Pretty Pretty Princess

So I just read this post by the ladies over at Being Lovely which also refers to this post by Shannon Hale. In some respects my post follows my other recent post about my totally reconstructed views regarding feminism. Now Disney has always been accused of being anti-feminist or whatever--we discussed this at some length in my Advanced Critical Theory class--but Disney made me a "feminist," which is probably at the root of my problems with classic academic gender feminists.

Anyway, if we look at the television shows and movies I own, there is a recurring theme of interesting female characters. I shall guide you through a portion of my DVD shelf. First up Gilmore Girls, the center of which is the mother/daughter team of the Lorelais who are smart, witty, funny, and culturally literate women. Mother/Grandmother Emily Gilmore is another strong female character, and the bucket of neuroses known as Paris Geller is my favorite character on the show. The West Wing (my favorite show) is lousy with men, as real-life politics are, but my favorite characters are the women: Press-Secretary C.J. Cregg, Josh's assistant Donna, Republican Counsel Ainsley Hayes, women's activist Amy Gardner, and the firecracker of a First Lady, Abigail Bartlet, played by Stockard Channing. I also own a couple of seasons of Sex and the City, a gynocentric show to be sure. Finally, in the HBO miniseries Angels in America, my favorite character is Harper played to perfection by Mary-Louise Parker.

Moving on to movies, my favorite of course is The Hours headed by three real women: Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf writing Mrs. Dalloway, Julianne Moore as a 1950s housewife suffocated by familial duties and the era's malaise, and Meryl Streep as a contemporary society hostess. These are the lead characters and they're fascinating. The book and the film ignited my love of Virginia Woolf, a fascinating woman and writer. We have Out of Africa starring Meryl Streep as the strong-willed Karen von Blixen (who was also a writer; psuedonym Isak Dinesen). V for Vendetta stars Natalie Portman as the lead character. Casino Royale features Judi Dench as M and sexy Eva Green as the feisty Vesper Lynd, one of the few (if not the only) women with whom Bond truly falls in love. Kill Bill follows The Bride, female assassin-extraordinaire. White Oleander is a story of a mother's love and a daughter's struggle for independence. It features a diverse array of female characters. I especially love Michelle Pfeiffer's brilliant portrayal of the manipulative mother, Ingrid. We have Drew Barrymore as the free-spirited heroine in Ever After who rescues the prince and even herself. In Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett dazzles as the Virgin Queen with the heart of a lion. She also reigns in The Lord of the Rings as the ambiguous Elven queen. Audrey Hepburn turns in an iconic performance as Holly Golightly.

I know some people have proposed eliminating the "Best Actress" awards categories as sexist, and just having Best Actor categories for male and female actors instead, but I'm always much more interested in the actress nominees, and I'm not entirely sure the nominations would be shared equally.

And then we reach the Disney Princesses. A child of the "Disney Renaissance," we begin with The Little Mermaid, which centers on Ariel, a strong-willed daughter who rebels against her father. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle is a girl who reads!--can you believe it?!--who learns that beauty is more than skin-deep. In Aladdin, Jasmine declares "I am no prize to be won!" In Hercules we have the sardonic Megara. And in Mulan, our eponymous character dons men's armor and proves she's just as good as any man. While Sleeping Beauty, one of my personal favorites, features an excessively passive princess, it also has the perpetually charming good fairies and Maleficent, who I think is the best Disney villain ever.

Now, I'm not saying that all of these characters are strong women or ideal role-models for girls, but they are interesting female characters. (A "good" feminist should be able to tell you everything wrong with Disney.) The Disney princesses made me interested in female characters which in turn made me interested in women. Now maybe I was predisposed to like women and female characters since I'm gay. I mean I played with my sisters' Barbie dolls more than they did, and I even had a Little Mermaid board game (seriously, how did my parent's not know!?). I forgot where I was going with this, but I think Disney films can be important as cultural heritage and collective memory. It's up to parents to know what their kids are watching and to be aware of the messages, explicit or implicit, the media is preaching. Finally, you wouldn't have books like Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber or Anne Sexton's Transformations without the Brothers Grimm. You also wouldn't have songs like "Hallelujah," "Samson," "Past the Mission," or "Building a Mystery" without the Bible and religion. You actually wouldn't have a lot of literature without the Bible.

So anyway, I think I wrote this because I'm in love with interesting female characters in TV and film, and they do exist. Also, patriarchal texts can be rich for female subversion. Now I really want to watch a princess movie.


In Other News: Classes end tomorrow. I don't have any finals scheduled next week because this is library school, though I do have a JavaScript project due next week. Dammit. But after tomorrow (at 11:45pm) I will be mostly free. I should be doing homework right now. I hope to get some good reading in over spring break. I started reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay at the beginning of the quarter, and while it's very good, I got stuck because at times it's very description heavy. Sometimes, you need to reset your reading, and I think I'll do that with To Kill A Mockingbird. It's such a great novel yet easily accessible. I often prefer to reread a book than read a new one anyway, and it's been so long since I've read Mockingbird that it will still be interesting. After my post on feminism, I picked up Sexual Personae again, which I had stopped reading once grad school started. Anyway, better get back to homework.