In Defense of Disney Princesses: Ariel

Ariel from The Little Mermaid represents a new chapter for the Walt Disney Company.  It jumpstarted the animation studio's Golden Age, returning to the their roots of emotional storytelling that captured people's hearts.  With The Little Mermaid, we see a return to a style emotional storytelling that requires characters to burst into song (Broadway-style) in order to fully convey what they are feeling.

We also see some character development within Ariel.  While I adore Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora, they did not do much changing internally throughout their respective movies.  Their circumstances happen to them and they must be strong and brave enough to overcome them.  Ariel's circumstances happen because of her.  She chooses to disobey her father and explore the surface and even saves a human, something seen as absolutely reprehensible in her community.  Also unlike the other previous princesses, Ariel is headstrong, feisty, and stubborn (often to a fault).  She refuses to let something like losing her voice, and potentially her life, to keep her from doing what she wants and following her dreams.  

I have heard and read many comments that claim it is disturbing that Ariel has to be mute in order to find love with Eric, but technically he has already fallen in love with the beautiful woman with the angelic voice that saved his life.  If anything Eric is clinging as fiercely to his dreams as Ariel is--he is holding out for the girl that keeps eluding him, “the one.”  I have wondered if the animators were conscious that they were trying to persuade audiences that Eric falling in love with a mute girl that is actually not mute and if that is one of the reasons Ariel seems so animated and lively as a human even though she has no voice.  She takes Ursula’s advice and communicates with the other characters and the audience through her body language and emotive facial expressions.  

Throughout the movie, Ariel demonstrates how she is different from the other princesses.  She is truly gutsy and brave.  She gives up everything in order to become human because she feels that it is the right path for her.  She has total and complete faith in herself and the fact that she becomes human via a deal with Ursula shows that she is relatable, she is a flawed character.  Ariel definitely challenges the notion that Disney Princesses are perfect, proper ladies that do not make mistakes.  What is powerful about her is that even though she makes a few mistakes, Ariel is still easy for us to love and connect with; she shows us all how to be brave and confident and how to trust ourselves--really great attributes for us to admire and find within ourselves.

**The Pocket Princess comics are drawn by Amy Mebberson.  You can find her tumblr here or you can copy and paste this link into your browser: amymebberson.tumblr.com.  

In Defense of Disney Princesses: Aurora

I love Sleeping Beauty so much!  But I will be the first to admit that I did not love it a whole lot until I was a little older.  I got the DVD for Christmas when I was sixteen or seventeen and it had an entire disc of special features and it was when I watched those special features that I began to appreciate the beauty of Sleeping Beauty (wordplay intended).  I did not realize that the music drew so heavily from Tchaikovsky's ballet from 1890.  I also was too young to appreciate the beautiful animation in Sleeping Beauty.  After watching the special features I re-watched the movie in complete awe of the animation.  Every frame in this movie is a work of art.  If you haven't seen it for a while (or ever), I would encourage you to watch it keeping in mind that so much money was spent on this movie's animation that Disney's animation studio has never been able to replicate the budget (taking into account inflation and the growth of the Walt Disney Company) or the artistry that is evident in this movie.  

That being said, this is a blog about Aurora and what makes her special, a role model, someone you should be okay with children (especially daughters) looking up to.  I will start with the obvious, if Walt Disney himself decided that Aurora and her story are so special that there needs to be a bank-breaking budget for her movie, he and the studio must have seen something very very special in her.  

 I will start with what makes Aurora different from her predecessors Snow White and Cinderella.  Snow White and Cinderella both are isolated and from broken, abusive families, whereas Aurora is from a loving family, but is forced into isolation from them because of outside evil forces (enter Maleficent, no worries we will get to her later).  So while we do still see this theme of the main character being separated from her biological family, Aurora's childhood is different in that she is raised in a very loving home by the three good fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather.  This may seem to make her a less "interesting" character, but we should not discount her just yet...

Her isolation is extremely important to remember for this next portion.  When she first encounters Prince Phillip, he has already fallen in love with her.  He does not fall in love with her beauty (though I'm sure he really appreciated it), he falls in love with her heart, signified by him falling in love with her singing, her voice.  We have to remember that this is a fairytale, it is not supposed to be realistic, we have to suspend disbelief and remind ourselves what it means that her beauty is not what the prince first falls in love with.  Aurora's kindness, like Cinderella and Snow White before her, is shown through her kindness to animals.  Because of her isolation, she has no peers, she only has the three fairies that have raised her, so her kindness must be shown to the audience through some other means, especially if we are to believe that Prince Phillip falls in love with her heart before he even sets eyes on her.  

