I REALLY have to get ready for bed so I will just copy/paste relevant info from this article. Prepare yourself for executive BS of the highest grade

…In response, A Mighty Girl released a petition to Disney that outlines the reasons why the redesign is problematic. The petition culminates with a request: to pull the new 2D Merida and restore the character to her original form.

Yesterday, Disney executives went on record regarding the petition. They’re refusing to retract the new Merida—and their comments show they’ve missed the point.

The L.A. Times reports on the refusal to retract the new Merida:

“Disney has no intention of abandoning its sexier version of the Scottish archer featured in the movie, “Brave.”

The modified Merida was created specifically to welcome the character into the company’s princess collection. And according to a Disney representativeon Wednesday, the image of Merida that sparked this maelstrom is part of a limited run of products including backpacks and pajamas. But images of the original Merida will also be available on consumer products, the Disney representative said.”

No one ever doubted that the original Merida would still be available on products; the objection is to the new Merida redesign. Full stop. The fact that it’s “part of a limited run” doesn’t make it any less problematic.

A Disney representative expanded on their stance in an exclusive interview with fan site Inside the Magic, calling the controversy “blown out of proportion.” This makes clear that Disney execs either don’t truly understand the objections, or are willfully ignoring them.

According to Inside the Magic:

“[Disney] had no intention of changing who Merida is. The artwork that has circulated online depicting the new 2D rendering of Merida was intended to be used only on a “limited line of products” as a “one-time stylized version.” They noted Disney uses different styles of art on characters regularly, changing them to fit their needs at the time.

….So, Disney’s justification for making the change is that Merida herself wanted to dress up for her coronation ceremony. This seems disingenuous: Merida is a fictional character who doesn’t want anything – and besides, at the actual coronation in the Magic Kingdom, Merida was dressed in attire more closely resembling her outfit from the film than from the new 2D art.

And where is this “limited line of products” to be sold? At Target, according to Inside the Magic. Have a look atTarget’s main page for the Disney Princesses.

It’s all about the new Merida, and it features rather frightening products, like this doll with spindly space alien arms.

…This brings us to the crux of the matter: If Disney hopes that the girl empowerment community and our allies will be placated because 2D Merida is only temporary, they’re missing the point. People are up in arms because the changes to Merida — even if temporary in nature — completely undercut the character, selling girls short.

…. Let’s call on Disney to address their poor decision to redesign Merida in the first place—however temporary and “limited” that change might be and reassure us that they will treat this character with integrity in the future.

Sign the petition here.

——-

P.S. I hope A Mighty Girl will consider updating the petition to a) include Target, which is apparently to be the main retailer of products featuring the new 2D Merida; and b) respond to Disney’s response, outlined above.

Read the article, it was long so I cut some parts out for reblogging. Also, to be clear, the new Merida is still on the Target site as of now, and that is one of their main retailers. Disney has NOT completely pulled the design or said they would pull it. Sneaky

Like if Disney just cannot LET itself have non-traditionally feminine-glittery princesses in its princess line,

could you at least make a “heroine” line of girls or something?

Isn’t there anywhere, where the Meridas and Mulans of this world

don’t have to constrict themselves in ways that are really not at all in keeping with their movie personas?

You’re playing me if you think there isn’t a viable market for the real them.

I had this saved this issue a draft from another site but wanted to wait on it since it has some problematic ish, but then Sociological Images posted this today, so I will mostly just copy a lot of what they have, since I agree with it.

In 2006, The Walt Disney Company bought the computer-animated feature film powerhouse Pixar.  This makes the lead of their most recent movie, Brave (2012), not just a princess, but aDisney Princess.  Merida is having a royal coronation at the Magic Kingdom this morning.

For her coronation, the princess has gotten a good ol’ Disney makeover. On the left is the new Merida (“after”) and on the right is the old Merida (“before”).  Notice any differences?

Here are the ones that I see:

• Sleeker, longer hair with more body
• Larger eyes and more arched eyebrows
• Plumper lips
• A thinner waist
• More obvious breasts
• An overall more adult and less adolescent appearance
• Lighter colored and more ornate gown
• A lower cut neckline that also shows more shoulder
• Perhaps most symbolically, her bow and arrows have disappeared in favor of a fashionable belt

Never thought about how her bow was actually replaced by the fashion belt… the “belt” she’s wearing before is actually holding her arrows in place! Her face is thinner and her upper arms are, oddly, shortened. Her eyes also seem to have eyeliner/more emphasis in that way. The waist nipping really is just… why did you have to do that? She’s a child.

