In addition, there's some diversity in Tinker Bell's world: While the most popular Disney Princesses are white (okay, okay, Jasmine's either Saudi Arabian or Iraqi; Mulan's Chinese), Tinker Bell totally has a black friend! Her name is Iridessa and she's organized and stubborn. Blogger Michelle Schwartz writes for Shameless, "A lot of little girls don’t want to sit around and wait for Prince Charming to marry them; they want to lead the adventure themselves, and fairies are nothing if not adventurous." And young girls seem to be ready for a more active, less passive Disney characters.

American Public Media Marketplace interviewed 9-year-old Bennet Flemmingwood, who used to like Princesses and now is getting into fairies. She says of Princesses: "They weren't doing things for themselves, other people were doing it for them. Like Snow White, she wasn't as smart. You don't take food from strangers." As for fairies? "They're in nature and you don't have to be, like, watching a movie or like wear a fancy dress, they can be more personality and smart."

Of course, Tinker Bell and her friends are still part of a corporate machine; their stories have little to do with the pre-Christian pixie myths from the UK areas of Devon and Cornwall. Michelle Schwartz of Shameless hopes that girls will also discover non-Disney "magical" female characters in books like Holly Black’s Ironside series and Susanna Clarke’s The Ladies of Grace Adieu. But in terms of role models, is Tinker Bell any better than the Disney Princesses? And how come there's no hugely popular female version of Harry Potter — a boy who is "magic" while having glasses and shaggy hair, like a real kid? Isn't Tinker Bell basically a blonde pin-up they've turned into a Bratz character?

Fairies And Princesses And Pixies, Oh My! [Shameless]
Tinker Bell Breaks Out On Her Own [American Public Media Marketplace]

Now there's nothing wrong with Disney sponsoring a race per se. But there is something creepy about rebranding athletic success as "a fairytale" that requires looking in the mirror. And about the phrase "Every woman is a princess, which princess are you?" — as though women have only a set number of identities to choose from. Most annoying of all, Disney appears to be trying to expand the definition of "princess" to include any girl or woman doing something awesome, which is not really a concept Disney should own. Stick with Snow White, Disney execs — stay away from the Marathon.

Princess Half Marathon [Official Site]
Runner's World [Official Site]

Disney's original storyboard is believed to have been torn up after criticism that the lead character was a clichéd subservient role with echoes of slavery, and whose name sounded too much like "Mammy" – a unwelcome reminder of America's Deep South before the civil rights movement swept away segregation.

It's not bad enough that Disney's princesses are often unemployed runaways desperate for a man: The first black heroine works for a white woman?

Well, the new revised film is called The Princess And The Frog and the character is named Tiana. She's 19 and she lives in New Orleans during the Jazz Age. A spokesperson from Disney swears: "All other characters and aspects of the story will be treated with the greatest respect and sensitivity." (But, notes Akbar, will it be as sensitive from this song lyric from 1993's Aladdin? "I come from a land, from a faraway place, where the caravan camels roam, where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face; it's barbaric, but hey, it's home.")

Disney is a billion-dollar business which makes a huge impact, globally, and especially with little girls. Therefore they have a huge responsibility: To make a black princess impressionable kids can look up to. Obviously the best characters are ones who start with nothing and overcome adversity — hence all the orphans (Bambi, Aladdin, Cinderella) and motherless children (The Little Mermaid, Nemo, Aurora from Sleeping Beauty). But how is it that Nickelodeon can figure out how to create an engaging minority-oriented TV show (Dora The Explorer) and Disney — a company founded in 1923, with a history of questionable characters (the crows in Dumbo; Uncle Remus in Song Of the South) — can't draft a politically-correct film about black people? (While we're at it, watch this video called "Racism In Disney.") Anyway, Tiana's story is sure to get what Disney does best: A happy ending.

Disney's 'Subservient' Black Princess Animates Film Critics [Independent]
Related: Disney First: Black Princess In Animated Film [MSNBC]
Racism In Disney [YouTube]
Earlier: What's The Allure Of Everything Disney?
Who's To Blame When Your Fairy Tale Doesn't Come True?

When Rosa Brooks asks her 3- and 6-year-old daughters what they want to be when they grows up, they both answer, "a pwincess." Brooks writes, in an Op-Ed in today's Los Angeles Times:

Don't be fooled by the sparkly magic wands, the pint-sized tiaras and those cute little "animal friends." The Disney princesses aren't sweet and innocent. They're a gang of vicious hoodlums, and they're plotting against you [...] Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and the rest... Rarely slay dragons, play sports, pilot jets or do open-heart surgery. Instead, they fiddle with their coiffures, linger over invitations to the ball, flee ineffectually from evil crones and swoon. You don't have to be Gloria Steinem to realize that these are not, for the most part, useful professional skills in today's world.

