How Barbie: Princess Charm School Reflects American Issues
By Ella Byrne-Cabot
Edited by Sasha Pavlov
This article contains spoilers.
Barbie: Princess Charm School is a 2011 animated movie loosely based on the Anastasia story and Cinderella. It takes place in the kingdom of Gardania, a country similar to America but ruled by a hereditary monarchy. The Princess Charm School teaches the princesses, girls who will inherit their respective kingdoms, and lady royals, girls who, if chosen, will attend to princesses as their ladies in waiting/vice presidents. Sometimes your suspension of disbelief is tested when it comes to how this fictional world oprerates. One girl at the Princess Charm School will apparently be the ruler of the American city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania (sorry, Mayor Jim Kenney). The story follows impoverished teenager Blair Willows, who works at a cafe to support her sister and her sick mother who is weak from treatment and who we later learn found Blair on her doorstep as an infant.
Every year, the prestigious Princess Charm School holds a lottery to select one non-royal girl to attend the school and join the elite lady royals. The family watches as the very Hunger Games-esque drawing reveals that Blair was selected. She is hesitant to leave, but since she struggles to afford her mother’s treatment and would benefit financially from gaining the lady royal status, she decides to accept the offer.
When Blair reaches the school, we are exposed to the carelessness that is applied when aiding the lottery students. The very British headmistress, Madame Privet tells Blair that “only 27% of the lottery girls make it through to graduation.” This very alarming statistic shows how the administration fails to encourage and advocate for the less privileged students. The students who attend the school are given resources to prepare for the classes from an early age, which the lottery students lack. Anthony Abraham Jack, a Harvard professor and author, said in an interview with Vox, “The culture on elite campuses is shaped by wealth and privilege, and most of the students who attend these schools are prepared for it before they arrive. They attend prep schools or expensive boarding schools and they have a clear sense of how to navigate the environment.” There are many parallels between Princess Charm School lottery winner students and low income students awarded scholarships to preparatory schools. These students’ and schools’ main goals are to allow social mobilization but they inherently hinder the low income students and prevent them from succeeding. If a lady royal isn’t chosen by a princess at graduation, their time at school was a waste. The antagonist of the film, the bitter Dame Devin, was a lottery winner student who wasn’t picked by a princess to be a lady in waiting at graduation. She marries into the royal family in the hopes of having her daughter, Delancy become princess of Gardania.
The story continues when Blair meets her princess roommates, sporty Hadley and musical Isla. Hadley and Isla bond over a shared love for a royal conspiracy that when former Queen Isabella and the king died in a car crash, baby princess Sophia survived. Within the film’s universe, the car crash took place in 1993, four years before the world-shattering limousine death of real-life Princess Diana. The girls visit the archives of the castle and see a portrait of a young Queen Isabella which has a striking resemblance to Blair and it is unveiled that Blair was left on her mother’s doorstep on the exact date of the crash, furthering suspicion that Blair is the long lost Princess Sophia.
During one of Dame Devin’s classes, she tells the class that once Declancy becomes Princess, the first thing she’ll do is bulldoze the ghettos of the city to make room for a city park. Blair expresses disgust because that’s where she and her family live and that the people who live there can’t afford to move to a different, gentrified area.
This is similar to the destruction of Seneca Village in New York City to make room for Central Park. Seneca Village was home to one of the first free, black communities in America, with its own schools and leadership within the society. In preparation to gain support from others for demolition, the media and politicians described the communities living on the land as “shantytowns” and the residents as “squatters”. In 1857, everyone living there was eradicated from their homes, the plan that Dame Devin had for Blair’s slum.
At the film’s finale, Delancy redeems herself and gives the magical crown to Blair, confirming that Blair is Princess Sophia, the rightful heir to the throne of Gardania. Dame Devin then accidentally reveals on national television that she had arranged for Queen Isabella and her family to die in the car crash so that she could eventually rise to power through Delancy. This is reminiscent of the conspiracy theory that the royal family orchestrated the death of Princess Diana. Blair forgives Delancy and makes her Blair’s lady royal.
Children’s media can expose adolescents to fledgling ideas about class issues, gentrification, and corrupt politicians. Barbie movies will always have a place in my heart and a nostalgia veil over my eyes, and I don’t see that ever changing.