Fiesty princesses
Jun. 4th, 2012 02:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
minutia_rSo, Pixar’s Brave.
Opinion has been divided on the issue: Either it’s going to be awesome and the art looks awesome and Merida is kickass and awesome, or it’s troubling that the only story about a girl that’s worth telling is the one where she wants to do boy stuff.
I am mostly in the first camp. Mostly because the art actually does look awesome. (Seriously, you had me at promotional tapestries.) Also, I love stories about princesses with swords (or in this case, bows and arrows) and always have; I will eat that shit with a spoon. (Also, it’s not like there aren’t a ton of Disney movies about a girl who does want to marry the prince and does marry the prince. Which is great and I love many of those too.)
But, well—why is it that “plucky girl defies her parents and rejects all suitors in order to become a warrior” is inherently interesting, and “plucky girl defies her parents and rejects all suitors in order to become a nun” is not? I guarantee you the second one has been a lot more common throughout history, in any culture where “nun” or some equivalent was a thing.
Partially I think it’s a discomfort with religion, or an inability to tell stories about religion without being evangelical, which is kind of silly—I read stories about violent people all the time while not being violent myself, why should I have to be religious in order to read about religious people?
(Disclaimer: I am religious. But there have never been Jewish nuns.)
But it’s also—if you want to tell a story about nuns, people will say, “Okay, but why should I read this? What makes it interesting?” Whereas if people are hitting each other with swords, you don’t have to ask; of course that’s interesting. (People kissing is also interesting, in the junior leagues of interesting that include “interesting to girls”.)
I dunno, maybe I should go read some literary fiction or something. But … most of it’s not very interesting?
Opinion has been divided on the issue: Either it’s going to be awesome and the art looks awesome and Merida is kickass and awesome, or it’s troubling that the only story about a girl that’s worth telling is the one where she wants to do boy stuff.
I am mostly in the first camp. Mostly because the art actually does look awesome. (Seriously, you had me at promotional tapestries.) Also, I love stories about princesses with swords (or in this case, bows and arrows) and always have; I will eat that shit with a spoon. (Also, it’s not like there aren’t a ton of Disney movies about a girl who does want to marry the prince and does marry the prince. Which is great and I love many of those too.)
But, well—why is it that “plucky girl defies her parents and rejects all suitors in order to become a warrior” is inherently interesting, and “plucky girl defies her parents and rejects all suitors in order to become a nun” is not? I guarantee you the second one has been a lot more common throughout history, in any culture where “nun” or some equivalent was a thing.
Partially I think it’s a discomfort with religion, or an inability to tell stories about religion without being evangelical, which is kind of silly—I read stories about violent people all the time while not being violent myself, why should I have to be religious in order to read about religious people?
(Disclaimer: I am religious. But there have never been Jewish nuns.)
But it’s also—if you want to tell a story about nuns, people will say, “Okay, but why should I read this? What makes it interesting?” Whereas if people are hitting each other with swords, you don’t have to ask; of course that’s interesting. (People kissing is also interesting, in the junior leagues of interesting that include “interesting to girls”.)
I dunno, maybe I should go read some literary fiction or something. But … most of it’s not very interesting?
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Date: 2012-06-04 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-04 06:41 am (UTC)