Stay home and share coloring books.
Via Townhall:
It’s almost Halloween, which means the hot takes about accusations of cultural appropriation are starting to trickle out. The latest of these takes concerns Moana, Disney’s newest princess-but-technically-not. Moana, the daughter of the chief of the fictional Polynesian-inspired island Motunui, sets off on an adventure with her mentally delayed rooster Heihei and the demigod Maui, and (spoiler alert) saves the people of Motunui from devastation by restoring the heart of Te Fiti. The movie was a smash hit. […]
In a now-viral post on the website raceconscious.org, a mom frets that her five-year-old brunette child wants to be either Moana or Elsa for Halloween. Elsa, from the fictional Scandinavian-inspired country of Arendelle, has white blonde hair.
“Elsa is an imaginary or made-up character. Moana is based on real history and a real group of people…if we are going to dress up a real person, we have to make sure we are doing it in a way that is respectful. Otherwise, it is like we are making fun of someone else’s culture.”
Hearing me push back against her Moana choice, my daughter re-asserted her desire to dress up as Moana (for Halloween 2018!). I closed this initial “Moana” conversation by telling her: “We would have to do some research and figure out if there is a way to dress up as Moana that is respectful of her culture.”
Since her 2017 Halloween choice was, in fact, Elsa, I returned to this costume choice and shared: “There is one thing I don’t like about the character of Elsa. 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. You are White, like Elsa—if you dressed up as a character like Moana, who has 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.”
“No,” my daughter refuted. “I want you to make be a long, blonde braid like Elsa’s.”
“We can do that,” I agreed. “When we are dressing up as a made-up character who is White, it is OK to change how your hair looks, but I just want you to know that if you wanted to, you could dress up as Elsa and not change your hair.”
HT: Kat