Why You Should Go See Brave!

By Devonne and Claire

Recently, we went to see the new Disney Pixar movie Brave. In case you live under a rock or you hate cartoons, Brave is about a Scottish princess, Merida, who is more interested in honing her archery skills than learning how to make tapestries and meeting potential suitors. She constantly deals with pressure from her mother, Elinor, to become more of a lady so that she may one day fulfill her duty of marrying on of three appropriate political matches. Throughout the film, she struggles between being herself and being who her mother wants her to be. In the end, (SPOILER ALERT) her family comes around, and they convince the leaders of the other 3 clans that all of their children should be able to marry whom they want, when they want and IF they want. 

Though Disney movies are notoriously bad for having weak female characters, Brave is a rare exception to not just movies created by Disney, but to the majority of films. The fact that so many articles and so much discussion has revolved around Brave just goes to show how lacking our culture is in portrayals of strong women. Brave is newsworthy because it’s different. What makes Brave so unique? Brave is a princess movie, but she definitely doesn’t fit in with Snow White, Cinderella or the other princesses known for their passivity, beauty or domestic abilities. Merida has a personality, she has a voice and she has interests and passions. This shouldn’t be a big deal (after all, girls in real life have all these things) but it is. And not only is Brave different in characterization but it drastically differs in plot line for a “princess story”. We kept expecting that Merida would end up with a guy even it wasn’t one of the suitors. But (SPOILER ALERT), she doesn’t. There is no fourth guy, no alternate prince charming. At the end of the film Merida is a single lady. She’s happy without a happily ever after marriage. Which is an excellent message for younger (and older) girls and women. 

This movie is also different from others in that in displays the relationship between a mother and daughter. Often times, in movies such as these, the mother is absent, usually long-dead. Think about it. Ariel- no mother. Cinderella- no parents (just an evil stepmother). Belle- no mother. Jasmine- no mother. Pocahontas- no mother. Even the princesses who did have mothers (Sleeping Beauty, Mulan,) the relationships between them are never a focus or even an element of the story. These princesses live in worlds of male power where a major source of conflict stems from them disobeying their fathers. In Brave, the main focus is the relationship between Merida and Elinor, and the conflict that stems from their vastly different views on Merida’s future. Elinor is constantly trying to make Merida into more of a “lady,” while Merida continuously defies her mother’s wishes. In the end, their differences are reconciled, and neither was fully right or wrong. Yay for grey area!

One of them many articles written on Brave was an EW piece discussing Merida’s possible lesbianism. Um what? There is absolutely nothing in this film that indicates this. There also nothing that confirms her heterosexuality. Her sexual orientation is not an element of this film because there is no romantic storyline. What is problematic in the EW article is not that she might be a lesbian but that the proof for her being a lesbian is that she doesn’t embody traditional femininity. Entertainment blogger Carina Mackenzie put it best on twitter when she said “there is no indication in the movie that she is attracted to women. That is the criteria for a girl being gay. Not being into into archery, or not wanting to marry an idiot." 

Though we loved this movie, we were left wondering if we were 5 year old boys, would we want to go see this film? We don’t really have an answer (maybe because we are not, have never been and never will be, 5 year old boys) but we would speculate that they would not be enticed to go see a movie that is largely about female bonding and conforming to traditional femininity. While the larger issue of conformity vs. individuality does apply to boys we’re not sure if the way it is presented in this film will appeal to a young male audience. One of the problems we see in the film industry is that there is a universal assumption that while girls will go see movies centred around boys, boys will not go to a movie featuring a female protagonist. What was so great about The Hunger Games is that men and women were going to see a movie centred on a female. We are just not sure that Brave accomplishes the same thing for its audience. 

One other critique we would have for this movie (and many of the other few movies and books that do portray strong female characters) is that Merida is what our society would call a “tomboy.” Rebelling against gender stereotypes is awesome and there is nothing wrong with the fact she would rather ride her horse than go on a date. However we take issue with the fact that she is a “strong female character” because she is more traditionally masculine. While we’re glad that we (finally) got to see a princess who doesn’t need Prince Charming, we wish that we could relate more to her. Personally both of us possess more traditionally feminine qualities. We like to wear dresses, we don’t hate the colour pink, and we’d rather take dance lessons than play sports. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t strong women, just as women who are more stereotypically masculine are not automatically strong. There are plenty of little girls who are “tomboys” and we’re so happy that they have representations that they can relate to. But we feel like this particular portrayal has been done before (though admittedly not enough) and we’re still waiting for a strong a female character we can relate to. You can paint your nails while still having opinions. 

If none of the above reasons have convinced you to go and see Brave, we have two more. One, it’s legitimately a good movie; it’s funny, it’s scary (to Claire anyways,) it’s heartwarming, and the body proportions are comically unrealistic. Also, Merida totally looks exactly like Devonne, which is super cool.