'Brave' creator blasts Disney for 'blatant sexism' in princess makeover

“When little girls say they like it because it’s more sparkly, that’s all fine and good but, subconsciously, they are soaking in the sexy ‘come hither’ look and the skinny aspect of the new version. It’s horrible! Merida was created to break that mold — to give young girls a better, stronger role model, a more attainable role model, something of substance, not just a pretty face that waits around for romance.”

Chapman, the first woman to win an Academy Award for an animated feature, said she has added her name to a petition with more than 50,000 signatures that has gone viral on the female empowerment website “A Mighty Girl,” joining other mothers outraged by Disney’s sexualization of her headstrong young Scottish heroine, an expert archer with a head of wild, curly red hair and a mind of her own.

Signers variously described the new Merida as “vapid,” “arm candy,” “unrealistic” and “vacant looking.”

In an official statement to Yahoo! Shine, a Disney spokesperson said, “Merida exemplifies what it means to be a Disney Princess through being brave, passionate, and confident and she remains the same strong and determined Merida from the movie whose inner qualities have inspired moms and daughters around the world.”

Chapman begs to differ. In basing Merida on her teenage daughter, then a student at Mill Valley Middle School, she said she wanted the movie to be “a contemporary fairy tale” that resonates with today’s working mothers and daughters. Her character’s image as a different kind of princess turned out to be hugely successful, grossing more than $550 million, winning an Oscar, a Golden Globe and the Bafta Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

“They have been handed an opportunity on a silver platter to give their consumers something of more substance and quality — THAT WILL STILL SELL — and they have a total disregard for it in the name of their narrow minded view of what will make money,” Chapman wrote. “I forget that Disney’s goal is to make money without concern for integrity. Silly me.”

via: Miss Representation