This just makes me sad because really I remember being actually impressed that she did look more adolescent, and I liked that her face wasn’t traditionally pretty. It seemed like at least an interesting move for Disney. Not so much, now. 

You can check out their site for their collection of toys and characters that have received “sexy makeovers.”

So this is pretty bad. When I originally read the title, I thought they were holding back sick days from their own employees, which is bad enough. But no. Disney went and influenced the ENTIRE STATE’S voting on sick days. I usually just quote sections of articles and encourage you to read the rest, but I honestly feel like most of it is worth reading. 

Pressure from Disney World has influenced the Florida Senate to take a big step back in guaranteeing paid sick days for workers.

The Florida Senate voted Friday to prevent local communities their enacting their own wage and benefits laws until a statewide study can be conducted, The Orlando Sentinel reports.

The bill, which would at least delay efforts to guarantee all workers paid sick days was drafted with the support of Disney World and Darden Restaurants, the company behind Olive Garden and Red Lobster, as well as the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

“Today, Republicans in the Florida Senate stood up for corporations like Disney and Darden and against the interests of families who believe their own communities know what is best for them,” Stephanie Porta, an advocate for those seeking paid-sick days,said in a statement.

Family organization MomsRising.org is spearheading efforts to fight back. The group claims that this week, Disney World refused to accept a petition with 6,000 signaturesdemanding that the resort stop pushing legislation that stands in the way of earned sick time initiatives.

Neither Darden nor Disney World responded to voicemails from The Huffington Post requesting comment. MomsRising also was not available for comment.

The move is the latest in a drawn-out battle. Disney World and Darden worked to keep a measure requiring paid sick days off the ballot last November. Workers also have complained that the resort does not pay a living wage, Reuters reported in 2010. That same year, Disney agreed to pay $433,819 to employees in back wages after an investigation uncovered the resort had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to Occupational Health and Safety.

It pisses me off on two levels. First, I come across this article after seeing other headlines about how the price of Disney shares are at a record high. They’re not hurting for money; they’re rolling in it. Second, just from reading the blogs of people who work there, their employees go waay above and beyond the call of duty constantly, and deal with bad hours, bad commutes, low wages, sometimes very rude customers, and as a reward for helping to keep alive the Disney magic…

Disney is actively pushing for legislation that discourages them from taking off work when they are ill. Cool

Also, here’s some info I wrote down in case the review wasn’t going to be long enough (in my head they will always be too short and that has almost never been the case, so). Nothing too exciting, information from wikipedia and some other places put together.

On a purely Disney historical level, the Rescuers is interesting as a real sort of midpoint between “old Disney” and “new Disney”, and as such, the film does seem to reflect the simplicity of movies like Snow White and Cinderella, yet is building toward the increased humor and more complex character narratives that the Renaissance era movies would bring.

The planning for this movie actually began when Walt Disney was still around, and it was the first movie that combined some of the original crew (like the “nine old men”) with newer writers and animators, such as Don Bluth and Glen Keane, who would later become huge names in animation. This was the first animated Disney film to have a sequel.

The villain, Miss Medusa, is pretty scary. Interestingingly, Cruella de Vil was considered for recasting in this role before the studio decided they didn’t want to make it a sequel to the 101 Dalmatians. 

Cameo to look for: Bambi!

My take: 2.7 stars/4 (see bottom for detail)

As tv tropes blithely states, this movie is about

“Two mice, Miss Bianca (Eva Gabor) and Bernard (Bob Newhart), travel around the world to rescue cute human children while dealing with their own unresolved sexual tension.”

Close enough. We’ll start from the beginning. The film opens in an international NY airport. The crowd here is pretty diverse, so even though all the main human characters end up being white, the movie at least acknowledges global racial diversity. Which isn’t saying much, but it again serves as an odd comparison point for modern Disney movies  that couldn’t do event that. Anyway. It gets a little more interesting once mice representatives climb out of their respective suitcases and make their way to a  delegation for a mouse organization known as the Rescue Aid Society.

The corresponding mice are also diverse in appearance and implied race, though some of these mice rely on cultural and racial stereotypes of appearance (Presumably Chinese mouse in the opening has buck teeth, is pretty yellow toned, etc). Disney has had many past issues with portraying asian stereotypes through animal characterization (x y z)

Not all representations here were negative or based in outright stereotyping, of course. Many cultures have different clothing etc. norms, and it was positive that they were all shown to be undeniably good countries/mice for having this international meeting.  When the delegation meets, note that an exception to countries being listed on their name plates is the representative for “Africa.” This is not just a typing error, but reflects a larger issue with how the west reductively views Africa as a singular place and story rather than a diverse group of people, countries, languages, cultures, et cetera. 

