Charlotte Bond
Author, Editor and Podcaster
Charlotte Bond
Author, Editor and Podcaster
2018 is the year of the princess!
Throughout the year, I will be asking authors from a variety of genres as well as a host of others from editors to academics, what they think makes a definitive princess.
Kicking off this new feature is Megan Leigh. Megan is the editor of pop culture blog Pop Verse and co-host of feminist speculative fiction podcast Breaking the Glass Slipper. Her writing has appeared on SWFA, SFF World, Pornokitsch and Writers’ Workshop.
1. What three attributes do you think a princess ought to have?
2. What characteristics do you think are so overused that they’ve become tropes? I’m really sick of stories about princesses who grow up in castles and amongst politics and yet who are utterly naïve about how politics works. Princesses need to know how to deal with court politics, be deft diplomats, and know how to get what they want. They would be receiving lessons in such things from a very early age, so it is wholly unbelievable that they would be so completely uneducated in the realities of running a country.
3. If I forced you to choose, which would be your favourite Disney princess? Mulan is hands-down my favourite Disney princess, though not my favourite Disney protagonist (that would be Lilo). She is one of the most active characters out there — no one drives the narrative of her story more than she does. I also love that her naïvety is more about men than the harsh realities of the world. In learning more about the opposite gender, she also brushes on ideas of toxic masculinity. Mulan is easily one of the best Disney films ever made.
4. A lot of people look down on the older Disney princesses, such as Snow White and Aurora, as being too passive and subservient. Do you think there are good qualities in these outdated princesses that modern girls and boys can aspire to? Most of the early Disney princesses are based on fairy tales and folklore so naturally owe a lot to moral teachings. I don’t think that there is anything inherently wrong with most of them – Snow White, for instance, is kicked out of her home and her first instinct is to go out and get a job. How is that a bad message? It’s all about how you read them. We all take our own baggage to interpretation of such things, and its in fashion to be dismissive of narratives of a different time. But there is always value in stories whose core themes are about being a good person.
5. What’s the ideal outfit for a princess, including a can’t-do-without accessory? I’m not sure there is such a thing as a generic ideal outfit. After all, what would work best depends entirely on the character’s context. But I would always put practicality over aesthetics. A can’t-do-without accessory is a notebook and pen. My ideal princess would be a cross between Princess Leia and Harriet the Spy, someone very savvy who takes careful notes.
6. Although it’s rarely written about, princesses eventually turn into queens. Which fictional (or real) queen do you consider to be a particularly inspiring character? I have to admit that I’m struggling to think of a great fictional queens who aren’t “evil” queens. If we get to see our princesses become queens, it is rarely more than a summary prologue to the effect of “and all the kingdom’s problems were solved!” I’m going to make a potentially contentious choice of Queen Amidala from the much-maligned Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. She is an even-handed Queen who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. The people of Naboo are always her primary concern and she is utterly wise beyond her years. My love of her might also have something to do with being played by Natalie Portman. What a woman!
Copyright 2015-2021 Charlotte Bond
"Northern Lights over Low Row" Copyright Sandra Cockayne