디즈니 프린세스 Article: Counterpoint: Tiana

posted by JNTA1234

Of course, we all have our faves and we feel a certain way when our 가장 좋아하는 princesses are getting criticized. For me, I do feel like Tiana gets quite a bit of flack, some deserved but some is quite overboard. For example, people call Tiana mean and even ruthless for simply doing what 레이 tells her 의해 leaving him to fight off the shadows 의해 himself but if she went against his orders, 당신 know that would be yet another opportunity for people to call her condescending. So I'm just gonna counter some complaints against Tiana.

Human Tiana is 더 많이 likable than frog Tiana.
Not really gonna disagree with that one lol.

Tiana is rude and condescending.
She's only ever rude to Naveen and 레이 that one time. She has every right to be mad at Naveen, it's understandable to be aggressive towards someone who puts 당신 in a dangerous situation. Also, Naveen is just as arrogant and judgmental towards Tiana as she is to him, just because 당신 agree with Naveen's philosophy more, it doesn't make him anymore right 또는 less rude. As for that ONE time with 레이 that people 사랑 to bring up, she was speaking out of hurt, 레이 himself acknowledges that.

Otherwise, she's pretty well mannered and respectful, she's far less prone to emotional outbursts compared to other princesses, and she takes criticism (her mom, her friends) and even flat-out disrespect (the chef at Duke's, Mr. and Mr. Finner) in stride. A lot of other princesses would either react like an aggressive brat (Jasmine) 또는 an emotional wreck (Mulan) if they encountered the amount of dissent Tiana has to endure. She even calls Mama Odie "ma'am". Tiana may not agree with Lottie's ideals but Tiana never talks down to Lottie and she even gives her 조언 on how to achieve her dreams of romance. Granted most of these are when she's human, so this kinda adds to the first point.

Her character is "anti-wishing" and "anti-fairytale"
I do think aspects of Tiana's character panders to the anti-Disney crowd. I mean, it's no surprise that the first black princess just has to be a "hard-working independent aspiring businesswoman blah blah blah", but here's the thing, the reason why PATF doesn't piss 디즈니 팬 off as much as other revival films, is that it ultimately embraces the trope it's criticizing. 메리다와 마법의 숲 and 겨울왕국 do this to an extent as well but PATF is just....better at it.

This common argument would make a lot 더 많이 sense if Tiana was a lazy slacker and everyone was nagging her to start working hard but she's portrayed as in the wrong for working too hard, her lesson is to learn to do so less and in the end while hard work helped her get part of the way, love, luck, and faith are what helped her reach the finish line. This is in contrast to Naveen who's portrayed as in the wrong for having too much fun and he learns his lesson accordingly. Are they the most well-written character arcs? Not really. Did the writers actually try to have a fair objective view on the subject from both sides? Yes.

Tiana being a frog for most of the movie is problematic and even "racist".
This is really stupid. This was just 디즈니 trying to put their own on the original fairytale. Like "let's turn the princess into a frog too in our version! So original!" Is it stupid? Depends on who 당신 ask. Is it racist? Hell no.

So there 당신 go, I plan on doing this for other princesses in the future. Thanks for reading.

MalloMar and Disneyotaku5 like this

BB2010 Finally someone says this! I remember watching the movie for the first time in years a month or two ago and being really confused about how people could say Tiana was aggressive and rude. And I never got how people can say Tiana being a frog for most of her movie is racist. It’s like saying it’s sexist that Ariel didn’t have a voice for half of the movie and we have 3 POC characters who were a bear, a llama, and pretended to be a man. I always thought that Tiana being “anti wish” was just her misunderstanding what her dad said and having to work 2 jobs her whole life, I never took it too seriously since I’m anti wish myself (personal reasons, rather not say).

wavesurf Interesting article, JNTA. These are the points so often raised. I still find Tiana rude and condescending, so I do dissent with the part that she is "well-mannered." A well-mannered person exercises self-control, and they don't chew someone else out when they are upset about their own life problems. My mother acted just like Tiana did towards Ray, more than several times in my life, and I often was the recipient of her misplaced anger. Tiana has misplaced anger management problems. I just think Tiana was written for people who didn't like or appreciate the trope where wishing is magical, and where the prince and princess actually fall in love with one another. Instead, in TPATF, the audience first gets treated to the picture of a workaholic, and then watches a bickering couple blunder their way into love. I never had a real problem with Tiana being a frog for most of her movie. I just had a problem with Tiana's sour attitude about everything except for her restaurant and her dad.

MaidofOrleans Totally agree with this article. I've never understood the "rude" and "condescending" argument either. Great job and thanks for writing!