Written by Sarah Thompson.
In the latest effort to “modernize” beloved fairytales, Disney has announced a bold re-imagining of the classic character Rapunzel… as a bald Black woman. That’s right, the story that once celebrated flowing golden locks now ditches the hair entirely in a move that Disney says reflects “diverse beauty standards” and aims to “challenge traditional notions of femininity.”
In the updated version, Rapunzel no longer sits trapped in a tower waiting for a prince to climb her famously long hair. Instead, she’s armed with self-confidence, a scalp that gleams in the moonlight, and a message of empowerment. Who needs hair when you’ve got independence, right? Because nothing screams “liberation” quite like tossing out one of the defining features of the character.
Of course, in the Disney world, this is all done in the name of “representation.” But, as with most reboots, one has to wonder: is this an inspiring message for young girls, or just another attempt to appease the ever-growing list of woke checkboxes? After all, how does a story about hair work when the character doesn’t have any? We can only assume there’s going to be a lot more dialogue to make up for the lack of hair-based plot.
The Magic of Representation… and the Absurdity of Overcorrection
In this updated version of Tangled, Rapunzel’s magical hair is gone, replaced by a story that’s apparently about “self-acceptance.” The problem is, while Disney is championing this as groundbreaking, it feels like they’re missing the point. Rapunzel’s hair was never about beauty standards—it was about the magic. You know, that little thing that makes fairy tales, well, fairy tales. By stripping away the very element that made the character unique, what are we left with? A bald woman in a tower for no particular reason.
In their eagerness to rebrand their stories for the modern age, Disney seems to have tangled themselves in an identity crisis of their own. Every re-imagined character is now a statement, but in the process, the stories themselves are losing their original charm. Instead of letting the story of Rapunzel remain a fun tale about a girl with magic hair, Disney has turned it into a soapbox for social commentary. Can’t wait to see how the prince climbs a bald head to rescue her from the tower—maybe she’ll throw down a rope ladder instead. So innovative.
Of course, this change also begs the question: if the hair was the metaphorical representation of Rapunzel’s captivity, what does her baldness now symbolize? That she’s freed from societal expectations of beauty? Or just that Disney’s writers ran out of original ideas?
Rapunzel’s Tower of Woke
Predictably, the reaction to this “new and improved” Rapunzel has been… mixed, to say the least. On one side, we have the progressive crowd, applauding Disney’s bravery for challenging “Eurocentric beauty standards” and embracing the beauty of baldness. On the other hand, you have the rest of the world, scratching their heads and wondering what happened to simply telling a good story without turning it into a political statement.
Disney’s latest move seems to fall in line with their recent trend of updating classic characters to better align with modern social values. But at what cost? Instead of adding to the rich lore of beloved stories, they’re stripping characters of what made them iconic in the first place. Soon, we’ll be seeing a Little Mermaid who’s hydrophobic, or maybe a Snow White who demands the dwarves unionize.
By all means, representation matters, but not at the expense of storytelling. There’s a fine line between representation and overcorrection, and Disney seems to have crossed it. Instead of celebrating diversity by creating new, original characters, they’re just recycling old ones and hoping no one notices that the magic’s gone missing.
Our Take
Disney’s latest re-imagining of Rapunzel feels less like a celebration of diversity and more like a desperate attempt to stay relevant in the culture wars. By turning every beloved character into a statement, they’re robbing young audiences of the joy and escapism that fairytales are supposed to provide. Sure, not every character needs to fit the traditional mold, but does that mean we need to throw away everything that made them special in the first place?
Rapunzel’s magical hair was a central part of her story, and removing it feels like an attempt to reinvent the wheel without considering what made the wheel work in the first place. We’re all for diversity, but maybe Disney should try creating new characters instead of giving existing ones identity crises.
At the end of the day, when you strip away the magic, you’re left with nothing but a tower of woke—and that’s not exactly the kind of fairytale anyone’s looking for.
