Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a Feminist Pirate’s Life for Me

While the Disneyland ride Pirates of the Caribbean  is still mired in sexist and stereotypical representations (as noted in this post), the films based on the ride offer some interesting gender transgressions–especially the most recent installment, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which sees Penelope Cruz swashbuckle her way into the role of Angelica. [...]

Finally, A Disney Film in Which Mom Is Neither Dead nor Witch

Given the official trailers’ focus on mothers as nags whose main purpose is to cook and vacuum, I was very pleasantly surprised by the new Disney film Mars Needs Moms. However, I seem to be in the minority–most view the film as an anti-feminist screed. Going into the film well aware of Disney’s representation of [...]

Yes, Comment! And the Femmy for March 6-12 Goes to …

First, congratulations to Lauren Karaffa for winning last week’s Femmy (given to the best comment on the Ms. Blog) for her excellent response to “Was the Shooting of Giffords a Hate Crime?”. Your wit, intelligence and savvy made you a clear victor. Without further adieu, we present the nominees for this week’s Femmy, all of [...]

Are We Too Isolated To Fight the Pink-v.-Blue Battle?

Ask me five years ago and I’d have told you I’d be first in line to challenge gender stereotypes if ever I had kids myself. I minored in feminist cultural studies! I believe boys and girls are made, not just born! But sixteen months into parenting my boy/girl twins, I’m starting to wonder how I’ll ever ensure that [...]

Rescuing Your Daughter From the Princess

If you’ve been within 50 feet of a 4-year-old girl in the past decade, you can’t have escaped the fact that princess is a booming industry. From T-shirts emblazoned with “princess” to the fad for “makeover” parties to “princess potty seats”, there is no shortage of products with a tiara theme offered to girls. In [...]

Feminist Fairy Tales for Last-Minute Xmas Gifts

Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Certainly not Little Red Riding Hood–at least not before Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm penned their literary versions of her story in the 17th and 19th centuries respectively. The original oral folktale that inspired them, entitled “The Story of Grandmother,” was at once more bizarre, more overtly [...]

Disney’s Gender Roles Remain Un-Tangled

The good news is that Disney’s new animated feature Tangled is funny, fast-paced and visually stunning. The bad news is that it re-hashes the same old story: As a woman, you can either be a princess awaiting her prince or an evil stepmother/witch; as a man, you get all the action (in many senses of [...]

Disney’s Male Execs To Stop Making Movies Starring Girls

At first it seems like possible good news. Disney/ Pixar announces: no more fairy tales, code for princess movies. Great! No more damsels in distress who end the movie by landing a man. Now we’re going to have a slew of new movies with cool girl heroes who bravely rescue boys from peril, exuding power [...]

Toy Story 3 on DVD–More Jessie, Please?

I had the pleasure of spending the weekend in the presence of Isla, a four year-old who LOVES Toy Story 2 and LOVES the cowgirl character Jessie even more. When the scene highlighting Jessie’s back story came on, Isla jumped off the couch in excitement and ran towards the television with a look of rapture [...]

Pixar’s One-Man Band

At the end of The Jungle Book, Mowgli’s love interest sings of her future daughter, “I’ll send her to fetch the water, I’ll be cooking in the home.” Some 43 years later, her metaphorical daughters populate not only Disney films, but also those of Dream Works and Pixar. Alas, not only do these animated daughters [...]

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