What’s the No. 1 stereotype about Africa? Arguably, that Africa’s not a continent, but a country. Ever hear someone refer to African food or African art or even the African language? Such individuals have no idea that Africa’s the second largest continent in the world. Instead, they view it as a tiny country with no distinct traditions, cultures or ethnic groups.

They fail to realize that referring to, say, African food sounds just as odd as referring to North American food or the North American language or the North American people. Africa’s home to 53 countries, including island-nations along the continent’s coast. These countries contain diverse groups of people who speak a variety of languages and practice a wide range of customs.  

-racerelations.about.com 

Moving on. There is an interesting moment when Bianca steps up and asks for the assignment. The head of the delegation blusters,  ”You? …dear lady… it’s absolutely without precedent. However, I suppose, there has to be a first time.” He then mutters to himself, “A janitor and a lady! Good heavens.”  

He sounds incredulous. Yet he smiles as he says it, and neither he nor anyone else at the delegation even suggest that they might not be able to finish the job. A bit of second wave feminism for you there, I suppose, but then, it was the 1970s. I thought it was also interesting that the janitor was her- chosen by Bianca, too- companion. I thought that was a positive choice since it sort of flies in the face of a lot of classist denotations of who “ought” to represent a country, etc.

When it comes to Bianca, many people have asked me to talk about her, and she is an interesting character. She has a lot of the marks of “traditional” (aka culturally approved) femininity- soft voice, naturally eyeshadowed eyes (how do you do that you’re not even human!), wears flowery smelling perfume that alligators are attracted to, and her figure is more “hour glass” than that of the other mice. As the audience, we are not surprised when all the men in the delegation eagerly volunteer to be her partner. 

So in many ways her character does seem to uphold a lot of expectations about how the ideal woman should act, look, et cetera. She has an old world cinema appeal to her.

What I like about Bianca is that she is very self-assured. She does not struggle with trying to prove she is equal to men, even in a world that, for all appearances, seems quite surprised she would even try. She assumes without doubt that she is equal and acts upon it. She moves through the world expecting it to treat her right. She is not afraid. Bianca does not wait for the assignment to be given to her. She strolls up and basically says, “I would be great for that!” 

Most of the time she and Bernard are shown to be equals although “Help, Bernard!” is heard fairly often throughout. He often makes a lot of half hearted attempts to be “the man” in a situation and goes first when he thinks it is dangerous. When push comes to shove though, she pulls her own weight. In the tunnel where Penny is being forced to search for the diamond, Bernard goes down first to make sure it is safe, but who ends up having to save him when he almost falls down the hole of tide water? Bianca does. 

As a child character, Penny served her purpose for the plot. She was characterized as vulnerable almost to the point of being a giant sack of audience teardrops. But, Penny rallies and has a lot more grit than you would expect from a tiny orphan girl whose kidnapping captor feels comfortable telling her something like “No family would ever want a child like you.” Penny is not afraid to run away. She runs away from the boat into a Louisiana Swamp with alligators in it. She actually takes a jibe at Mr.Snoops by reminding him that he’s afraid of Medusa’s pet alligators, but she is not. And indeed, she has no issue taking a swing at them while yelling, “Put me down, Brutus!” At the end of the day, she is a brave little girl.

I felt less positive about Miss Medusa, especially owing to the unfortunate circumstance of name (consider how the story of the original Medusa is a reflection of patriarchal values buuut old tyme history isn’t my thing so anyway). In the one scene where she is talked to Penny, the “camera” zooms in and we watch as she plucks her fake eyelashes off her eyelid. Not the biggest deal, but overall it seemed like there was a statement being made about “fake” femininity. Basically, it is the age old lose-lose story; women are bad if they do not “take care” of themselves by wearing makeup and “freshening up,” yet will be mocked if they wear more makeup or have brighter hair etc. than what looks “natural.” Also note that Medusa is hyper focused on getting the diamond- material possession and something she thinks will bring her power.

…Miss Hattie also furthers the notion that women can’t handle power (it turns them evil) and, further, that a woman who does not love children is truly heinous. Like Miss Hannigan of Annie or Medusa of The Rescuers, Miss Hattie is bad not because she is a world-threatening villain (as Gru and Vector are) but because she refuses to abide by the norms of femininity—a key requirement of which is to be nurturing.

