Post: #1

‘Sexy Merida’ Pulled by Disney After Backlash

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk...58013.html

Quote:Well that didn't take long. After an almost instantly negative online reaction to Disney's revamped and clearly more "sexy" version of "Brave" princess Merida, the Mouse House has bowed to the public backlash and pulled the revamped young lady from its Disney Princesses website and replaced it with the original version from the Pixar movie.

Feminist-leaning Gawker Media website Jezebel noticed the quiet removal of "sexy Merida," the makeover for which was originally intended to be part of a celebration for the princess' "coronation ceremony" last week.

The backlash to Merida's makeover, which included a slimmer figure, a slightly more full bust, less-wild curly hair and a clearly made-up face, was swift. It sparked a petition on Change.org which asked Disney CEO Bob Iger to keep Merida more empowering and legitimately "Brave."

"Merida is an empowering role model who speaks to girls' capacity to be change agents in the world rather than just trophies to be admired," the petition read, which now has nearly 200,000 signatures.

Even the film's director entered the anti-makeover fray and told the Marin Independent Journal that the character's redesign was "a blatantly sexist marketing move based on money."

Yahoo! Movies also spoke with two childhood development specialists who were less-than-enthusiastic about the message Disney was sending with their revamped Merida.
"This one character may not do any damage to a girl's psychological development, per se," said Dr. Robyn Silverman. "But Merida joins a barrage of thin, sultry characters for girls, making her yet another facet of our sexed-up, thinned down messaging."

Childhood development and behavior specialist Betsy Brown Braun also weighed in, pointing out that the film's target audience, kids aged 5-10, is a demographic in which experts first see body image issues develop.

"We're seeing body image issues with children as young as 7 years old -- young children who say they're on a diet or that they think they're fat," said Braun. "There's a lot of data showing that children that age already identify with a saucy, sexy image."

Disney has yet to release any official statement on the matter, but the quiet removal of revamped Merida is a very positive step in the right direction given the intense and passionate response the character's makeover instantly received.

Not what you were expecting?

Post: #2

"a slightly more full bust"

Yeah, she went from bee stings to fried eggs. Jesus wept.

Post: #3

save Sexy Merida !!!

Post: #4

I didn't even know who this Disney character was until I wiki'd her.

The PC-feminist complex's reaction to action girls in movies and video games is hilarious.

If the action girl is a plain jane the reaction is: "OMG ARE YOU SAYING THAT STRONG AND INDEPENDENT GIRLS CAN'T BE ATTRACTIVE?!"

If the action girl is somewhat more attractive: "OMG ARE YOU SAYING THAT ALL WOMEN ARE JUST SEX OBJECTS EVEN IF THEY'RE STRONG AND INDEPENDENT?!"

In fact, this Merida situation could be a teachable moment for parents to their daughters:

"Listen, sweetheart. You will never be the best archer in the world, no matter how hard you try. There will always be tons of men better than you at pretty much anything, no matter how good you are. It's just the way the world is.

Even if you were somehow the best archer in the world by some rip in the fabric of the universe, that still won't keep you from starving or put a roof over your head.

However, if you stay thin and wear some make-up, you will never be left in want of any material thing in the world... there will always be men wiling to take you out to dinner or give you a place to stay."

Post: #5

LOL this PC stuff is getting out of hand. Last year there was that stuff about making a non gender specific easy bake oven.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/18/living/has...-bake-oven

Post: #6

If anything, I would say the putative increase in sexiness of the "after" version is just a decrease in the degree of uncanny-valleyness vis a vis the "before" version.

Post: #7

I haven't seen the movie, but what is it with feminists thinking that women wielding weapons is somehow empowering? They said the same thing when Hunger Games came out, and IMO it's complete bullshit.

The Last Psychiatrist had a great post about it

Quote:In the actual Games, Katniss is continuously saved by men-- Haymitch, Peeta, Peeta again, Thresh-- but you don't notice that she saves no one, including herself, you think she saves herself all the time. You think this because of the first half of the movie told you she's a badass, so you don't realize that during the second half she shows less agency than Princess Jasmine.

Post: #8

Umm last I checked young girls grow up more and become more developed. I assume this is for a sequel and usually the characters get a bit older in sequels you know....

Post: #9

Quote:Even the film's director entered the anti-makeover fray and told the Marin Independent Journal that the character's redesign was "a blatantly sexist marketing move based on money."

Disney involved in marketing to make money? I am shocked, shocked that gambling is going on in this cafe!

Post: #10

You can barely tell a difference. I actually don't know which is the "hot" one and which is the corrected/scaled-back one.

It's not like they made her look like this:

   

Post: #11

(05-15-2013 08:46 PM)Gmac Wrote:  "We're seeing body image issues with children as young as 7 years old -- young children who say they're on a diet or that they think they're fat," said Braun. "There's a lot of data showing that children that age already identify with a saucy, sexy image."

Right. There's also a lot of data that children as young as 7 years old these days are fat. Bolded for an extra helping of truth.

Post: #12

(05-16-2013 01:31 AM)lurker Wrote:  

(05-15-2013 08:46 PM)Gmac Wrote:  "We're seeing body image issues with children as young as 7 years old -- young children who say they're on a diet or that they think they're fat," said Braun. "There's a lot of data showing that children that age already identify with a saucy, sexy image."

Right. There's also a lot of data that children as young as 7 years old these days are fat. Bolded for an extra helping of truth.

While this article is female-centric, the worst case I've ever seen is a 6-year old kid who already has a belly hanging almost down to his knees. It's really sad. Of course, god forbid that he is encouraged to lose weight because then he might have "body image issues".

Post: #13

If all these whiners want to change the world and empower women why don't they go to Saudi Arabia or one of those African shitholes where genital mutilation is the cool thing.

oh right, that would require leaving the computer and big daddy government. back to our regularly scheduled jizzabell programming of whining about useless desultory shit like whether or not imaginary cartoon characters are gender neutral equal friendly grnocidial or whatever

Post: #14