The contributors in this collection study the company's most iconic franchise, the Disney princesses, to evaluate how the company has addressed the patriarchy its own legacy cemented. Recasting the Disney Princess outlines how the current Disney era reflects changes in a global society where audiences are empowered by new media and social justice movements.
Shearon Roberts is assistant professor of mass communication and a faculty member in African American and diaspora studies at Xavier University of Louisiana.
Part I: Rebranding the Disney Princess Chapter One: Recasting the Disney Princess in an Era of New Media and Social Movements Shearon Roberts Chapter Two: Diversity Sells: The Dollars and Cents of Woke Rebranding Shaniece B. Bickham and Shearon Roberts Chapter Three: Sofia the First: A Princess Life Fit for a Preschool Audience Sarah Maben Chapter Four: From Princess to Heroine: Expanding Representations of Girls and Women Jana Thomas and Holly Speck Chapter Five: Pop, Hip-Hop, and the Hamiltonization of the Disney Soundtrack Daron Roberts and Turon Nicholas Part II: Diversifying the Disney Princess Chapter Six: Elena of Avalor and Mama Coco: Latina Sheroes and Knowledge Keepers Alberto Rodriguez and Veronica N. Durant Chapter Seven: #NolaBorn: Tiana and the Road Home for New Orleans Residents Sheryl Kennedy Haydel Chapter Eight: Moana: The Daughter of the Chief and Polynesian (in)Visibility Jenny Banh Chapter Nine: #MakeMulanRight: Retracing the Genealogy of Mulan from Ancient Chinese Tale to Disney Classic. Jenny Banh Chapter Ten: Pocahontas: Digital Coloniality, Coercive Fiction, and "Renewing" Western Hegemonic Power. Leece Lee-Oliver Chapter Eleven: A Whole New World: Gender Norms, Islamophobia and Orientalism Krystal Ghisyawan Part III: Deconstructing Princess Narratives Chapter Twelve: Belle: Beyond the Classic Story for the Modern Audience Rebecca Weidman-Winter Chapter Thirteen: "Let it Go" as Radical Mantra: Subverting the Princess Narrative in Frozen Susanne R. Hackett Chapter Fourteen: Shuri of Wakanda, The People's Princess Charity Clay Chapter Fifteen: Maleficent: Rape, Wrath, and the Feminine Divine Sarah A. Clunis Part IV: Embedding Social Discourse around the Disney Heroine Chapter Sixteen: Disney's Social Consciousness: Explaining #BlackLivesMatter through Zootopia Ahli Chatters and Shearon Roberts Chapter Seventeen: "It's Good to Be Bad": Marginalization and Othering in the Descendants Films Shearon Roberts Chapter Eighteen: No Capes Needed: The Plight of Super Moms Alexis Woods Barr Chapter Nineteen: The Women of Wakanda: Black Beauty and Casting Abeo Jackson Chapter Twenty: Culture Wars and the Politics of Finding Dory Prairie Parnell Epilogue: Notes from Behind the Camera from a Father of Two Daughters Varion Laurent
Recasting the Disney Princess in an Era of New Media and Social Movements brings together a wide range of scholars to provide up to date analyses on the many faces of contemporary Disney productions. Written in a highly accessible style and taking up central issues of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, generation, and nation, the chapters in this book explore most of the recent Disney hits in relation to issues of difference and diversity. As such this book makes an excellent addition to the growing field of Disney studies. -- Angharad N. Valdivia, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Shearon Roberts brings together a range of critical contributions to scholarly discussions about the contemporary Disney princess brand and connected consumer culture. This book offers incisive analyses of Disney's changing media landscape and related issues concerning race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, coloniality, structural inequalities, and the marketing of "difference." It explores socio-political dimensions of Disney pop-culture and offers readers the chance to learn about the evolving image of the Disney princess. -- Francesca Sobande, Cardiff University Recasting the Disney Princess in an Era of New Media and Social Movements offers an insightful and unique analysis of the Disney princess as a pop culture phenomenon. This volume interrogates the values that drive Disney movie narratives, scripts, and assumptions. Each contribution gives the reader a new perspective, forcing one to reflect on the role and influence of entertainment in shaping social norms. This book opens new vistas to our theoretical, philosophical, and practical understanding of entertainment culture. It is a timely and critical resource for the pop culture industry, scholars, professionals, and consumers. -- Bala A. Musa, Azusa Pacific University Media entertainment reflects the culture of its time. In this volume, Roberts introduces readers to "Disney 4.0"-a brand of Disney in which protagonists are as diverse as the children and adults who watch these stories. From the author's own recollections of her daughter's desire to be the next Vanellope Von Schweetz (the daredevil racer and one of the heroes of the Wreck it Ralph films) to a collection of essays from children recounting their excitement with seeing princesses on-screen that looked "just like me," Roberts and her contributors make a compelling argument for why diversity matters for Disney and for us all. Through a mix of anecdote and theory, this volume assembles a diverse set of voices who individually and jointly make a strong case for why we should critically consume the heroes of our generation and past generations. The book is easily accessible and should inspire us to revisit our familiar Disney properties with a fresh perspective. -- Nicholas Bowman, Texas Tech University
