WTF review of 'Brave': EW article says "Girl not wanting arranged marriage=LESBIAN"

[brendala.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine pointed me to this article. It's Entertainment Weekly's review of Pixar's Brave. Well, it's not a "review" so much as a manifesto declaring that the main character is a lesbian because....she refused an arranged marriage and disliked wearing gowns that limited her mobility.
I think it's pretty telling that films starring single females who remain single for the entire film are so rare that, the moment a big studio makes one, everyone (including paid professional reviewers) goes nuts and assumes the girl MUST be gay or sexually confused or whatever.




I hate the implication that a girl who doesn't immediately want to date/marry once they hit the proper age must have some deep-rooted issue with her sexuality. Heck, Merida herself never said "I don't want to get married to a man EVER". She just hated the idea of being given out like a carnival prize to some bozo she's never met!

This article reminds me of how Velma from Scooby Doo (one of my favorite fictional characters, btw) has been pegged as a butch lesbian for ages simply because she's "ugly" (translation: she doesn't fit the Barbie mold that 90% of female protagonists fit into) and didn't act like a typical "token girl" character. Even as a kid, I never got why people pegged her as a tomboy (what self respecting "tomboy" would prance about in a red mini-skirt?). Her overall demeanor and behavior was rarely any less feminine than Daphne's. I guess it's because she had non-girl interests like....being smart. :P

While I sympathize with gay folks who want to find a character they can relate to; it still bugs the crap out of me when dumb stereotypes are used to prove that a character is a gay icon (even if their canon has established them as straight).

Comments

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

I had a comment here, but LJ ate it.

Suffice to say that the block of text on the other end of the link is not an article, nor a speculative essay, nor even a flimsy-patched-together fan theory. It is such vacuous nonsense that... er, I actually am lost for words.

That's impressive, all right.

[And I completely agree with everything you said. You said it much more eloquently than I could have.]

[majorshipper]

I agree completely. And if i makes you feel any better, I have yet to see this article be praised in any light, be it conservative or liberal. So. F***ing. Stupid. My gosh.

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

Well, thank goodness for that.

Also, ICON LOVE!

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the movie. Is there actually any hint of that in it? Or is this reviewer making things up entirely?

I wanted to see it at first, but I wonder if I'm sick and tired of 'girl power' flicks. I've seen enough tough girls onscreen to last me a lifetime. How about some tough men for a change?

[milleniumrex.livejournal.com]

There's no hint of it. It's about a teenage girl who doesn't want to be forced into an arranged marriage with one of a trio of young dingbats who are competing for her hand.

As for your last point, she's honestly not that "tough". She's athletic, but not exactly a warrior or fighter. And if you're looking for the latter, Batman should fill that niche in a few weeks. :D

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

Groovy, thanks.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the movie. Is there actually any hint of that in it? Or is this reviewer making things up entirely?

The reviewer is making it up. Her only "reasoning" for this theory is that Merida refuses an arranged marriage and hates confining clothing.


I wanted to see it at first, but I wonder if I'm sick and tired of 'girl power' flicks. I've seen enough tough girls onscreen to last me a lifetime. How about some tough men for a change?

Trust me, Merida is NOT an annoying, Mary-Sue "GRRRL POWAH" character. She's strong; but in a way that's believable and relateable.

As for strong men, Merida's dad is an awesome badass and one of the best characters in the movie. :)

[animenutcase.livejournal.com]

And actually the most she ever says is (during her pretend talk with her mother) that "Maybe she'll never be ready!"

That "maybe" changes a lot.

Be careful. Someone will call a wish to see tough men "sexist" because "men already dominate the media (especially white men)!"

[neverfading.livejournal.com]

THIS.

I am sooo tired of the child-like, wimpy men who fill our media now.

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely not sick of girl power flicks (but I'm the girl who refused to watch the classic Disney princess movies more than once as a child because I was so tired of the Girl Gets Saved By Guy trope), but all you have to do to find tough men is to watch some action movies - Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, True Lies, Independence Day, etc. There are tons of 'em.

Or watch RED and watch guys and girls kick butt.

[kataoi.livejournal.com]

Ugh finally someone coming to the defense of Merida because of this stupid article. My friends and I saw Brave the day this article appeared, and one of them had read it, but at the end of the movie she was like "wtf was that article about I don't even". She and I vary on the political spectrum and even she didn't see it.