Now we definitely see something special in Aurora, she is definitely a good person, worthy of being called a compassionate future ruler of her parents' kingdom, but is there anything that she teaches us that should be passed down to our children (read, daughters)?  I think so.  Even though she does not seem active, Aurora still decides to send caution to the wind and meet this man who has fallen in love with her because it feels right to her.  She has been taught her entire life to never speak to strangers, yet she speaks to him, she even allows herself to fall in love with him.  Aurora first appears to be a passive young lady that lets things happen to her, but we have to read her within her context.  This movie was made in the 1950s, a time when all women were to be content being housewives and mothers.  Aurora, though, is rebellious in the sense that she does decide not to follow the rules set out for her.  She speaks to a stranger and she is devastated when she discovers that she is actually a princess, destined to marry for family and kingdom politics instead of for love.  She also should not be declared a poor role-model for being a good person.  She is beautiful on the inside and the outside, and the fairies only took care of the outside and the singing voice.  Her inner-beauty, kindness, and compassion are all from her.  There is nothing wrong with being kind, and there is nothing wrong with trying to listen to what people have to say when they care about you.  She listens and obeys the fairies and goes to the castle because they raised her and they are the only people she has ever known.  It's nearly impossible for us to imagine her context because almost nobody is isolated from the world in the way that Aurora is; she has no knowledge outside of her life with the good fairies because of the huge need to protect her from the evil Maleficent.

Speaking of the fairies and Maleficent, this movie is also unique in that it displays many different facets of femininity, cool, right?  We have Aurora, the beautiful, shy, and compassionate teenager, the three good fairies, each complete with their own unique personalities, and Maleficent, the CRAZY-EVIL fairy.  (Full disclosure: Maleficent is my favorite disney villain EVER!!  She is SO EVIL!! I love her like I love Jezebel--> see 1 Kings 16-2 Kings 9!!)  Anyways, the cool thing about showing so many examples of what femininity looks like is that people (read girls) can see themselves somewhere in the story, in at least one, if not more characters and it doesn't have to be the princess.   In Cinderella and Snow White there are lots of male characters, which is awesome, boys need to see different forms of masculinity, but in Sleeping Beauty there are lots of lady characters.  I can remember when I was little, I may not have been obsessed with Aurora, but I ADORED Merryweather.  In fact, upon watching the movie again, my favorite part of the movie is still the same as when I was little, when Merryweather turns that awful raven to stone, super-cool.  

So, in conclusion, this movie and Aurora are totally awesome, if difficult, and it is perfectly fine to wrestle with them like we do with everything else in life.  Now for the most important question/struggle/point of controversy: What color should Aurora's dress have been?!  Pink or Blue?!?!

**The Pocket Princesses are drawn by Amy Mebberson.  You can visit her tumblr here.  Or you can copy and paste this link into your browser: www.amymebberson.tumblr.com.  

In Defense of Disney Princesses: Cinderella

The problem with this series about the Disney princesses is that it is difficult to differentiate defending the princess herself and defending the actual movie.  I was especially intimidated by Cinderella because I love the movie, but I sometimes go back and forth about Cinderella herself.  So when I found this quote from Walt Disney himself about Cinderella, I began to feel much better about writing this post.  He said: “She believed in dreams all right, but she also believed in doing something about them...When Prince Charming didn’t come along, she went over to the palace and got him.”  For Disney, Cinderella is not a passive girl, she does not believe in letting others control her life and her happiness.  

Time and time again, I wonder if I actually even like Cinderella, but every time I watch the movie, something about her draws me in.  Is it because her story is one that is a completely archetypal rags to riches story, or is it something else?  I think it is because she has the ability to look at the situation around her and not only continue to dream and hope, but to dream and hope bigger than before.  The reason the fairy godmother says she has come to Cinderella’s aid is because even after her stepsisters have ripped her dress to shreds, she still believes in her chance to be a princess for a night.

Something else that draws me in towards Cinderella is her ability to hold onto something so precious to her and refuses to let anyone take it from her.  For Cinderella, “A dream is a wish your heart makes when you’re fast asleep.”  It is not something to be shared, but something you keep close to your heart, something sacred for your very self.  No matter what happens to her, she holds onto those dreams and wishes.  They are what keeps her going, she knows that if she dreams something big enough and seizes her opportunities as they come along, that something great is going to happen for her.  And when she keeps her faith in the most difficult time, her fairy godmother comes and helps to push her along the way.  The fairy godmother represents that person or that force in everyone’s life that seems to come through in just the right moment with just the right prescription for whatever ails someone.

I do not know if I will ever figure out whether I love Cinderella or Cinderella more, but what I do know is that Cinderella exemplifies what faith means.  There are times in all of our lives when our anxiety threatens to blind us to all the opportunities around us and the amazing-ness of the world we live in.  Cinderella reminds us that even as we feel we are backed into the deepest and darkest corners, somewhere in the distance, there is a light.

