Mary Pols believes Brave was a "halfway embrace of female empowerment."
Main Points from the article:
1. Although Pixar finally created a movie with a female lead role, the story line is simplistic and does not show much of Merida's true strength.
2. Merida does not transform into an empowering character. She becomes less of a tomboy and more of a pragmatic princess.
3. Why does Merida need to be a princess? According to the article, we are back at chapter "one of what girls can be."
4. Merida was undirected, floating through life without a clear direction.
5. Pols hopes the movie does well enough that Pixar will create more movies with female lead roles.
I think this article is relevant to our class discussion about Merida's relationship to her mother and how she used the system to get what she wanted. Pols's includes a few quotes from Peggy Orenstein as well. Her discussion reflects that Brave can be an empowering movie, but cannot accomplish everything a feminist could want. Hopefully we will see more movies with female lead roles (maybe some not even in the fantasy genre!) and we will have a plethora of feminist role models for children and adults.
Pols, Mary. "Why Pixar'€™s Brave Is a Failure of Female Empowerment."Http://ideas.time.com. Time Magazine, 22 June 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. http://ideas.time.com/2012/06/22/why-pixars-brave-isa-failure-of-female-empowerment/.
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