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| Just a few more princesses to throw on the pile of interchangeable, disposable women (Photo by jzlomek, morgueFile) |
I
know I might be coming into this ho-down a little late, but, hey, I have a life
outside of being an outrage feminist.
But this is something that just needs to be said, especially because of
a column by Peggy Drexler on CNN.
Drexler defended the recent Disney make-over of the princess from Brave.
First
confession – I’ve never seen Brave. My son wasn’t interested, and see the first
line – I just don’t always have the time I want or need. But I do plan on seeing it because it is
interesting to me that they have a princess that actually is a strong female
character for a change.
Second
confession – when I first read Drexler’s piece, I almost agreed with her. I
thought, “yeah, why can’t strong women be sexy, too?”
And
then it hit me – because we’re not saying that she’s sexy *because* she’s
strong. We’re saying that she must be
both strong and sexy, and to be missing one or the other will somehow make her
less.
Because
when the co-director and writer of the film steps up and says that the changehas made her a “blatantly sexist marketing move based on money,” maybe we
should stop and listen. This is the
woman who created the character, and she feels that something has gone wrong
here.
So
while it’s great that people like Drexler can state that “babes can be
worthwhile role models, too, and no less so than women whose looks are most
rough and tumble,” she’s missing the point that what Disney has said is that
those “rough and tumble” women have to be babes. That they won’t sell if they’re rough and
tumble. That they’re not good enough to
be released into the world at large.
Drexler
may argue that we need to accept the labels placed on us – that pink is okay,
that pretty is good – but that’s only true sometimes. And Disney makes it every time when they come
out with their heroines. They don’t show
that pink and powerful is okay – they strip out the powerful and make it pink
because that’s what they think sells.
And, sadly enough, it does.
I’d
like to see Disney come out with a real heroine in one of their cartoons and
then not change her when it comes to sales.
Let’s see how America really reacts.
Because I have to say, in getting ready to research this piece, I went
looking for a number I had heard long ago about how the daughter in Disney’s
Invincible was underweight (according to the drawing they had done of
her). Instead, I came across a blog of awoman with an eating disorder…
Maybe
if we were more accepting of these “non-babes” that Drexler wants us to embrace
we wouldn’t see this going on so often.
Maybe that photo from 2011 in the line-up wouldn’t exist. Maybe we need to wake the fuck up and realize
that telling people that they must be everything means that, in the end, they
are nothing by their own standards, and that maybe, just maybe, we’re part of the
cause.