What gets me is that Merida is me. Growing up, I had very, very few female characters to look at and respect as role models, almost none. Anime gals tended to be better but they always defaulted in some way to being too girly for me. (Sora from Digimon was a favorite of mine - a tomboy who didn't follow her mother's wishes but still had the crest of Love but still wasn't stereotypically "girly".) It's sad that it wasn't until a few years ago when I see things made for kids now, with female protagonists who I wish existed when I was a kid.

I know there's a thing about making girls all ass-kicky which is reinforcing the stereotype that you need "manly" traits to be considered "strong" and therefore you still have a sexist character, but you know what? I want to see more lady ass-kickers who can take charge and lead a group. We call those traits "manly" because they've historically been used by males, but that doesn't make leadership an inherently manly thing. I get bothered by people who say a woman is conforming to men's standards by being a badass - isn't that you putting a limit on what a woman can be?

The Avatar universe is renown for having some of the best female characters around. It and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic are showing that girls come in all varieties and you should never be called out for being something a bit different. Toph and Rainbow Dash are oftentimes pegged as being lesbians (the latter more than the former, especially due to the color scheme, but have you HEARD of Lisa Frank?), while they're characters I pretty much identify with the most. Strong, kind of a jerk, but still a good heart - that's me. I wish they were around when I was growing up, where instead I was told to stop playing DBZ with my Barbie dolls.

I know we're trying to be all like, accepting and open and stuff, but at the risk of sounding like an insensitive ass, I'm a bit tired of it. Why is a girl not allowed to ride on a horse and shoot arrows and not want to wear a confining dress and not want to be forced into an arrange marriage - or be smart and not "attractive" - and so therefore MUST be a lesbian? Like, what? By forcing these interpretations, you're alienating the people who finally have someone they can look up to. I'm not saying you can't have a gay role model if you're straight, but on the same token, it's a limiting factor. "They're just like me except not, so I guess they're really not like me". Not all the time, but too often, I'm told by media that I can't have a male love interest in my life if I kick some asses and take charge along the way. And I'm really tired of it.

[oronoda.livejournal.com]

The Avatar universe is renown for having some of the best female characters around. It and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic are showing that girls come in all varieties and you should never be called out for being something a bit different. Toph and Rainbow Dash are oftentimes pegged as being lesbians (the latter more than the former, especially due to the color scheme, but have you HEARD of Lisa Frank?), while they're characters I pretty much identify with the most. Strong, kind of a jerk, but still a good heart - that's me. I wish they were around when I was growing up, where instead I was told to stop playing DBZ with my Barbie dolls.

This! Okay, so rainbows mean lesbian? I guess Punky Brewster must have been a lesbian too along with everyone in the 80's.

As for Toph, it is pretty clear that she has a crush on Sokka.

As I said before, there is nothing wrong with thinking "I like the idea of..." but when you start to think it is true in canon, that is when there are problems.

Also, I really wish we had MLP as a kid. Maybe I wouldn't have run into as many bitch cliches as I did.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

Sora from Digimon was a favorite of mine - a tomboy who didn't follow her mother's wishes but still had the crest of Love but still wasn't stereotypically "girly".

I loved Sora, too. Too bad Season 02 happened. :P


I was an extreme tomboy when I was 11-14 years old. And the "lol ur a dyke" jokes were endless. I also wish that shows like Avatar and Friendship is Magic existed back then so that more people could see examples of female characters who don't act and look like super-powered Barbie dolls.

[oronoda.livejournal.com]

Word, word, word to everything you said here.

All that article does is reinforce stereotypes.

This kind of reminds me of a rpg I used to run. It was Harry Potter universe focusing on a magic school in Japan. My friend created a character who was an incredible girly-girl. The Played-by was a pretty attractive girl. Yeah, she loved Quidditch but she liked to watch it not play it. And she was a heavily closeted lesbian. In her words, "Sexually, she lives in Narnia and probably, due to cultural reasons, will probably never come out."

One of the players in the game, which earned her much ire, was, "Oh, she can't be a lesbian! She's too girly!" And she wasn't even saying it to be facesious. She said it as if to say, "Lesbians are butch!"

Also, I really wonder if the person who wrote that even noticed Merida looked somewhat interested in the big buff guy or at the end she let the guys try to court her like a normal person.

I'm sick and tired of a portion of feminists ruining good things. I read one review that said, "The fact that the father was accepting of her is false because the movie doesn't take into the consideration the concept of patriarchy." Why, so fathers can't be supportive of their daughters? When my dad said he was so proud of me when I finished up my tour of duty, was he supposed to say get back in the kitchen you dumb floozy?

