14 DAY TRIAL // Alexsandro Palombo, a renowned Italian illustrator, decided to make some series of illustrations with famous Disney princesses and other loved cartoon characters, but showing them as people living with physical disabilities or perpetrators and victims of abuse in hopes of creating social awareness around these issues.
The collections are called “Which Disney Princess are you?” and “What kind of man are you?” and the artist's aim is to send a bone-chilling message about domestic violence.
His impressive images show popular cartoon characters with varying disabilities, in wheelchairs, with missing limbs or in an abusive relationship situation.
The series aim to discard the perception that only certain types of women can be victims of abuse and show that even the happiest and apparently perfect couples could live traumatizing experiences.
“I wanted to give visibility to a problem that affects a great amount of people in the world,” said Palombo, cited by the Express.
The artist himself was left partially paralyzed after he had surgery to remove a rare form of cancer two years ago, so he also wants to highlight the idea that beauty comes in all forms and to breakdown society's beauty stereotypes.
“Every day I have to deal with all forms of discrimination.[...]Through this series I wanted to give visibility to this problem of strong discrimination directed to the persons with disabilities who live in our society.
“Disability is part of our world but unfortunately too many people think that it is something ugly that you have to hide,” he added. In his illustrations, Snow White and Cinderella are wheelchair-bound, Pocahontas walks with crutches, and Jasmin has both arms missing. However, it’s really distressing to see the Disney princesses in such conditions.
But what's even harder is to imagine characters such as Marge Simpson, Wonder Woman, Snow White, Olive Oil and Lois Griffin as victims of abuse, especially with their famous partners as perpetrators.
Although Palombo's illustrations have been criticized by some people, experts say that his campaign is really necessary.
All the creations are featured on Alexsandro Palombo's blog called Humor Chic.
However, this is not the first time when the image of Disney characters and princesses is used to generate black humor, parody or social criticism, placing them in a context that is not traditional. Canadian visual artist Dina Goldstein imagined how these women would live in today's world in her series called “Fallen Princesses.”
Check out some of Alexsandro Palombo's illustrations in the photo gallery below. *Please note that viewer discretion is recommended as they contain graphic images that some people might find disturbing.
