Part of this hilarious fake trailer for Disney’s blockbuster movie Frozen is an amusing critique of the current trend in girl-power narratives from the land of Mickey Mouse. I’m all for girls learning independence and self reliance. Thank god Disney is done telling girls to wait for their prince.
That being said, at about 1:45 minutes in, the folks at Honest Trailers deconstruct the subtext about men (princes and otherwise) in Frozen. Watch it. It may get you thinking how male characters are taking quite a turn both in Frozen and in other Disney girl power flicks like Brave. The princes in that movie were nice but laughable oafs. A new trend perhaps? Princes as motivation for independence?
Isn’t it a good think to be independent woman? That means we don’t need to manipulate men with sex, or expect them to pay or support us. So what if we don’t need you? it is better to be wanted than needed anyway… How dare disney teach this to young kids? hmmm…
Yes, definitely. I think most of the criticism of the movie comes from the male characters, which was certainly something I noticed, myself. It didn’t hinder to movie TOO much for me, except that it seemed like they were trying to hard to send a particular message that they didn’t put much thought into the male characters, and fell onto male tropes. To me, what was fantastic was seeing a character like the “Mom” in Tangled. She was a truly frightening villain who didn’t “turn to the good side” at the end like most other female antagonists. I love what… Read more »
Completely support the independent girl power message. Just asking how boys fit into the equation. Seen Brave lately? Again, oafs as male leads. Even her dad was trying to kill his wife.
You write as if there haven’t been negative/infantilized/seeming stupid women portrayed in animated movies just as much! Urusula? Cruella DeVille? The Evil Stepmother? Wicked Witches? And those evil characters are often juxtaposed by infantilized, weak women. Until women are represented even half as much as men, this isn’t a story. It’s a sad excuse for substantive cultural commentary.
Please don’t consider a comment about one subject to be the absence of awareness of another. It is unfair to assume my thoughts or feelings about a separate subject. I could just as easily assume you that you don’t care about men’s issues in any way implying you are partisan and ultimately a destructive voice. Would that be any more fair? No, it would not.
“Until women are represented even half as much as men, this isn’t a story. It’s a sad excuse for substantive cultural commentary.” I suppose you’d say the same thing about men and boys being hurt and abused by women and girls then? Since women don’t represent a majority of the perpetrators then it’s not a “story” or “Worth worrying about”. I’ve got a better idea. How about we treat both issues as substantiative and problems worth equal consideration and support instead of having to constantly play semantics here. And how about we stop trying to insert “Well women don’t make… Read more »
“Isn’t it a good think to be independent woman? That means we don’t need to manipulate men with sex, or expect them to pay or support us. So what if we don’t need you? it is better to be wanted than needed anyway… How dare disney teach this to young kids?” The issue here is that current stories of this ilk take the one step too far. It’s fine and dandy to be independent and never needing to manipulate a man with sex or expect them to carry your burdens on their shoulders. But do they have to portray men… Read more »
I started to craft a response to your MANY comments and then thought to myself, “What’s the point? This dude probably belongs over at Reddit or on a men’s rights page. Because being a part of the oppressed majority is SO DARN HARD!” Instead, I’m gonna go back to work advocating on U.S. policy focused on efforts to integrate gender-based violence prevention and response into our foreign assistance–work that includes engaging men and boys as allies and is predicated on a conception of gender equality as a tide that lifts all boats (a concept that seems to elude you). Bravo… Read more »
Until the abusive and dismissive tone about men is removed from these dialogues, your goal of universal empathy will be a challenge to reach.
But all men ARE expendable … Or so my media educators have led me to believe..
And I’m a man ,.. Or at least I wannabe one .. Definitely gotta pander to the girlie audience. Coz the guys aren’t watching the movie anyway, and it’s pretty easy to slip information subliminally into male mental slugs who wannaget laid for saving their ‘that’s priceless ‘ ( or actually that is pricey ) girlie friend from the evil of paying for a ticket.
For the few who haven’t seen it: Frozen represents a pretty strong heel face turn on many of ideas suggested by previous Disney Princess movies, while still maintaining enough of the same ideas and themes to be considered a proper princess movie. It continues the emphasis on true love, but contrary to previous Disney princess movies the true love is not with the prince, or even the more average guy, but with family. Kristoff’s redeeming feature is that he genuinely cares about the people he meets. It’s not even romantic attraction that makes his want to help Anna (it’s ambiguous… Read more »
Yes, Disney’s subtext is most definitely “men are expendable and/or evil.” What a brilliant, nuanced take on this piece of SATIRE. What in the world was Disney thinking, including TWO female protagonists!? Sending MORE messages about strong young women? Avert your eyes, young boys, your self-esteem is sure to plummet after seeing this wholesome family film. Sorry, but I don’t think you get to make these assertions: “I’m all for girls learning independence and self reliance. Thank god Disney is done telling girls to wait for their prince.” followed by this one: “You’ll rethink the message your boys are getting… Read more »
That captures my initial reaction perfectly. I never got the impression that the movie hated on men, or strongly wanted to pigeon hole them, really it promotes a positive message for many men in it’s quasi Hans vs Kristoff love triangle, i.e. that being selflessly caring is more important that rich or charismatic. The movie focuses on the women, but in the context of SO MANY movies that focus on men it’s almost necessary. A lot of the seeming weirdness about the men simply comes from the fact that they’re secondary or tertiary characters; however there are a lot more… Read more »
“Yes, Disney’s subtext is most definitely “men are expendable and/or evil.” What a brilliant, nuanced take on this piece of SATIRE. What in the world was Disney thinking, including TWO female protagonists!? Sending MORE messages about strong young women? Avert your eyes, young boys, your self-esteem is sure to plummet after seeing this wholesome family film.” Funny how, when its pointed out that all the male characters are portrayed as oafish or baffoons that its SATIRE. But I’ll bet if the female characters were treated less than ideally, you’d be foaming at the mouth and screaming that’s sexist. “Sorry, but… Read more »
A discussion of how male characters are portrayed is not a rejection of how the female characters are portrayed. You’re viewing questions about the male portrayals as a rejection of strong female characters. Not the intention at all… but an understandable reaction given the history of these kinds of conversations. Just a general comment, by the way…
Was that directed at me, Mark? Because what I wrote does go with what you’re saying.
Wow, what a stupid video. For one time, there isn’t an evil queen but some mean guys as the antagonists, and INSTANTLY all men are evil? Just wow. #dumbshit
Jezebel, one of the sites where you dump your partner if they’re a regular reader.
Is it me or are most/a lotttt of kids/family movies musicals?