#Discussion: Whitewashing Princess Tiana?

[weber_dubois22]

I saw this tumblr earlier today. Apparently, someone on Ebay.com was/is selling a set of Disney Princesses. At first glance one might assume the lady in the lilypad dress is "Tinkerbell" via Peter Pan, but believe it or not, it a repainted version of "Tiana" of Princess and the Frog. Whether or not this was a mistake on the part of Disney or some a-hole at Ebay who decided he didn't like the fact that Tiana is black is rather elusive.





Case in point, a side-by-side comparison:




SOURCE: 1, 2, 3

Comments

[captain-sarah.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard, these are knock-offs, and not created or sold by Disney (stolen molds, most likely). Considering the fact that the dress color is also slightly off, I think whoever was responsible for this must have confused her with Tink. The dress is leafy, they have similar hair, similar eyes. Unless they were just trying to pass her off as Tink?

[weber_dubois22]

Yeah, I think that's definitely what they were trying to do with the figurine here.

[k00kaburra.livejournal.com]

When I first saw the white Tiana, I did think it was someone trying to make a 'formal gown' version of Tinkerbell, until I saw the side-by-side comparison. Then I saw the the hybrid Cinderella/Aurora in the other picture, which makes me think that it really is just a knock off company trying to multiply the number of princesses by combining/changing elements.

Not that that is a good thing, either..

[huit.livejournal.com]

I think these were determined to be knockoffs. I'm willing to bet that knockoff producers are just going to use what materials they already have, why bother getting new plastic for just one mold. And her dress's resemblance to Tinkerbell is just convenient and/or confusing depending on how you look at it.