This constant criticism of female characters has gotten to the point in which I don't want to write female characters because I don't want these types of feminists to destroy it because she doesn't fit this ideal, an ideal that I don't even think these feminists know what it is anymore.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

One of the players in the game, which earned her much ire, was, "Oh, she can't be a lesbian! She's too girly!" And she wasn't even saying it to be facesious. She said it as if to say, "Lesbians are butch!"

Clearly, this person has never heard of "Lipstick Lesbians". Granted, that's a stereotype, too. But at least it acknowledges that more than one type of gay woman exists.


Also, I really wonder if the person who wrote that even noticed Merida looked somewhat interested in the big buff guy or at the end she let the guys try to court her like a normal person.

One of my friends has the Brave artbook. Turns out Brave originally had a romantic subplot that ended with Merida choosing the buff, mumbly guy. The romance subplot is in the original storyboards. But it was cut out when they started animating it because the director thought it distracted from the main story about the family.

[animenutcase.livejournal.com]

This constant criticism of female characters has gotten to the point in which I don't want to write female characters because I don't want these types of feminists to destroy it because she doesn't fit this ideal, an ideal that I don't even think these feminists know what it is anymore.

Feminism has reached a point where a lot of female characters are contradictory. It demands that we create ~*~Strong Female Characters~*~, who are strong and perfect and can do no wrong, even when the characters in question are being jerks to their boyfriend/husband/etc. At the same time, however, we are required to only see women as Helpless Victims That Things Simply Happen To, rather than characters responsible for their own actions. If something bad happens to the character that could have been avoided had she used better judgement, you better not comment on it, otherwise you're "victim blaming".

[kataoi.livejournal.com]

I remember she saw the big muscle guy, who then stepped away to reveal the real son of...someone. I forgot which Lord it was. But I do remember Merida being like "oh okay this might not be so bad". Actually, I'm glad they got rid of the romance subplot, because in a short movie like that, you can't afford to waste time on things you don't need did somebody say LEGEND OF KORRA?! okay no let's not bring this up here.

[gratuitous-love.livejournal.com]

All I had to do was look at the title of the post to know what this was all about.

Unfortunately though, this sort of thing just does not surprise me from people anymore. The best way I can think of to describe it is that it's very similar to how extremely hardcore shippers act -- they're going to find "evidence" to support their claim, no matter how obtuse and out there it may be, and God help you if you think otherwise. You can do all you can to refute it, but they're going to find it anyway. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to step up, but at the same time, I've seen this enough to know that people like this are too narrow-minded and pretty much a lost cause.

Like it's been said, this article is pretty universally reviled from both sides of the equation for pretty much the exact same reason, and that it perpetuates dangerous stereotypes and ultimately hurts the LGBT cause more than it does help. It's especially noteworthy on Tumblr -- the Brave tag is nigh-unsearchable because literally 90% of the posts are people raging on why the article is crap, with a good number of them being "hey I identify as gay/lesbian and this is extremely hurtful", etc. [Which, I'm glad people are being united over this, but I wanted to find nice gifs and graphics, not the same article being slammed over and over again...]

[x-1013-x.livejournal.com]

I am offended by that article. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against gays or gay characters (unless they're overly stereotypical and/or assholes), but I do have something against people making assumptions based on stereotypes. I was a tomboy, still am. I don't like super-tight dresses. I like a lot of boyish activities and I'm not afraid to speak my mind. But I have never had an issue with my sexuality. It's ignorant on the part of this person to assume that a girl who doesn't like frilly girly things is a lesbian. What would they think if someone saw an African American character on screen and instantly assumed this character was a thug or an Asian character who just had to be good at math? They'd be accused of racism in two seconds flat. This person is just crazy and should apologize for offending the LGBT community and the straight community with their ignorance.

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

Wow. By that article's standards, I've always been a lesbian in denial. (Please don't tell my husband of 8½ years that our very happy heterosexual marriage is a sham.) I also have several single female friends with no prospects good enough for them who are very intelligent, well-educated, and basically all around awesome, who are... also not lesbians. The ones who have female best friends get the lesbian thing a lot. Since when can people not just be friends?! Although it's not limited to making girl friends lesbians; my husband and I were actually 100% platonic for a while after we met, but we were best friends, and NO ONE could get that through their heads but us. (Which of course made it really hard for us to tell each other when our feelings had eventually changed, but it worked out. =o) )

Interesting about the romance resolution subplot someone mentioned was removed. I thought she might be kind of into the mumbly guy too. Except for the mumbling, I kinda thought he could be her Peeta. ;o)

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

If the lulz is this bad now, I can't wait until Sailor Moon returns in new anime form, and we'll get a good dose of this. Yay?