-Ms. Magazine (also note the contrast with the feminine Bianca, whose seemingly only fear in the world is for something to happen to “that poor, poor child.”)

Besides all that overly feminist dissection, on a purely wow level, Medusa is so scary! She basically says multiple times- and by all means appears to mean it- that she is okay with Penny drowning in a dark tunnel by the ocean if she cannot find the giant diamond in time. They lower her down via a rickety bucket. And the diamond? Is stuck in a skull that will not pry open. Pretty intense imagery there for a children’s movie.

Finally, I wasn’t sure how okay the swamp people were in terms of fair representation. As you might have noticed, there were not a whole lot of reviews, especially feminist ones, available for this movie, so the above and the below quotes are actually excerpts from other Disney movie reviews with similar problems, that cross-compare to The Rescuers. 

Further, the stereotypical hill-billy representation of the frog hunters and the lightning bugs rubbed me the wrong way. The two-fingered idiocy and gap-toothed naivite of these Bayou characters traded in the typical “oh, aren’t these backwoods people dumb” humor that also colored earlier films such as The Rescuers and Pete’s Dragon. 

-professorwhatif

Overall I would say this film fairs fairly typically among Disney’s lineup in terms of (not especially) adhering to the intersectional ideals of third wave feminism. I think it would be fine for most kids.

(also note: I am aware it is based on a book.)

———————

Promotion/Equal Voice given to women: ***~

Representation of Women present (are they more than typecasts of female stereotypes etc): ***

Racism/Classism: ***

LGBTQ representation: ** (no one really present, but no queer villain coding)

Break from Gender Binary adherence: **~

(rebloggable by request)

Can you quote me on what part of my blog said there is “SOMETHING WRONG with liking Classic Disney” etc? Because I should edit that.

Or maybe you’re assuming that’s my position? A lot of people feel that critique should go hand in hand with enjoying media. Like it for the beautiful animation and memorable music, etc, but hold it accountable for its issues. Racism, sexism, ableism, etc, should not get a free pass just because a company has a reputation for being “magical.”

Magic isn’t real. They have a bottom line. They can change for better without losing their “magical touch,” unless you’re asserting that a movie can’t be magical without racism etc. There is nothing hateful or mean about critiquing media- media is not a person with feelings. Disney itself understands it has issues. I never go out of my way to critique individuals for LIKING Disney.

And you’re more than a little misunderstanding of the criticism if you think anyone’s against romantic relationships in general- it’s how the relationships arestructured, always structured a certain way with little variation, that is the issue. And traditional femininity, if you’re defining it as upholding the sexist ideals of chivalry and constantly portraying women as needing to be saved etc, is problematic, though the critique is more about eliminating its popular portrayal in media so that people don’t grow up seeing it as ideal, rather than haranguing them for growing up the way they did.

There is nothing wrong with liking things, but there is something wrong with using your personal preference as a political or social tool against critique. Your likes aren’t sacrosanct. Here is what is included with “Classic Disney” that you seem to be against critiquing:

• Racist caricatures in the Lady and the Tramp, see video
• Racist caricatures in Peter Pan, see video
• Classic Disney cartoons and books like this one
• Here is a blog post on racial/cultural stereotypes through villains  in more recent movies like PATF & Mulan
• Not to mention that not many Disney movies, old or new, pass the Bechdel test for basic female representation, and the majority stick to the 4-1 men: women ratio that is tokenizing
• etc etc etc

did everyone know there was a Disney Princess version of Candyland??

Okay, I’m behind the times, I didn’t know it existed. It looks cute, BUT, it is a bit irritating to me that they always market the princesses in a way I really feel is almost demeaning to who the princesses are in their movies. They are more than just pretty girls who like smiling, dancing, and trying on clothes. But this is always how Disney tries to define what a “princess” is, and then they try and make princess mean “little girl.”

This is the point of the game:

Reminds me how every princess’s game on their site is, “oh no I forgot to pick an outfit out, can you help me pick one?”

Like geez this is Candyland! So many options! They are always dancing at balls, can’t it be the first princess to, idk, save the castle? Or even just have some generic “get to the castle” rather than, “dancing at the ball?”  It’s not the worst ever, but do options always have to be limited for kids who have giant imaginations??

I would ALSO like to point out that, although Tiana and Jasmine are on the box (much smaller than Rapunzel and Ariel), there is no option to actually play as a princess of color. Your playing options are limited to Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, or Aurora. And on top of that it’s seemingly a game about all the princesses yet Pocahontas and Mulan are not on the cover and are not game pieces? If you look at the game itself, they’re not anywhere on the board. Hello??

