The less robust consumer prospects of the smaller Asian American and Native American markets have had a direct consequence on the profile of Mulan and Pocahontas; they’re generally pushed to the rear of group portraits, and they’re the two princesses most likely to be left out when the herd is trimmed down, appearing only in the most inclusive sets of merchandise.
Of course, that’s because both Mulan and Pocahontas stretch the definition of “princess” dangerously thin, given how different their source material is from the classic European storybook template. Mulan’s tale, about a girl who dresses as a boy to join the army, features more swashbuckling action than swooning romance, there isn’t a castle to be seen anywhere, and the charming prince isn’t a prince — or particularly charming. Pocahontas’s storyline is even more complicated, in that she, alone out of the Disney princesses, is based on a real historical character who almost certainly didn’t actually hang out with talking trees and a mischievous slapstick raccoon.
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“If you get a panel of five-year-olds together and talk about it, they’ll agree that Cinderella and Aurora and Snow White and Belle and even Jasmine are princesses,” notes Peterson. “At the end of their movies, they get married. They have castles. They’re rich. They’re chillin’. But they’ll say, Mulan and Pocahontas are not princesses — they have jobs. Mulan is a soldier. Pocahontas is a diplomat. You can’t be a princess if you have a job.”
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