Already it has received more than 100,000 signatures.Īs the father of two little girls, I sympathize. It’s unsurprising that those parents who initially praised Disney for its creation of a princess who looked like a real girl are dismayed, to the point where A Mighty Girl, a resource site that helps parents find books and toys that encourage positive feminine role models, has launched a petition. As Peggy Orenstein, author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter, pointed out: “In the end, it wasn’t about being brave at all. Suddenly her waist is slimmer, her eyes are doe-like with heavy lashes, and she’s subtly grown breasts. To be “crowned” Disney’s 11th princess, the Scottish, red-headed Merida (who refuses to marry the prince) has been treated to the kind of airbrush job that magazine pages habitually go in for.

Disney princesses never really did have much to offer. The cartoons have never encouraged ambition in little girls, with character traits limited to marriageability (Jasmine, Cinderella), beauty (Belle, or Snow White, whose appearance is such that jealous women seek to annihilate her), or submission to drastic physical changes in order to attract a man (Ariel). The Princess franchise, which came into being in the early 2000s when then-chairman Andy Mooney saw the marketing potential in presenting celebrated Disney princesses as a unit, isn’t known for its nuanced portrayal of modern femininity. It was only a matter of time before Disney transformed Merida, the heroine of Brave, hailed by many as their first feminist princess, into a female archetype. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (“ Disney’s makeover of its Brave princess is cowardly“): Critics are assailing Disney for turning “Brave” protagonist Merida into just another princess.

Brave princess makeover