Commentary: Frozen II's return of strong female characters is what little girls need to see
GLASGOW: The heart-searching, dramatic trailer for Frozen Two generated a lot of excitement on its release in February when it was watched 116.iv one thousand thousand times in just 24 hours.
In the two-minute teaser, Elsa stands alone on a stormy shore earlier running at the towering waves and turning them to ice. By the stop of the trailer, which also features her sis Anna and friends Kristoff and Olaf, the younger sibling has drawn Kristoff'due south sword and is leaping towards an unknown assailant subconscious from view.
Disney has been much criticised in the by for peddling gender stereotypes to the most impressionable of audiences: Children. The female protagonists have traditionally been depicted every bit sexualised, objectified princesses hobbled by tight, glamorous, (oftentimes revealing) pastel-coloured outfits.
BREAKING STEREOTYPES
But things have been slowly irresolute at Disney over the by decade. The company has introduced a diversity into its films that reflects the irresolute environs, and the experience and voices of women in the 21st century.
These include The Princess and the Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Dauntless (2012), Frozen (2013), and Moana (2016), and each explored the journey of smart, strong, funny, contained female characters.
Still, there is a shortage of confident female role models for young girls more generally, and the reason is age-old and bland: The industry is run past men, as Brave'due south co-creator Brenda Chapman has oftentimes pointed out.
Male person executives, directors and writers simply tend to create fictional worlds from their own point of view – worlds that explore problems relevant to them. This paucity of fair representation is detrimental to generations of immature women and their vision of themselves – their ambitions, motivations, goals, and their place in club.
The #metoo movement highlighted non just the fashion actresses and women creatives were treated in Hollywood, but likewise the dearth of stories with cocky-sufficient, determined female characters – women protagonists with agency and vision.
READ: For women of different cultures, classes, backgrounds and age – information technology'south nevertheless a human's world, a commentary
Back in 2013, Frozen did intermission a few stereotypes and raise a few eyebrows. A tale of two sisters, i of whom possesses the magical power to plough everything she touches into water ice, it explores female ability, inventiveness and the way in which guild traditionally perceives both.
Forced to habiliment gloves in club to protect herself and her younger sister, Elsa is led to believe that her power, as well as her touch, are mortiferous, and demand to exist concealed. A female protagonist with an unusual gift is already a deviation from the male superhero canon.
Another is the deliberate refusal to fixate female person characters on a male saviour – neither Elsa nor her younger sister Anna observe salvation in a romantic heterosexual bail by the end of the moving picture, despite the fact that ii males are available to fall in love with.
Importantly, Frozen is inspired past Hans Christian Andersen'southward The Snow Queen – a tale about an evil queen living in a remote kingdom, capable of freezing hearts of human beings which only other human beings tin thaw with dearest.
The Snow Queen is an archetypal Terrible Mother who, in a rather Freudian twist, abducts a boy named Kay, steals his heart and keeps him in her water ice castle while his resourceful and resilient friend Gerda spends well-nigh of the tale looking for her lost mate.
In the cease, Gerda wins the boy's eye and repels the evil queen. The boy is presented as precious and special while the two female person characters of the original story fight over a male who has no feelings – not exactly a narrative triumph for feminism.
REWRITING FAIRY TALES
Frozen takes the elements of The Snow Queen – female creativity, free energy, resilience and power – and explores them farther by replacing the Snowfall Queen with Elsa, and Gerda with Anna. The male characters are sidelined, and it is Elsa's heart Anna has to win instead. The pain and sacrifice Anna goes through assist redeem her sister'southward special souvenir.
Yet the magical ability Elsa possesses in the first moving-picture show however has connotations of harm as she has no mastery over information technology – it but happens in her, and she is afraid of it.
READ: Why stories affair for children'south learning, a commentary
The teaser trailer for Frozen Two promises to remedy this situation as Elsa is shown to use her powers to tame the waves and extinguish fire with jets of ice. Meanwhile, a different Anna – less knockabout, more serious – is likewise revealed every bit she determinedly wields a man'due south sword to protect those around her.
Other than creating a sense of menace and urgency, the trailer gives no hint as to what is going on, simply Elsa is center phase, directing her ability and creativity to accomplish goals.
Both Elsa and Anna appear to be on a wild adventure whereas in the original picture, Elsa spends her time locked upwardly in two dissimilar castles which serve as a metaphor for her inability to be true to herself.
Apprehension is already building for Frozen Ii. Permit'due south hope information technology builds fruitfully on the original, helping young girls to feel empowered by function models who are brave, determined, focused and decisive.
Who doesn't desire to see female characters acting with existent agency in stories that look beyond marriage, maternity and traditionally perceived happy-ever-afters?
Helena Bassil-Morozow is a lecturer in Media and Journalism at Glasgow Caledonian Academy. She is too a cultural philosopher, media and pic scholar, and academic writer. A version of this commentary first appeared on The Conversation.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/disney-frozen-return-of-strong-female-characters-what-girls-need-222991
0 Response to "Commentary: Frozen II's return of strong female characters is what little girls need to see"
Post a Comment