It goads me because their info is listed as, “Move along the sparkling Candy Land path with all of your favorite Disney Princesses” -are we just assuming now that they’re no one’s favorites??

katiewoodger:

DISNEY HAVE STOLEN MY ARTWORK

I don’t know what to do. I am so upset. Can anyone help me?

My painting was created back in 2010, (see it HERE) and since then so many people have expressed their love for it, not just on tumblr, but in many places. At least 9 people had it tattooed on their bodies. It’s one of my favourite images I created at University and I was proud of it in many ways.

Disney have used it on a cosmetics bag HERE (look at the back)
and they have produced a Tshirt HERE with a really similar design clearly modeled from my painting

I’m so mad because I have no chance at getting Disney to do anything about it. I had so much respect for the company and now I am just SO upset and disappointed.

Any help, advice or signal boosting would be amazing. And thank you so much to the kind person who messaged me about this.

I’m so sorry this happened to you, it really is a beautiful painting! I hope they compensate you for it :( that is really terrible… that would blatantly rip off young illustrators knowing there’s a good chance they won’t notice or won’t have the money to take it to court. I wonder just how many of their products were copy/pasted rather than paid for?? Hopefully not many…. :(

 The person  who alerted me to this post noted that: something about a big corporation thinking they can use the work of an unknown girl and profit from it is distinctly anti-feminist to me.

Racism in the Aristocats

yeah I saw the instagram :)

I BELIEVE IT NOW

I just try and be wary because it’s really easy to be duped on stuff like that.  People say “just google it” (I saw u other commenter, being sassy in a post where I explicitly stated my google methods!) but simply being in a google search or on a new blog doesn’t make things real.  If someone wants to fake a story it’s easy to do it in such a way that it will come up as an “article” in google or on a tumblr site that appears to be legit when it’s not, especially when people are going to get excited and copy/paste info before confirming it.  It’s happened before

but that’s just my explanation for skepticism Finding Dory definitely appears to be legit at this point

shamalam said: next time you’re unsure of it, you should google it, and then click on the News tab. ComingSoon is not some small blog.

are you doing this on purpose? You were the commentator I referred to, and in the post you previously commented on, I already specifically said I was using Google News. What r u tryin 2 say cause I know how 2 google

yeah, I’m apt to believe their facebook page announcement. It literally updated about this 29 mins ago 

cuttin edge newz

Here’s a good blog post someone submitted to me that you should check out.  I’ll drop some quotes here but definitely if this is something you’re into, go to the page for the in-depth analysis.

…Orientalism reduces the vast heterogeneity of culture and heritage among the peoples of that region to commodifiable fantasies of submissive women, erotic harems and hedonistic pleasures. My previous posts on Jasmine delve deeper into the matter, but suffice it to say that Orientalism remains a persistent trend in Western media and culture.

The power of Orientalism lies in the interplay between revulsion and desire, where a dark and mysterious racial Other is equal parts titillating and terrifying…

Sephora’s Jasmine collection capitalizes on the embedded Orientalism of its source by invoking an imagery of  escape and freedom andallure. The word ‘exotic’ features frequently, as do other connotative ones like “mystique”, “decadent” and “sultry”. The eyeshadow palette features colors with names that are as evocatively Orientalist as they are culturally vague: ‘sultana’, ‘bazaar’, ‘arabian sunset’ (what exactly is an ‘arabian sunset’? I’ve lived in Dubai for over 10 years yet I don’t believe I could describe the exact “arabian” nature of sunsets in the region).  What does it mean for women of color like myself, and Arab women, to purchase makeup that’s described as ‘exotic’?  Are women of color even considered a target demographic when products like the Jasmine line are marketed with such evocative imagery? And what does it mean for white consumers to purchase the Jasmine fantasy? 

Cinderella realized with some dismay that she and her fairy godmother were not on the same page.

• Stats on wage gap (also note that the usual percentage given- 77%- is most applicable to white women- the stats for women and men of color are different/more drastic in inequity) 

• For more info, here’s an article titled “Myth Busting the Pay Gap,”  (like really, check it before leaving some BS argument in a reblog) which addresses common arguments such as, 

MYTH: There is no such thing as the gender pay gap – legitimate differences between men and women cause the gap in pay, not discrimination.

REALITY: Decades of research shows a gender gap in pay even after factors like the kind of work performed and qualifications (education and experience) are taken into account…

~also this is an old image but I’m trying to create reblog links for all the old ones and had trouble finding the original posting of this, sooo I’m just reposting it, with added info :) ~