The Problem with Lottie and Tiana's Friendship
Okay guys I’m going to talk about something sensitive here that’s been brought up on other blogs but no one has really wrote a long extensive post about it, so here it goes.
First and furthermost, I most sincerely appreciate and care for both Lottie and her friendship with Tiana, yet constructive criticism must be done.
Lottie is an interesting character, she’s your typical girly, over the top, princess loving rich girl. She’s your typical southern belle,too. Lottie is that adorable character from Princess and The Frog. She’s funny, humorous, and most importantly, one of the most, if not MOST popular character from Princess and The Frog.
The greatest problem is even though this is suppose to be Tiana’s movie and Disney’s answer to their past white princess films. However Disney deliberately decides to put in a white princess-like character who is ‘VERY HISTORICALLY INACCURATE’ (to quote my HISTORICALLY ACCURATE friends) Tiana’s bff.
The greatest problem is that she ends up taking more space than Tiana and as of right now and since the movie came out,gets alot more love than Tiana.
Disney choice to make Tiana best friend a white rich girl is the best displays of Disney’s blatant racism and whitecentricism.
They didn’t feel the African-American girl could lead a movie by herself, you see she needed to be a frog for the whole movie and have a white best friend in order to audiences to feel comfortable and ‘identify’ with her.
Here’s our two arguments in defense of Tia/Lottie’s relationship 1)”Its the first time the princess has a female best friend! THAT’S LIKE GOOD AND FEMINIST!” and of course the typical 2) “lottie and tiana being best friends SHOWS EQUALITY!!!”
Nope nope.
1.) Tiana’s friend could of been easily a PoC like herself, in fact it would of been refreshing to see Tiana have a friend of same background whom she related to and could confide on. This ties with the problem that Tiana feels alienated by the kids in her race and age, and the fact that Lottie, a white girl, is only ‘real’ friend is super problematic as hell. A good change would of been to have Tiana have a friend of her race that enjoyed Princesses as much of Lottie! It would of still been the same fun character, minus the white.
2.) Tiana’s and Lottie’s friendship is more historically inaccurate than people turning into bears or not having in PoC in Scotland. It does not show ‘equality’ because Tiana is still subservient to Lottie. She’s a lower class and economic status, she serves Lottie and accepts Lottie as more rich/successful than she is. The worst part Tiana shows not to be bothered by it or any other type of discrimination that shows up PaTF. If your argument is “WELL THAT WAS THE 20s! Duh!” Think again, Disney choice that time period with those perimeters and that economic/race distinction (Think were Tiana lives versus where Lottie lives).
In fact Disney could of perfectly created an alternate 1920s or fantasyland (seen in Tangled) where Tiana and Lottie are both equals,etc. But they didn’t.
Tiana and Lottie is a nice friendship but it is framed by racism and white ideals.
reblogging this again
I know this is old. But I just found it and now I’m mad. Lottie was a plot point, they needed someone who could be a temporary princess and they used marti gras as a way for that. Lottie’s father became the king of marti gras or whatever (I haven’t seen the movie in a hot minute so excuse my lack of remembering details) because of his influence. As much as I hate to say it, a man of color would not have that influence in the twenties when segregation and Jim Crow laws were still a thing. And of course Tiana is aware that Lottie is more wealthy, they come from completely different backgrounds! Tiana also didn’t take being denied the sugar mill due to her sex and color laying down. She fucking grabbed them to keep them talking. Disney shouldn’t have to water down history to create an empowering story for girls of color in the modern day. They were proving a point about Tiana’s persistence! Finally, not only do me and my friends barely remember Lottie, she was hardly the focus as she was hardly in the film. Nice argument, but you miss the point completely. (excuse my spelling I’m not the best at spelling :))
