Masculinity And Femininity In Disney's Brave

Disney has had its vast array of princesses in its prime and they’re still continuing to create more that unsurprisingly influence the girls in our society. Each princess of Disney’s undoubtedly came along with their own distinct personalities, however all of them portrayed some similar characteristics that correlated with the same intentions of being a princess if not already one. However, each story that goes along with these infamous princesses is how masculinity and femininity are depicted in the movies that Disney has created and continues to create. It often allows the viewers to consider who exactly is the “good” woman or the “bad” woman and who is the “good” man or the “bad” man. Nonetheless, it’s almost always obvious who the “good”
Although this may be true, we see a different depiction of the common characters in Disney’s Brave (2012) and The Princess and the Frog (2009). To begin, Brave is about a fiery red head princess named Merida who is quite defiant compared to the Disney princesses that preceded her. Throughout the entire movie viewers can see that marriage and more so becoming a queen, are not the top things on her to-do list. In fact, Merida opposes the idea of someone taking her hand in marriage, especially someone that she doesn’t know. During one major scene in the movie kings from all over Ireland bring and introduce their sons and even engage them in multiple competitions to win Merida’s heart. Well, movie viewers can obviously see that this doesn’t happen…at all. Merida eventually takes her handy bow and arrow and shows everyone who’s boss and even screams, “I am Merida. And I’ll be shoodn’ for my own hand!” (Stephens). Clearly there is not a heroic or charming prince in this story that comes along and sways outspoken Merida. Compared to previous Disney princesses, she has a very
By the same token, neither of them wanted or had to be saved by a man—the ‘charming’ prince—which can be seen as odd for a Disney princess. Tiana and Merida were their own savior, their own prince come to save them. However the misogynistic enemy of them both was the norms of society. Women are undoubtedly perceived as weaker than men, which correlates with the uneasy idea that they cannot provide, protect, and guide themselves (Hill). Sadly, this has led to a setup of ‘norms’ established by many patriarchal societies that place other women—usually older—to train or more so condition girls to be a certain way in order to find a male suiter (Mason). In the case of Merida and Tiana, they do not find this to be important. Another thing that comes in part of gender roles is that women are always seen as caretakers as well as having the qualities of patience and understanding versus that of men. Well for the two princesses, Tiana more so fits the quality of caretaker being that she is the one that aids Prince Naveen through his unfortunate mishaps in New Orleans. However, for Merida it is sort of hard to see that except for when viewers see that she has to care for and protect her mother throughout the movie since she turned her into a