Content area
Full Text
This article argues that children's self-image is affected by the ways in which they see themselves in texts both verbal and visual, and that fairy tales play an important role in shaping self-image and the belief-system of children. The images found in fairy tales, therefore, have particular importance for children of color in relation to the internalization of White privileging. This article presents a comparative analysis of the Disney version of six classic fairy tales spotlighted in Disney's Princess: The Essential Guide against the "classic" source text versions: Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, and Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp from the perspective of ideological/racial basis in the context of the goals of multicultural education. Findings from this analysis support the need for the development of critical literacy skills in children as well as in their teachers and highlight the importance of exposing children to transcultural literature.
SELF-IMAGE AND THE DISNEYFIED PRINCESS
The precise time that children begin to see themselves in relation to color as a racial marker and formulate ideas of the relative value of belonging to this group or that is debatable. Tatum (1997) suggests that identity formation in children of color in the United States travels a different path from that of children who belong to the dominant culture (i.e., White children). However, some researchers have indicated that children's literature, including picture books (Spitz, 1999; Yeoman, 1999), plays a role-along with other forms of print and electronic media such as television, magazine images, and movie-in providing visual images to children that give them cultural information about themselves, others, and the relative status of group membership. In other words, self-image in children is shaped in some degree by exposure to images found in written texts, illustrations, and films. Moreover, it is clear that children, if they are to develop a positive self-image, need to "see" themselves or their images in texts. Books, therefore, can serve to reinforce or counter negative notions of self-image in children of color. For example, Sims (1983) noted in follow-up research to Larrick's (1995) landmark study, The All-White World of Children's Books, that children of color were still underrepresented in books, and that where they were represented, stereotypical and pejorative images...