The radical notion that women like good movies
This piece by Ana Mardoll is cross-posted with permission from her site Ana Mardoll’s Ramblings. Disney. The word is so synonymous in my mind with “animated feature films” that it’s like using “Kleenex” for “tissue.” When children come to my house, as they sometimes do, they’re invariably drawn to my huge selection of “Disney movies,” … Continue reading “Guest Writer Wednesday: Disney: The Little Mermaid”
Charlize Theron as Queen Ravenna and Kristen Stewart as Snow White in ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ Woman obsessed with aging fights her fading beauty. Older woman jealous of younger woman. Younger woman rescued by a prince. Yep, it’s a tale as old as time that Hollywood keeps churning out. With fairy tales ingrained in … Continue reading “Trailers for ‘Snow White & the Huntsman’ and ‘Mirror, Mirror’ Perpetuate Stereotypes of Women, Beauty & Aging and Pit Women Against Each Other”
Wow. The response to our Call for Writers was so intense that we extended our series on Animated Children’s Films an extra week. Here are links to the reviews, all in one location. Thanks so much to the writers who contributed. This was a FUN two weeks, and–as Megan Kearns notes on her blog–an important … Continue reading “Animated Children’s Films: The Roundup!”
This guest review by Megan Kearns appears as part of our theme week on Animated Children’s Films. An intelligent, strong-willed, female protagonist. Who reads books. And seeks adventure. With a heroine like Belle, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, must be a feminist-minded film. Right?? At first, I thought so too. But appearances can be deceiving… Hailed … Continue reading “Animated Children’s Films: Despite an Intelligent Heroine, Sexism Taints Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’”
This guest review by Whitney Mollenhauer was published at Bitch Flicks in May 2011. Last Friday, I saw Disney’s Tangled with my husband. I thought it was a pretty good feminist-y movie, especially considering that it was a Disney princess-type movie. Because I am lazy, I have written my review in bullet-point form: Rapunzel’s father … Continue reading “Animated Children’s Films: From the Archive: Tangled”
“For the people who used to be ten years old, and the people who are going to be ten years old.” — Director Hayao Miyazaki on Spirited Away The films of Studio Ghibli provide their viewers with a rich variety of female characters from warrior princesses to love-struck adolescents, curious toddlers to powerful witches. These … Continue reading “Animated Children’s Films: Magical Girlhoods in the Films of Studio Ghibli”
Shrek (2001) Fairy tales are important. A longish history of oral tales modified and set in stone by the likes of Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm. They don’t just capture children’s imaginations, they form them, setting them down a path towards developing their values and opinions against the background of certain … Continue reading “Animated Children’s Films: Onions have Layers, Ogres have Layers – A Feminist Analysis of Shrek”
This is a guest post from Marcia Herring. I’d like to start this review with a confession: Atonement is the second book in my long history of reading that has made me so angry, so upset, that I literally threw it across the room. My anger was directed at the narrator, Briony Tallis, who I … Continue reading “Best Picture Nominee Review Series: Atonement”
This guest review by Whitney Mollenhauer first appeared at Not Another Wave in December 2010. Last Friday, I saw Disney’s Tangled with my husband. I thought it was a pretty good feminist-y movie, especially considering that it was a Disney princess-type movie. Because I am lazy, I have written my review in bullet-point form: Rapunzel’s … Continue reading “Tangled: A Feminist Film Review”
The girls, driven by desperation to escape their mundane lives to take part in Spring Break, scheme a robbery of the local chicken shack to raise the necessary funds to get there. To psyche themselves up for the crime, they exhort each other to pretend it’s a video game, to detach themselves and dehumanize their victims in a hurried pep talk to the same end as the grueling boot camp scenes sequences in ‘Full Metal Jacket.’
By softening hyena matriarchy, however, Disney accurately represents the aspirations of human feminists: Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed joke around and work together in casual solidarity. Shenzi is confident in her opinions and never belittled for this, nor is her acceptance conditional on romantic availability.
Check out all of the posts for our Unlikable Women Theme Week here.
