OmegaMom

Long-time readers will remember when I spent some time painting stenciled horses onto the dotter’s bedroom wall.

In a small boost to OmegaMom’s motherly ego, the dotter, when informed we were moving and finally comprehending the concept, mourned leaving the horsie mural behind.  This, let me tell you, amazed me no end, since the horsie mural had been buried behind a pile of junque on top of her dresser for lo these many months.

So, in a fit of motherly insanity, I told her I would paint new horsies on the walls of her bedroom in the new house.

Now, a year-and-a-half ago, the dotter was mainly interested in the horsies.  Currently, however, she has requested an addition:

Princesses.

Oy!

Watch OmegaMom rummaging through the googlehood for coloring pages of princesses.

Watch OmegaMom find lots and lots of coloring pages of Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Snow White.  Just put the word “D1sney” in there, and you’ve got it.

Now.  When she demanded princesses, my immediate response was to say to myself, “Self, we are not going to be limited to D1sney princesses for the dotter’s bedroom wall.  Nosirree, we are going to find non-D1sney princesses.  Nary a D1sney princess will touch our sacred walls!”

Har.

The dotter scotched that idea by specifically requesting a D1sney princess or two.  So I will put one each, scattering in and amongst the horsies.

However, I also told myself, “Self, we are going to look for specifically ethnic princesses to supplement the ew-ick D1sney plague.  I am tired of rosy-cheeked Caucasian princesses with very little variation.  I also want to find some warrior-type princesses.”  Just call me Mama-PC.

So I began looking on the intertubes for ethnic maidens of one type or another dressed in flowing gear.

I found a native American maiden (yah, right, like that’s hard to do) that actually had Indian facial features.

I’ve got D1sney’s Mulan if I really want to use her, but would prefer a different Asian princess.  But when I searched on Asian princess, I found more than one.  If I looked beyond the first two or three pages.  And there’s always (gag) anime as a resource, though it strikes me as an Asian riff on big-eyed black velvet paintings from the 60s.

Hey.  Here’s another:  Try googling “African-American princess coloring page”.  Give it a whirl.

I’ll sit here and twiddle my thumbs while you do.

You back?  Did you find anything?

Okay, okay, anything aside from “Maddy”, D1sney’s token black princess?  Anything that looked like a real, live, black woman, not like a Caucasian cartoon character whose skin has been darkened?

I didn’t.

I looked really hard.

I can find lots of coloring pages for Martin Luther King, when searching with that phrase (web sites with coloring pages of him that also happen to have “princess” somewhere on the page).

Now, I know some of you are rolling your eyes at me, saying, “Sheesh, making a mountain out of a molehill!  What’s the big deal–you’re trying too hard to be PC!”  And an entirely separate group of you is rolling your eyes at me, saying, “And this is supposed to be news?!  What, are you blind, deaf, and dumb to realize how color-stratified popular culture is?!”

But, lordy, it’s just so depressing to me.  I know that my mom had a hard time finding strong women role models for me as a child; you’d think that along with all those strong women (yes, there are lots of strong women in pop culture), with all the emphasis on diversity and colorblindness and racial equality and blah blah blah over the past thirty, forty years, something as simple as “black princess coloring pages” would be easy to find on the intertubes.  Call me naive.

OmegaDad suggested I get a “Teach Yourself Cartooning” book and teach myself to draw (such touching confidence in my abilities!) and start doing my own to put on the web.

Anyway, anyone have any suggestions?  I’m cheap, so preferably free.