Merida, the star of Disney’s movie Brave, was recently inducted into Princess-hood at Disney Parks. There was much controversy surrounding her induction, since they changed the image of the untamed, independent young women into that of the skinny, frilly classic Disney princess. However, there are deeper issues at play within the actual plot of the movie, hidden by Disney’s apparent stride toward disproving female stereotypes.

1. We don’t mind the dumbing down of the male suitors because we are focused on the theme of female empowerment.

I think that most of us got pretty excited when we realized that Disney had finally created a princess who doesn’t need a man to make her happy. Princess stereotypes weren’t going to work on this movie. However, Disney instead brought in male stereotypes in efforts to make their representation of women seem less clichéd. Let’s break down the suitors one by one. The first, of the Macintosh clan, is portrayed as a traditional worthy Disney prince but with a side of outright arrogance typically not made noticeable in other Disney princes (except for in the case of Flynn Rider, where his arrogance is more charming). The representative of the MacGuffin clan is overweight and awkward, although incredibly strong, and seems to have very little confidence. The Dingwall representative is at first masked by a massive, muscular prince, only to later step out from behind the huge man and reveal himself to be short, oddly shaped, and seemingly slow-witted. Merida is clearly not impressed by any of these princes. However, the fact that Merida judges and later insults each of these suitors shows that Disney almost reverse stereotypes the men in the movie. It would be more aligned with Disney’s feminist objective for the movie if Merida had only immediately rejected the arrogant suitor, as this would show that Merida refuses to believe that the prince is better than herself. However, her rejection of the more awkward princes isolates and insults people who are different in a way other than Merida; just because the other suitors are not females, Disney believes that they can be criticized for the sake of preserving the message of female empowerment in the movie. However, Merida’s unfair rejection of these princes shows a clear step backward in Disney’s efforts to achieve a message of equality in their films.

2. We ignore the fact that Merida is still essentially a princess because of her outward defiance toward everything that a princess does.

Yes, of course we know Merida’s a princess. Why is that a bad thing? Well, we were all relieved when we found out that Merida wouldn’t be chasing after her perfect man throughout the film, so it wasn’t just another story about a princess finding love. However, the plot line of Brave still essentially revolved around men, just in the opposite way of typical Disney movies; instead of chasing men, Merida was running away from them. The argument that Merida is differentiating herself from the typical princess can continue forever, and personally I agree, but there is no disputing the fact that the plot of the movie is still based on the typical princess problem of marriage. The reason why the movie exists is still because of the idea of finding a man. Therefore, Merida is still on the most basic level a typical Disney princess worrying about her marriage prospects.

3. We forget that Mor’du is another human being because of our original association with his person as a bear.

The implication in the movie was that Mor’du was terrible and cruel to his brothers and that his transformation into a bear was just punishment for his wickedness. However, Brave is all about seeing things from another person’s perspective. So although Mor’du was portrayed as a symbol of wickedness, Disney really should have afforded him a chance to be looked upon with more sympathy. And let’s not forget that although Mor’du had been transformed into a bear, there is still a very gray line that establishes him as a human being who has lost the ability to control his actions. Although we do pity the King for having lost some of his leg to Mor’du, it can be assumed that Mor’du did not do this out of a hatred for the king; he was just unable to control the nature of the bear in which he was trapped. Thus, it puts us in a moral dilemma; was it right for the King to have killed this human being, or was he doing the trapped soul a justice by setting him free?

I hope these points gave you something to think about. Even if you disagree, please let me know in the comments below. And as always, have a magical day!