The Mecca of the Mouse [Slate]
Resist The Princesses [LA Times]
The Crowning Touch [Portƒolio]

Earlier: Disney Flower Girl Dresses: For Little Girls Who Still Believe In Fairy Princesses
Disney Bridesmaid Dresses: For The Fairy Princess In None Of Your Friends
Disney Bridal: For The Fairy Princess In None Of Us
Playing Princess Is Just A Phase... Except When It Isn't
Marriage Is Not A Fairy Tale
Who's To Blame When Your Fairy Tale Doesn't Come True?

Verdict: Mermaid tails. How, um, literal.

Verdict: Has Kirstie Kelly woman ever seen Beauty and the Beast? No bookish geek girl worth her library would be seen within spitting distance of this much tulle underlay.

Verdict: Oh come on: Would it have killed her to do at least one of those in that Cinderella blue? Think outside the box, ladies. And by that we mean, translate your cartoon idols as literally as possible.

Verdict: Because in Arabia, they accentuate their hips?

Verdict: Notice how all these styles have sleeves of some sorts. After all that time sleeping, we guess Beauty wasn't afraid to play it coy at the altar.

Verdict: Is it weird that the oldest cartoon yielded one of the more modern looking dresses? I mean, at least that middle one isn't a princess dress.

• Tory Burch is designing a line inspired by old pictures of Martha Stewart, back from when Martha Stewart looked sort of like a pretty version of Tory Burch. [As I'm sure you can imagine, Jennie, who loves both WASPs and fashion-pop culture collabos like the proverbial fat kid loves cake, is in a corner somewhere heaving in ecstasy. Hey Jennie, Ralph Lauren called, and he's got a message for you! "I Am Your Father." -Moe] [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Ever wondered how Miuccia Prada transported herself from office to car in those heels? A giant slide. Sort of what you'd expect, but whoa. [Sassybella]
  
• Vivienne Westwood, Luella Bartley and others are designing dresses inspired by the Disney princesses as part of the celebration of Euro Disney's 15th anniversary. The dresses will be auctioned off with proceeds going to UNICEF, which is the part you should focus on, as opposed to whatever the fuck the guy who drops a few hundred grand on a Westwood-designed Ariel gown will actually be doing with it. [FemaleFirst]

• J. Mendel designer Gilles Mendel has a band called Born Again Baldwins. Um, quirky? [WWD, 2nd item]
• We love Julianne Moore. Which is why we're not exactly thrilled to bring you the news that Vogue sponsored the reading she held for her children's book Freckleface Ball yesterday, at the Hogan store. [WWD, 3rd item]
• M.A.C. raised $100 million in funds for the M.A.C. AIDS Foundation! Wait, you mean to tell us fashion does actually give back? [Fashion Week Daily]
• What has Elizabeth Hurley been up to? "I'm still working on my bikini line, but I've also started to work on my organic farming." Of course she has. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Don't you just hate when the claim that your overpriced line of yoga wear is made from seaweed turns out not to be true? [NYT]
• Tiffany's is after eBay, saying it is not doing anything to crack down on sellers of counterfeit Tiffany's baubles. [WSJ]
• Burberry profits are up 31%. They credit "accessories" which is investor relations speak for "accessibly priced crap that comes in that signature plaid, duh." [FT]
• Says fashion designer/sister of fashion photographer Mario Testino of the strong creative genes in their family: "I have a brother in Paris who works with Mario, a sister in New York who is an interior designer, another sister in Peru who designs jewellery but also works with Mario - in fact we all do a bit - we're his slaves!" Um, nevermind. Not strong genes. Strong chains. [Vogue UK]
• Prada. Limited edition. Keychains. Design taken from Prada archives from the '30's. Also, teddy bears. [Vogue UK]

Ms. Cox was saddened when she overheard a young woman in her 20s say that a guy was "great fun" but wasn't datable due to his yellowed, "crooked teeth." And are things just getting worse? Because in addition to the charmers we read about and see on the silver screen, we're living in an era of flawless, Botoxed, capped-tooth, professionally styled, fitness-trained celebrities. The Average Joe can often seem disappointingly unpolished. And as millions of little girls raised on Disney Princesses come of age and realize that in real life, a Prince is not a guarantee, is it their fault that they fell for a well-crafted fable? Or do we need responsible story-telling, as Ms. Cox seems to suggest?

Read My Lips! Love Stories Are Just A Con [Daily Mail]