This is totally an aside, but this is my absolute favorite quote about feminism and it definitely connects to Cinderella, so I am going to put it in here :)  

“Feminism is the fairy godmother.  ‘Do you remember the story of Cinderella?  She is sitting at home rather pissed off, wanting to go to the ball, and not having a thing to wear, when the fairy godmother whizzes in and p all right.  One of the most important things about the fairy godmother is that she transforms all the old stuff around Cinderella into new and useful equipment: the rags, the pumpkin, the rats, and so forth.  This little girl’s fairy godmother turned out to be called Feminism.  As well as cheering the little girl up no end, Feminism also transformed all the old things around her.’” --Sara Maitland

**The Pocket Princesses are drawn by Amy Mebberson.  You can view her Tumblr by clicking here or by copying and pasting this link into your browser: www.amymebberson.tumblr.com.  

Our Bodies, Ourselves Campaign

Recently, I have found myself fairly infuriated by all the rhetoric coming from old white men in political power telling me about my own body.  Like they have a clue what it's like to have your rights infringed upon because of your sex.  But what really makes me angry is that they are using bad science and bad theology to do it.  Rape is a deplorable, heinous crime and I listened to a politician today telling me that if I am ever impregnated by a rape that it is a blessing from God.  That is really bad theology, friend and it is a really patronizing way for you to tell me that everything is going to be fine because you are going to make my decisions for me.  Just so all the people out there know, that is not okay.  It is not okay for you as an older white man to tell me with tears in your eyes that you are convinced that should I ever get raped AND pregnant that that is God's intention.  I'm sure that soon I will be hearing that children all over the world dying from preventable diseases while Americans struggle with obesity is also God's divine will and intention.  Give me a break.  Right now I feel like if I hear another politician tell me something horrendously stupid about rape, abortion, sex education, or birth control, I may run for office myself on the most crazy-liberal platform.  Maybe I'll ask Dennis Kucinich if I can be his running mate in the next election.  

Anyways, all that to say that the amazing people at Our Bodies, Ourselves have created a campaign that will send copies of the iconic book Our Bodies, Ourselves to every congressional office so that they no longer have the excuse of being uninformed politicians.  (Did they really have that right anyway, to be uninformed politicians talking about my fallopian tubes and how they will legislate what I can and cannot do and what medication I can and cannot have?  Grrr...) It's a great cause and even if you don't contribute, make sure that you VOTE on November 6th.  

This is a great PSA that you should watch if you can find a few free minutes in your day: "You Don't Own Me" PSA.

I know that this is a little angrier than I usually am, and I know I am coming off pretty crass, but this is a really important issue for me and I think it should be a really important issue for all women and all men.  The equality of women and the legislation crackdown on abortion, birth control, sex education, and rape and the rhetoric surrounding all of them are extremely important for all of us.  If you have any questions as to why feminism is still an issue, please watch this video.

Brave: A Different Kind of Princess Movie

I had been waiting to see Disney/Pixar’s Brave for a very, very long time for several reasons:
1) I LOVE Pixar movies and I LOVE Disney movies, especially ones of the Princess variety and Brave possessed the potential and promise to intertwine the two.
2) Pixar had not done a (full-length) movie with a female lead, EVER!
3) I have always been a proud feminist and have always wanted to see a princess movie marketed to little girls with absolutely no romantic interest whatsoever.  Brave definitely fits the bill.

My dreams of seeing Brave in theaters opening weekend (before everyone decides to tell me what they think before I’ve even seen the movie) were nearly shattered when my fiance’s faith in the movie and Pixar began to waver after he checked out a few trailers and the Rotten Tomatoes page.  Thankfully I was able to convince him that I needed to see it terra-bad and we went opening day for the matinee.  

We had extremely different reactions to the movie at first.  We both agreed that the artwork and music worked beautifully together, but that was about it.  He argued that, as a movie, it did not live up to Pixar’s standards.  He especially noted the cinematic genius of Up!, Wall-E, and Toy Story 3.  The character development, he claimed, just wasn’t there, the story moved too quickly, ergo, even with the beautiful marriage of music and art, it just didn’t feel as good as those other Pixar giants.  His ultimate opinion upon seeing it was that Brave was an okay movie, but it did not live up to the Pixar brand.

I couldn’t disagree more.  Up!, Wall-E, and especially Toy Story 3 were not created for children, but for people like us, people past their teenage years, people looking for movies that make us think, movies that enable us to experience our full range of emotions.  Brave is a different kind of Pixar movie in that it was created for children, specifically young girls.  Merida is a princess that never falters in her desire and resolve to control her own fate.  Merida is a princess that craves her own independence and craves the ability to be known as her own person, independent of anybody else, especially a suitor.  She wants the freedom to choose her own husband, and the freedom to choose no husband.  Merida is a princess whose creators, directors, and producers allowed to remain her own person, unattached to any romantic interest for the entire duration of the movie, including the scene after the credits, in fact, at the end of the movie Merida is seen joking with the suitors as friends.  

