INDIE SPOTLIGHT: ‘PRINCELESS’ SCHOOLS DISNEY ON FAIRY TALES

Once upon a time, in the realm of medieval fantasy and fairy tales, there lived a writer named Jeremy Whitley who wanted to tell a different kind of story; one with a hero for his daughter to see herself in and aspire to. Alas, there was no place for his comic book in the kingdoms of Marvel and DC, so Whitley embarked on his quest of self-publication with the help of artist Mia Goodwin and others. The journey was long and there were many dragons to slay, but in the end, the noble writer was able to tell his story (and in fact, still is). That story is Princeless.

Princeless begins with an old trope; a princess trapped in a tower. But this isn’t a witchy punishment or even a preventative safety measure, Adrienne’s parents put her there with the express purpose of meeting a man. But not just any man; a noble hero (ideally a prince) who would slay a dragon in order to rescue her and whisk her away to her happily ever after. And not just Adrienne but her sisters, too. They each have their own towers and curses and guardians to contend with while they wait to be rescued.

But Adrienne always knew that she was destined for something more. So instead, she decides to rescue each of her sisters herself with the help of Sparky, her guardian dragon, who she sees as less of a captor and more of a faithful, flying guard dog. She finds a sword and some armor and fakes her own death so that she’s free to find her own path in life–one that includes being her own hero.

Naturally, there are complications. Her father, aka the king, thinks that his daughter was murdered by a knight who is now after his other daughters. He tasks a collection of warriors to hunt the knight down and slay the dragon. Luckily, Adrienne gains some allies, too–Bedelia, the blacksmith’s daughter and Raven, the pirate princess–and together they fight bounty hunters, pirates, and sexism.

“YOUR PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE!”

Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here, but this sentiment promotes an unhealthy concept of ownership deriving from the outdated belief that girls are property. Which they are not. And it’s also been well written about. 

The idea of a warrior princess is nothing new by this point; there are Arwen’s and Diana’s and Xena’s a plenty, and even Disney is getting on board with the idea of strong, multi-dimensional, kick-ass girls. What’s refreshing about Princeless is how open the series is about their intentions. It isn’t a story that just happens to be about a kick ass princess and her strong, empowered female friends, it’s actively about all that and more. This is a story that wants you to recognize how ridiculous and outdated–and sometimes even toxic–patriarchal norms are.

In the Ashland kingdom, princesses belong in towers and princes belong in charm school. Where else are they going to learn to save damsels and keep their hair perfectly coiffed at the same time? Meanwhile, the girls learn to… wait for them, I guess?

Prince Charming’s Charm School for Future Kings only acknowledges one type of man the same way that the rest of the kingdom’s society is only willing to acknowledge one type of woman. The “heroes” sent after Adrienne (thought to be Adrienne’s killer) talk about her sisters like pieces of meat, deciding without having even met them what they think would make them the best choice as a reward. Even the men who claim to support women simply put them up on a pedestal rather than actually communicate with them, assuming that they know what the women need better than they do.

And that’s bad. And what’s more important, the comic knows it.

Princess Adrienne isn’t shy about speaking out when spoken down to. She and her companions are quick to call out double standards and stand up to oppressors. She’s brash and self-conscious and carries around a pretty big chip on her shoulder from that whole “tower imprisonment” thing, and she’s a long way from perfect. In fact, she was always considered the weird one in her family since all of her other sisters are more conventionally pretty than her or behave more in line with how a princess is “supposed” to behave. But Princeless is quick to reassure that there is no “weird” and there’s no wrong way to be a woman.

On the opposite side, the comic seems to be dancing around the idea that there’s no wrong way to be a man, but it falls into the trap of making 99% of their male characters sort of gross and misogynistic–which is actually kind of refreshing considering that’s clearly not how the characters see themselves, and not even necessarily how they really are, but that’s how they come across. It’s likely that as the series continues, they will introduce more redeemable/positive male characters, but for now, the story is most certainly for and about the ladies.

One of the few men the series does paint as a positive supporter is Adrienne’s twin brother, Devin, who is supposed to become the next king, however, he’s much more interested in poetry than politics and is absolutely useless at sword fighting. Devin is sensitive and unafraid to show his feelings, for which his father berates him, telling him to “stop being such a woman!”

Within many cultures, there’s this idea that women are weak or lesser and therefore it’s an insult for a man to be seen to have feminine qualities. Boys are taught to be brave and bold while girls are taught to be quiet and demure. The idea of gendering emotions or limiting a person’s right to feel how they want is absolute nonsense. There is more than one type of strength.

When the king derides his son for being weak and tries to force him to be the sort of king–the sort of man–he wants Devin to be rather than be who Devin is. And that’s harmful.

Surprisingly, in Ashland, it’s the cultures that are less “civilized” that value and respect their women more. The daughter of the chief of a clan of wolf people has been trained her whole life to prepare her to assume leadership someday. Likewise, as the eldest daughter of the Xingtao family, Raven was expected to take over the family legacy and become queen of the pirates until her jealous brothers got her locked away in a tower and took it for themselves.

Like Adrienne, Raven refuses to accept her imprisonment and makes it her mission to take back her rightful legacy (with an all female crew no less).

Princeless actively challenges the stereotype that women can’t be friends or support each other. It’s the same stereotype that says it’s a man’s place to save women and a woman’s place to serve men and behave “ladylike” and the same stereotype that tells boys that it’s not okay to cry. Hopefully Princeless will further address the cost of toxic masculinity on young men and boys in addition to continuing to encourage young women and girls to continue challenging the patriarchy.

And if you’re one of the three people out there who are somehow still unconvinced that comics are just as much for girls as they are for boys, please check out these statistics that say otherwise while everyone else can check out these statistics that show that, while progress is being made by mainstream comics there still isn’t nearly enough representation.

Which is why independent comics are so important. They’re better able to represent what fans actively want, rather than just what corporations think will make the most money.

I love that comics like Princeless exist and I hope that we keep getting more of them.