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therightfangirl2012-07-09 10:52 pm
brendala.livejournal.com) wrote in therightfangirl2012-07-09 10:52 pm
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WTF review of 'Brave': EW article says "Girl not wanting arranged marriage=LESBIAN"
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).
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).
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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.
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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.
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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".
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I'm tired of 95-pound female cops and soldiers who win physical fights with big, thuggish attackers on TV.
That actually sends a rather dangerous message.
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That actually sends a rather dangerous message.
This is one of my big pet peeves with female heroes (mainly, superheroes). It's VERY hard for me to suspend disbelief and buy that a 95 pound, non-Kryptonian model could take a man 10 times her size with her mad martial arts skillz. In real life, even if a woman is the best martial artist on the planet, it's highly unlikely that she'll be able to take someone who towers over her (ESPECIALLY if she's clad in a bikini and heels).
I know it's fantasy. But it's hard for me to get lost in the fantasy when all the male heroes possess the proper build and wardrobe for crime fighting but NONE of the women do.
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"God made man and woman, but Samuel Colt made them equal"
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Unfortunately, I don't think a lot of the women in the media actually train in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. They just rely on "grrl power".
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did somebody say LEGEND OF KORRA?! okay no let's not bring this up here.no subject