The Princess Strikes Back: Forces of Destiny and the Capitalization of the Disney Princess
In Disney movies such as Frozen, more rounded female characters challenge the myth of the passive Disney Princess, who becomes an action heroine through a feminist revamping. A similar trend is found in Disney’s new Star Wars movies. However, Disney’s new
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The Princess Strikes Back: Forces of Destiny and the Capitalization of the Disney Princess Federica Giannelli
The new Star Wars movies, which relaunched the franchise after Disney’s acquisition of the brand in 2012, seem to align with the company’s alleged commitment to depicting empowered female characters. In Disney movies such as Frozen (2013), Brave (2012), Tangled (2010), and The Princess and the Frog (2009), more rounded female characters challenge the myth of the passive Disney Princess through a feminist revamping that sees the modern Princess taking on the mantle of an action heroine. Rey, the Star Wars protagonist of The Force Awakens (2015) and its sequels, and Jyn Erso, the lead of Rogue One (2016), emerge as strong characters who fully embrace their leadership and fighting skills. However, as Kailash Koushik and Abigail Reed point out, Disney’s more inclusive character development is not a genuine effort toward diversity, but seems to “serve the primary purpose of selling goods to audiences” through a marketing strategy exploiting female audiences’ desire to recognize themselves in movie characters and products.1 1
Koushik and Reed, “Disney’s Commodification of Feminism,” 5.
F. Giannelli (*) University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2020 D. J. Nardi, D. R. Sweet (eds.), The Transmedia Franchise of Star Wars TV, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52958-1_6
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F. GIANNELLI
The new children-targeted Disney series Star Wars: Forces of Destiny (2017–2018) seems to follow this trend. Developed by Lucasfilm Animation and released first on Disney YouTube and then on the Disney Channel, the series mainly features Star Wars female characters and follows the incredibly profitable Disney Princess Line media franchise established in 2001 by producing themed dolls designed for younger consumers. The toys are marketed using the democratic messaging that children can be their own hero no matter what part of the galaxy they are from, or regardless of their social position—the dolls feature equally senators, smugglers, queens, and warriors, unlike the traditional Disney Princess Line which only includes the classic “Princess” brand. Forces of Destiny downplays the classic Disney Princess, but at the same time it never truly accomplishes that because it primarily features characters with royal heritage. When it portrays common women such as the “non-Princess” Rey, they are still engulfed within the Princess simulacrum by iterating the same traditional traits associated with royals like Leia and Padmé Amidala, even though they show superficial independence. Hence, the series develops a new Princess simulacrum that keeps repeating itself from the past. In this chapter, I analyze how Disney’s new “Princessification” trend problematically relates to Forces of Destiny. I explain how the new Star Wars Disney Princess oscillates between gender representations that reinforce and challenge women’s oppressed position within commercial franchises that support g
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