Speaking of family vacation, I’m staying with my cousins, a household that includes girls of ages 3 and 6 1/2 year old twins. Reading material scattered around includes Wimpy Kid (the new one purchased the day it became available) Dork Diaries, Ursula Vernon’s Dragonbreath, etc. For Halloween, costumes included Merida from BRAVE and Hermione Granger. The littlest one plays with an iPhone constantly as most kids her age do, including reading Disney and Sesame Street animated comics.
My only question—are these fake geek girls or real ones? Going to have to keep an eye on them as they grow up.
Oh yeah, one other thing about BRAVE, which I saw for the first time. It was a fine Disney Princess film, but it did not solve Pixar’s lack of girls, which in fact was only deepened by making the first Pixar film to star a girl a movie about being a girl. Other Pixar films were about themes—letting go of childhood in the Toy Story movies, confronting fear in MONSTERS Inc., the loneliness of creativity in RATATOUILLE, finding the strength to go on after loss in UP….and so on. Any one of those themes could have starred a girl.
But didn’t. Keep trying, Pixar!
I didn’t think Brave was the best Pixar movie ever, but I don’t really agree with your opinion that it was exclusively about being a girl – or that the parts of it that are work against it. (Although I do think it was unnecessarily marketed as a girl movie.)
Should the movie about being a girl ignored a pretty prominent aspect of the female experience? Should she just have been a girl androgynously playing the same role as a boy without acknowledging that she isn’t one?
How is challenging and changing a relationship with an overbearing parent (and discovering that really being an adult means compromise) exclusive to the female experience?
Pixar needs to hire female writers to really tackle that problem. It’s really a boys’ club at the moment, isn’t it?
I don’t think Pixar should be faulted for making a movie like Brave, but I do agree they ought to have more female protagonists in main roles of movies where it doesn’t matter what the main characters’ genders are.
I’ve been mostly rolling my eyes at the geek girl articles because I don’t understand the other side of it – the side saying girls are bad for being geeky. The only time I can remember it being bad in my life was from a convention I attended when I was maybe 10 or 12 years old. I remember there was a booth with a model wearing a scanty superhero or fantasy costume. I remember hearing the guys running the booth complaining about the lack of customers and telling the model to jiggle her breasts to attract some attention. Something about that gave me the creeps.
But yeah, what rational person gets upset that some women either legitimately like “geeky” stuff or even cares if there are women who want to dress up in a geeky costume at a comic convention? What do I care what someone wants to dress as or read or watch on TV? As long as its not violating any community standards, who the Hell cares?
Agree with the other commenters re: Brave. I would also disagree with classifying it as a “Disney princess film”; from what I recall, it wasn’t nearly as “Prince” centered as a lot of those films have been historically. Although now I’m thinking back on it and I’m tempted to argue with myself – now I’m thinking a large part of the film was focused on marriage and princes to some degree, no? Now I can’t recall – I think the awesome Irish accents distracted me from the plot.
I really need to proofread my posts before submitting.
Anyway, Chris I call BS on your statement that as a 10 or 12 year old you got the creeps when you overheard a model wearing a scanty superhero outfit being told to jiggle her breasts. I mean, it is creepy, but unless you were the most mature 10-12 year old in history you may have been feeling something else that you misinterpreted as “the creeps”.
Joseph,
Whatever, dude. I thought it was weird guys were telling a woman to shake her breasts for attention. It just seemed too on the nose, I guess. Like, they already had this woman dressed up in a bra and panties. If that wasn’t working, what was shaking her breasts going to do? And it was just this weird power dynamic. Guys telling a woman to shake her breasts to get attention is just…it’s weird no matter what context I try to put it in. It wasn’t the outfit that botheted me, I thought that was cool, but the telling her to shake her breasts that was off-putting. I dunno, maybe I’m gay? But it wasn’t cool or arousing, it was creepy as Hell.
I was honestly just trying (failing?) to be funny, wasn’t seriously calling you out or anything.
Unfortunately, sarcasm on the internet only works well when both people know each other well enough to recognize the sarcastic statement. To quote Joss Whedon, “we need a sarcasm font.” (I nominate Comic Sans.)
Joseph,
I honestly was trying to show friendship with the familiar “dude,” and then trying to elaborate my story. The failing was with me, not you. I’m sorry!
“Brave” is definitely Pixar’s first Disney Princess movie. A good one, but that’s what it is. And with “Wreck It Ralph” – which looks and feels like a Pixar movie – the distinction between Disney and Pixar blurs.
Just bought Brave for my daughter the other night. I haven’t seen it yet but I can’t wait to watch it with her!
kate willaert says:
“To quote Joss Whedon, “we need a sarcasm font.” (I nominate Comic Sans.)”
Uh oh … now you’ve done it … strike a match to the powderkeg with the old Comic Sans debate …
(That was sarcasm, too).
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