One Weird Old Trick to Undermine the Patriarchy
My five-year-old insists that Bilbo Baggins is a girl.
The first time she made this claim, I protested. Part of the fun of reading to your kids, after all, is in sharing the stories you loved as a child. And in the story I knew, Bilbo was a boy. A boy hobbit. (Whatever that entails.)
But my daughter was determined. She liked the story pretty well so far, but Bilbo was definitely a girl. So would I please start reading the book the right way?
The fate of Susan Pevensie from C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia has been hotly debated by fans and feminists. Lewis shuts her out of Narnia once her interest in boys and cosmetics blooms, and she is referred to in grave tones by her siblings as no longer being a “friend of Narnia”. These two articles by E. Jade Lomax are the best I’ve seen at giving us an idea of what awaits the heroine once the adventure is over.
Can we talk about Susan Pevensie for a moment?
I want to read about Susan finishing out boarding school as a grown queen reigning from a teenaged girl’s body. School bullies and peer pressure from children and teachers who treat you like you’re less than sentient wouldn’t have the same impact. C’mon, Susan of the Horn, Susan who bested the DLF at archery, and rode a lion, and won wars, sitting in a school uniform with her eyebrows rising higher and higher as some old goon at the front of the room slams his fist on the lectern.
Also:
Let’s talk about how, when the war ends,
when the Pevensie children go back to London, Susan sees a young woman standing at the train platform, weeping, waving.
First, Susan thinks civilian; and second, she thinks not much older than me.
Third, Susan thinks Mother.
What effect does the hypersexualization of the heroine have on young girls? Although I myself have a great fondness for Disney and Barbie, and I don’t categorically consider them “evil”, clearly we are doing little girls a disservice when these are the only role models they have to choose from.
In today’s highly sexualized environment – where 5-year-olds wear padded bras – some see the toddlers-and-tiaras Disney princess craze leading to the pre-teen pursuit of “hot” looks. Do little girls become little women too soon?
How Finding a Fat YA Heroine Changed My Life by Kaye Toal
Wait, I thought — I remember distinctly, that knife of recognition — is Eleanor fat?
Eleanor is fat. Eleanor is fat and dresses loudly and talks loudly and has loud opinions about everything. Eleanor is fat and smart and terrified. And Eleanor ends up OK, and loved, and still looks like me. She doesn’t change. She is entirely herself, and it’s enough. Eleanor is the first fat YA girl I’ve ever read about who didn’t have to change herself to have a happy ending. I met her when I was 23 years old.
Seven Miles of Steel Thistles: Fairytale heroines
Heroines, you will note, not ‘fairytale princesses’. For though princesses do figure in fairytales, the heroine is just as often a peasant – or a farmer’s daughter – or perhaps the child of a powerful magician. Even in the so-called Classic Fairytales, the ones which have been anthologised and Disneyfied almost to death, Sleeping Beauty and Snow-White are princesses, yes. But Cinderella and Beauty are merchant’s daughters; Red Riding Hood is an ordinary little girl; Rapunzel is a peasant woman’s child; the heroine of Rumpelstiltskin is a miller’s daughter – and so on.
A Day In the Life of an Empowered Female Heroine
Funny satire on what it takes to be a a Female Hero in our culture.
She woke up like she did every day: slowly pulling her motorcycle helmet off, then shaking her head slowly back and forth to reveal a long, blonde ponytail. Everyone gasped. “That’s right,” she said, kicking the winning football goal before sliding into a sheer, sexy camisole under a blazer and playing as hard as she worked, “I’ve been a girl this whole time.” One of the guys, the real sexy one, shook his head in slow motion, as if to say “wh-wh-wh-whaaat?” You know the kind. His mouth was kind of open while he did it. He was totally blown away.
Finnish artist Jirka Väätäinen renders popular Disney heroines in a realistic style His portraits give these characters something more than the cookie-cutter bodies and perfect faces they usually get in their idealized state. Belle has the furrowed brow of a thinker, Merida has the ruddy complexion of a girl who loves the outdoors, and Snow White oozes with naïveté.
Envisioning what the girls of Disney might look like in real life.
This is a personal project and has no affiliation with Disney in any way.
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