Merida from the recent princess movie… BRAVE…. does the title give it away? Yep she is the bravest princess of all. Rebels from her parents.. gets lost and fights bears… Also, she hates boys!!!! Its a first for Disney, but Im sure this is the new stereotypical girl for Disney.
This film is the least feminist of all, it focuses on the mother and daughter relationship, where the mother is the dominant within the household over the father. Merida shows that by bravery and independence will bring success. She is fully against marriage and is the only princess not to find true love. Also does not hold romantic motivation to become happy, she wants freedom and independence to find herself. Here, they have flipped the script of fairytale romance and turned it into an original movie. Theres no glitter, theres no sparkle and theres no singing and prancing around. Merida is rebelling against the princess rules and makes her own.
Merida isn’t like the pre 1960s princesses as she is strongly against the idea of getting married at the moment, if not ever. Much like Belle and Jasmine, her mind isn’t focused on finding the true love and getting married. This could be due to the increase of divorce rates in society at the time of post 1960. Disney have fitted in with society to engage with the audience and to create empathy.
Again, the males here are portrayed as silly and dumb, the male protagonist Meridas father, Fergus just wants to fight bears and eat all the time. The stereotypical fat, powerful rich man is seen in Fergus, however he is extremely crazy, not to mention friendly too.
Pre 1960s Disney princesses, hold wands and forest animals, whereas Merida uses her bow and arrow to fight for herself. Another princess movie in which a weapon is carried is Rapunzel, who carries around a frying pan as a defence. Post 1960s princesses would never had dreamed to even have to defend themselves, but as the princess movies progress they become more and more adventurous, brave and daring.
Pre 1960s Cinderella and Snow White would never had dreamed to rebel against her mother/ step mother, they had full respect for them even though they were seen as the villains of the film. Post 1960s princesses seem to rebel their mothers more (Rapunzel, Jasmine, Brave, Ariel) that it seems as though they are fitting in with society. Modern children do not have half the respect that the parents had for their parents, and its beginning to be represented in Disney movies, almost encouraging it to find their success.
To find out more about Merida, in Brave, click here!
Gender representations 