Oh, well, I miss the days, when character X or Y isn't busy with the opposite sex, it doesn't necessarily mean "he or she is asexual or homosexual." Does everything have to revolve around sex lives, even with fictional characters?

Yeah, stupid question.

[agentverona.livejournal.com]

.....Wait, is Sailor Moon being re-done? Or were you just using that as an example?...

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Yet another reason to hate Entertainment Weakly. What a stupid article.

[farchivist.livejournal.com]

Did you know that Brave is anti-princess because it's anti-boy? (Source: kidfocused.com/brave-proves-its-anti-princess-by-being-anti-boy/)

Or how about this movie review from MovieGuide, the discerning movie entertainment guide for Christians:

Content:
(RoRo, FeFe, OO, C, B, VV, N, A, M) Strong Romantic, feminist worldview with strong occult elements stressing following your heart rather then doing what is right, with a witch creating spells and spirits leading the main character to the witch and guiding her, with a redemptive, moral scene of repentance and forgiveness; no foul language, some burping; several scenes of men fighting, man punches other man, bear attacks; kissing; upper male nudity, male rear nudity, man “moons” other men; drinking; no smoking or drug use; and, young children steal food and rebellious children talk back to parents and authority figures

Summary:
BRAVE is an animated movie about a princess who wants to change her destiny when her parents want her to get married, so she asks a witch for a spell to change their minds. BRAVE is a surprising movie for Pixar with a clear feminist message and a strong Romantic worldview with strong occult content, mitigated by a redemptive, moral scene of repentance and forgiveness. Strong caution is recommended.

Review:
BRAVE is a surprising movie for Pixar with a clear feminist message, Romantic worldview, and strong occult content.

Growing up as a Princess, Merida has been training all her life to one day be Queen. Her mother, Queen Elinor, loves her dearly, but also gives her directions on how to be the best princess. Her father, King Fergus, enjoys her tomboy ways, including her skill at archery and riding. This creates in Merida a longing to make her own way and not listen to the concerns of others.

Suitors come to the castle to compete for Merida. They are the first born boys of the three neighboring tribes. Appalled at their poor archery skills, Merida decides to take on the challenge for herself, and clearly beats out the men competing. The suitors don’t seem suitable, and Merida wants to take action and follows the magical “wisp” spirits that lead her to a witch. Merida has a wish and asks the witch to create a spell that will change her mother’s mind so she won’t have to marry.

Taking the spell which looks like a delicious cake, Merida is so overjoyed that she doesn’t get to hear the downside to the spell from the witch and quickly gives it to her mother. Almost instantly, Queen Elinor turns into a bear. Of course, this wasn’t what Merida expected at all! The King hunts bears for revenge because he lost his leg to a bear saving his family years before. Merida has to escape with her mother, now a bear, from the castle to save her mother. Merida has to try to reverse the spell before it becomes permanent. She learns from a message from the witch that she and her mother have to reconcile. Each has to learn to love, listen, and humble themselves in order to work together and fight the spell.

BRAVE is beautifully animated, as is the fashion for Pixar. The interesting thing about BRAVE is that, aside from the animation quality, it doesn’t feel like a Pixar movie. BRAVE is definitely for older children. A clear message is the main character wanting independence from marriage and free will to create her own destiny. Merida is not a charming, sweet young girl, but rather whines about having to follow her mother’s principles of being a princess. Though she does humble herself and ask forgiveness, children shouldn’t replicate most of Merida’s behavior.

BRAVE has a strong Romantic, feminist worldview about following your heart first rather than God’s Kingdom or God’s Righteousness. Merida fights to create her own destiny, rather than do what is right. She also lets spirits guide her actions, which is occult. As God warns in Deuteronomy 18:10,11: “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.”

Thus, MOVIEGUIDE® advises strong caution regarding BRAVE.

(Source: movieguide.org/reviews/movie/brave.html)

[neemarita.livejournal.com]

Those Christian movie guides are nuts. My husband was never allowed to watch anything Disney growing up because it's supposedly anti-Christian. Yeah, whatever. We saw Brave and enjoyed it. Our kid will see it and other films. Oh noes, fairy tales have witches and spirits in them! .... Yeeeah.