Alexandra Smith

Professor Jensen

How Disney’s Princess and the Frog Represents Black Women

Disney is notoriously known for being controversial in some of their older movies. From

racial stereotypes to sexism, some of their films have left a negative impact on their audience.

When we look at the movie Princess and the Frog, we might also wonder how much they

accurately represented black culture. Princess and the Frog is the first Disney movie to feature a

female lead black character, so throughout this essay I am going to be analyzing the movie and

how they have chosen to portray black culture. Specifically, I am going to be focusing on the

representation of black women in the film.

I chose this film because I remember being so entranced by the movie as a young girl.

For once there was a disney princess that didn’t need a man by her side to be successful or have

her own things. Almost all Disney princesses had to be saved or taken care of by a male figure;

however, Princess and the Frog was the first movie to truly break these gender norms for

women. Tiana was constantly working two jobs and never wanted to be seen as lazy. To me this

showed that women are allowed to take care of themselves, and work hard to make their dreams

come true. This is especially important in movies that Disney produces, because their main

audience is children. If a child sees a movie that shows a black woman as lazy and never wanting

to work, subconsciously that narration will stick.

These narratives in films are aiding factors for discrimation and racist mindsets. It is

extremely hard to find proper representation of black women in film, especially in older films or

even cartoons. In old Hollywood films specifically, they used to do a lot of blackface - which is

extremely frowned upon. They would exaggerate a black person's characteristics mostly to make
fun of them. For example, they would portray black people with degrading facial expressions,

huge lips and wearing white gloves. Not only was this portrayal embarrassing for the black

community, but it also encouraged racism.

Having this in mind, I loved how Disney chose to portray Tiana's character. They didn’t

try to go overboard with how she dressed or even acted. She was just like every other girl, and it

showed that black women are just like everyone else. At the beginning of the film, we see that

Tiana loves cooking, as it was something her father inspired her to do at a young age. As we see

her growing up, she is working two jobs to be able to afford a run down building that will

hopefully become her own place. There are two white business men that she frequently meets

with to buy the property, and we quickly see that they don’t care much about her or how hard she

has worked to buy it.

While at first she felt defeated, by the end of the movie we see that Tiana was able to

overcome what people thought of her. An article written by The Black Atlantic also sheds light

on this portrayal, and they describe that, “Tiana, despite being dismissed as “a woman of your

[black, poor] background,” refuses to let powerful white men intimidate her out of her dream.

She refuses to give up her business venture for love and manages to develop a relationship

wherein both parties may follow their separate desires together”. In other words, Tiana was able

to get past the discrimiatin she faced from rich white business owners and was able to make a

name for herself. It shows us that not only is a black woman capable of running her own

business, but she has the ability to do whatever she wants with her life.

The reason this movie was so influential for it’s time is because there really is not much

diversity in the film industry. The movie showed Tiana as our main character, and she is a young

black woman trying to make a living in New Orleans. While Princess and the Frog is a relatively
newer film that aired in 2009, there is still not much black representation even then. Looks are

definitely deceiving, and the site of Statista (a well known research department) shows us exactly

that. They tell us that in 2019, Hollywood films had only 27.6% of movies with minorities as the

main role or character meanwhile 72.4% were white. This is absolutely shocking to see how

much minorities are being represented as lead characters compared to white people even in

modern times.

Representation is such a crucial part of the film industry because it shows the way we

view people as a society. If there are hardly any black lead characters in the movies we watch,

especially black women, there is a problem. Another statistic coming from UCLA newsroom

says “In 2018, just 7.1% of the directors of top-grossing films were women and 19.3% were

people of color.” While black people already have little representation in the film industry, the

numbers for women are even lower. By not including as many women, we miss out on different

perspectives, ideas, and most importantly - equality. I appreciate Princess and the Frog even

more now seeing just how little black women are really represented in the cinema.

The movie not only focused on black women but also the importance of black culture.

The setting takes place in New Orleans, showing the beautiful culture of Jazz and the amazing

parties and festivals that take place. It is a nice way not to only represent minorities but the

community living there as well. The filmmakers did this by showing the different foods and

places that black people embrace in New Orleans. We see that family and heritage is very

important to Tiana, and she does everything to make sure she carries on her fathers legacy. We

even see the traditional foods that originated from New Orleans, such as gumbo and using spices

to make things taste better.

 This was interesting for me to see, because growing up I have never really visited the

South or seen their traditions. For people living in other areas, it’s important to know how culture

differs. We even see the art of voodoo, and how it can be dangerous if it gets into the wrong

hands. It is important that Disney represents the variety in black culture because it gives people a

glimpse of the misrepresentations that black people face everyday. Not only this, but we become

more educated as individuals that traditions are vastly different from stereotypes.

Princess and the Frog also was a big film that truly addresses gender norms. Tiana truly

believed that men should be able to cook and clean like a woman is taught, and that women

should be able to run a business like men are taught to do. When she finds out that Naveen has

never learned how to cook or even take care of himself, she says he must be a “poor rich boy”.

She doesn’t resort to giving him everything he needs while they are lost, and instead tries to

teach him. This part of the movie stuck out to me because a lot of the time women are expected

to make dinner and entertain men. It shows that instead of giving genders certain jobs, we should

all be able to do things equally. This movie showed a lot of positive feminism, and encourages

young girls to take the initiative in their life and not do things just because a man might expect it

from them.

During the movie they always advocated the importance of family, and how Tiana's dad

being her hero was an extremely important detail. The usual stereotype is that black parents,

especially the father, don’t really contribute to their child's life and lead them down a bad path, or

even poverty. Coming from the U.S Census, “In 2019, the share of Blacks in poverty was 1.8

times greater than their share among the general population. Blacks represented 13.2% of the

total population in the United States, but 23.8% of the poverty population.” This shows how

despite being a small percentage of the community, black people make up almost a quarter of the
poverty rates. Seeing how Princess and the Frog tries to break this stereotype really stuck out to

me. Of course not all black families are like this, and it is something that needs to be addressed

more. This adds to the list of important details I feel should be appreciated in the movie, and

aren't recognized as much.

Overall, this movie is an important representation of black women as leading characters,

and how impactful they are. This movie showed us that we don’t need men to be a woman's

solution, and that gender equality is important. It breaks a lot of stereotypes that have built over

the years regarding black people, and shows us how they are not true. These stereotypes only

hurt black people, who already have already systematically suffered for hundreds of years. This

movie was amazing on Disney's end, and it will continue to be one of my favorite movies. This

movie helps us make a step forward to being a more whole and accepting society.
 Sources Cited:

Bureau, U. (2021, April 14). Poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics reached historic lows in

2019. Retrieved May 03, 2021, from

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics-reached-h

istoric-lows-in-2019.html

Stoll, J. (2021, April 22). Ethnicity of lead actors in movies in the u.s. 2019. Retrieved May 03,

2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/696850/lead-actors-films-ethnicity/

Wolf, J. (2020, October 22). 2020 Hollywood Diversity report: A different story behind the

scenes. Retrieved May 03, 2021, from

https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/2020-hollywood-diversity-report

Says:, D., Says:, D., Says:, D., & Says:, R. (2020, June 27). The princess and the frog: Rewriting

jazz age history and culture. Retrieved May 04, 2021, from

https://sites.duke.edu/blackatlantic/sample-page/contemporary-film-and-black-atlantic/history/di

sneyfied-histories-disneys-intentional-inaccuracy-historical-films-and-the-black-atlantic/the-prin

cess-and-the-frog-and-rewriting-jazz-age-history-and-culture/