Comics, Movies and the NEW princess paradigm

It is a popular theme in feminist literature to rag on the Disney princesses. Recently a new acquaintance mentioned the fact that in all the new princess merch. none of the princesses are looking at each other...well, of course they aren't, they are posing for a picture, they are looking at the "camera". Sure, Disney princess are super girly and totally add mass amounts of fluff to stories that once taught little girls the dangers of going into the woods alone, but lets look at some good points.

 I'll start with Ariel, since she was really the first of the new princesses. Yes, they totally ruined the original story, but Ariel is a tough little fish chick. At this point Disney was only beginning to scratch the surface of what it is little girls really want to be. They don't want to be told what to do, where to go, or who to love. Then there is Belle.  First, she loves to read. What a great example for little girls. To me it says " look, its beautiful to be smart." Next, she shuns the pretty boy and falls for a big, hairy monster because love is not about what one looks like but rather ones inner being and potential. Yes, he saves her, but doesn't she save him too? Moving on we have Jasmine. She is strong willed and, despite living in a culture where her father would choose her husband she rebels and proves herself to be fully capable of handling herself ( except when pitted against an evil wizard, but who among us can say she wouldn't have some issues here aswell). Pocahontas saves John Smith and stands up for peace between her people and the white man     (yes, please don't even get me started on fact v. fiction here, we're talking about princesses hot history)and , in fact, Disney here creates a stronger female character than the real person Pocahontas was.  Mulan (who was never a princess but always finds herself mixed in with them) cuts her hair, learns to fight and ultimately saves all the tough dudes in China. Tiana, a hard working girl from the "wrong" side of town, saves a prince with no desire what ever to marry him. In fact, she does it all for her friend! Yay! Rapunzel knocks out a would be attacker ( so she thinks) with a frying pan and despite having been sheltered in the worst possible way, makes her way in the big scary world. Disneys newest princess, Merida, a fiery red haired archer with a desire for adventure sets off alone to tackle the world. Perhaps the problem is the idea that because a princess is pretty that gives little girls the desire to be pretty, but doesn't nature do that anyway? Is it not a natural instinct to desire to be attractive to draw a mate? And yes, some of the princesses do reflect a more subdued female role...but they were written in the 40's and 50's and are based on stories written in the 1500's, how can we compare what we are seeing now with ideals that have long since changed. Clumping the new wave of characters in with those first few damsels in distress is simple folly.  Disney is not alone in recognizing the importance of stronger female roll models for little woman. The new Mirror, Mirror has our damsel, Snow white, taking on a fearsome beast all on her lonesome...and totally kicking ass! Fiona, another tough princess turned Ogre, showing not only do you not have to be quiet and obedient, but you don't even have to be pretty to find love and to be admirable. Kim Possible, Kitara, Toph, Rogue, Storm, Batwoman, Wonder Woman, and lets not forget one of the most kick ass princesses, Leia!

 Yes, there are numerous portrayals of weak, pretty girls who are saved by strong men, but so too are there those types of woman in the world. There has been a shift. Woman writers, producers and comic book artists are on the scene in force shaking up the Princess Paradigm and turning the tides in the giant web we call the Media.

 Check out the very witty new comic PrinceLess, which not only tackles the pretty princess ideas, but also what boys get from the stories. We always forget the boys in these conversations. What do they get from these characters. I can tell you, at least among the guys I know, they want the tough chicks, the brave ones, the sassy ones. Yes, they like pretty, but that can only go so far. This new shift lets the boys discover that woman can be so much more than pretty and girls see that when they are woman they can be just as kick ass in a ball gown as in a pair of jeans.
Ragging on Disney for putting pretty girls in dresses is wasted energy. I, myself, am a pretty kick ass chick and I freaking love pretty dresses. I love my bow, my dremel and my needle and thread too. With the media full of reports on "the war on woman" we all need to see that, though on Capital hill, there is a battle going on, the mass media directed at the next generation has opened its eyes and is giving girls what they need, images of girls like them being more, doing more, and standing up for themselves. Here's to a generation of totally awesome, intelligent, kick ass beauties taking over the world.