History authenticates subjects. But history is culturally constructed and authenticates some people while marginalizing others. In fact, The Public Medievalist has had no shortage of material for its extensive and ongoing series titled “Race, Racism, and the Middle Ages,” which addresses the “[r]acist and white supremacist ideas about the past [that] have lingered in our culture.” One reason for that unfortunate abundance, as noted by The Public Medievalist, is that representations of the Middle Ages, “can seem natural and normal[, which] makes them a fundamental part of institutionalized racism as it exists today, since the past forms and informs the foundations of the present.” Yet, even when these narratives lack historical foundations, they are still capable of generating a mythology that incites people to act, as suggested by white supremacists donning medieval paraphernalia in 2017 while protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue from a park in Charlottesville, Virginia. These outliers’ image of an all-white European Middle Ages is false, but in their eyes as well as those of many people outside the group, including many of the supremacists’ opponents, that image has gained authenticity from widespread concordant representations in mainstream media. Though medievalisms do not need to be authentic to be influential, that perception can, in turn, help authenticate narratives that inform cultural memory, and as part of that power, pervasive historical fictions and inaccuracies among them can misauthenticate subjects and ideologies to the detriment of historical evidence and social justice. Inauthentic depictions can become believable through repetition, and even playful medievalisms intended for children, like those produced by Disney, can have deep and long-lasting political consequences. Indeed, through their very appearance of innocence, Disney's medievalisms may be particularly influential on cultural values, apparent norms, and collective expectations.

In light of that power, this essay argues that Disney's recent television productions Sofia the First and Elena of Avalor are two of the many historical fictions that create a false sense of authenticity through repetition and exposure via mainstream media, and that this authenticity is dangerous insofar as it reifies historical inaccuracies and apparatuses of oppression in cultural memory. These two shows are particularly problematic in their disparity between a white princess who maintains notions of a predominantly white Middle Ages, and a princess of color who challenges these inaccuracies.