Name one movie marketed to the female demographic that has done that because I truly want to see it.

The character development in the beginning of Brave seems fast, especially for a Pixar movie, because it is.  This is a movie that has a good screenplay, but it isn’t the greatest screenplay that Pixar has ever done.  It didn’t have to be, though.  If one were to watch Brave without the dialogue (just the visuals and the music) it would make sense, which is what makes it a brilliant children’s movie.  The people at the head of the project wanted to make a different kind of impact with this movie.  They wanted to provide young girls with a princess heroine that at no point in the movie ever feels that she needs a husband to make her happy.  I looked up some of the people at the helm of Brave and it turns out that Mark Andrews, who co-wrote the screenplay for Brave and directed it has a daughter.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Andrews_(filmmaker)).  Two other women credited for the story and screenplay, Brenda Chapman (story, screenplay, and original director) and Irene Mecchi (screenplay) both worked on Disney movies that feature strong female leads.  Brenda Chapman worked on the stories for Beauty and the Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Chapman).  Irene Mecchi worked as a co-screenwriter for Hercules and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Mecchi).  What if one of their main purposes in making Brave was to show their daughters that, like Merida, they do not need a romantic partner to matter?  They do not need to measure their worth by whether or not they are in a relationship.  

Merida as a character looks very simple (except, of course, for that absolutely gorgeous red hair).  This, in effect, allows girls to be able to identify with her more easily (http://blog.visualmotive.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/mccloud-uc-triangle.jpg).  One of the reasons Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga is so popular and successful is because Bella (the main character) is so nondescript and simple in her features and personality.  Do not misunderstand me, I am not trying to compare the strengths of the two characters.  I actually think Merida is a much stronger (read: better) character than Bella, I just mean to point out a possible reason Merida is such a simple-looking character compared to many of Pixar’s past characters (think the witch from Brave, a very realistic character, http://www.deathfall.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=29793&d=1309114141).  My fiance pointed out a web comic to me called XKCD, which often features very simple stick figures in situations that resonate with readers.  Simplicity allows for us to insert ourselves into the situation, or allow characters to stand in for ideas.  A great example of the XKCD characters and a situation is this comic: http://xkcd.com/150/.  

In addition to Merida’s physical appearance being identifiable, her situation and personality are also relatable.  Merida is a typical fifteen-year-old young woman who feels her parents, especially her mother, are too controlling and do not understand her.  The overbearing-parent-teenager theme has been seen in several Disney movies (Freaky Friday, The Little Mermaid, Tangled) so I will not talk about it very much, except to say that it is a common, but very necessary aspect of the movie in order to make Merida as accessible as possible.  What I will talk about a little bit is her situation.  Merida is a fifteen-year-old that responds to her situation as many other fifteen-year-olds would.  When she is told she must do something, she huffs and puffs until she decides whether to obey or not.  She makes a rash, hasty decision when she chooses to also participate in the archery contest which ends up creating quite a mess for her parents and herself to clean up, something I’m sure she never foresaw happening.  She lives in the moment, she is a free-spirit, she is strong.  These are all qualities that people, especially little girls, want to possess.  Everybody wants to stand-out for something, everybody wants to be strong enough to stand up for what they believe in and everyone wants to determine their own fate.

What is a remarkable piece of Merida’s characterization is that her creators allowed her to remain feminine and powerful throughout the movie without sexualizing her at all.  Merida wears a dress throughout the movie and is a beautiful girl, both examples of her femininity.  Her power is especially seen at the end of the movie when she battles her father, the king, for the life of her mother.  She knocks the sword out of his hand and absolutely refuses to let this giant, powerful, immensely strong man have his way.  And with this beauty and power, Merida is never sexualized.  Jasmine and Ariel are arguably powerful and both feminine, but they are definitely sexualized.  Merida remains a normal teenage girl struggling with her family, country, and growing up without sexualization ever playing a role.  Because Merida’s creators made her accessible, beautiful, feminine, powerful, and non-sexual, the little girls who see this movie have the chance to see and understand that beauty does not come from sexuality, but from being exactly who you are.

As Belle inspired me to read, Cinderella taught me to never give up hope, Mulan taught me to always be true to myself and Ariel to dare to dream against the impossible, it is my hope and prayer that Merida shows little girls today that they are beautiful, worthwhile, amazing people, all on their own, with or without a romantic partner.

A Note:  I talk a little about the art and drawing and physical character of Merida, but I am not able to talk about it intelligently very much because I have no background in art, I mostly have a background in literature, sociology, theology, and women’s studies.  Please do not hit me too hard on that part of the writing.  I am putting a link up here to my fiance’s blog because he does have an art/film background and hopefully he will be able to talk about character design at some point in the near future :)

http://marcdoodles.blogspot.com/