Hey everybody, this is MovieDragon009 back again with a new blog post.
Knock-knock, who's there? Did you see Frozen? HECK YEAH! Who hasn't, especially given that it's become one of the most successful animated features of all time? Those of you who've seen my YouTube video review of the movie already know how much I enjoyed it, in spite of some noticeable flaws, but recently I've noticed some of the controversies surrounding this loveable film. I'm only going to talk about one issue here and express my thoughts on it, and you may find me playing Devil's advocate a couple of times, so brace yourselves.
One of the complaints that I've heard about Frozen is the design of the two main female characters, Elsa and Anna; as far as body shape is concerned, they haven't really done anything to revolutionize that aspect of female character design so much as reinforce the stereotype of rail-thin beauty. This isn't new though, and it does reflect on the Disney Princess franchise, along with dozens of other fictional portrayals of women, as a whole, for which it receives a jack-ton of flak. Admittedly, I can see where they're coming from on this issue; while Disney has progressed a lot by introducing characters of greater ethnic diversity that provide a 'stronger' role model for children, there hasn't been much change in body types; heck, with the new CGI films coming out, the main female characters are starting to become more and more Barbie-doll-like (personally, however, I think that this is merely a consequence of the tool; hence, I think Disney needs to start getting hand-drawn films back on the market, but that's a blog post for another day), whereas the men are generally free to inhabit a greater variety of body-types and yet remain acceptable to audiences. In a way, I kind of agree with them; there's plenty of room for a greater variety of female body types not just in Disney films but in other franchises as well, and if handled correctly, could result in a wider variety of interesting characters.
But this is only one side of the coin, a coin that I've come to label Political Correctness. Here's where I may have to start playing devil's advocate a little bit: imagine if a feature film did decide to use a radically different body shape for a female protagonist than what's been used before, one that perhaps may be more on the plus side than the norm. Who's to say that, instead of praising the newly portrayed body type, the critics start to call out the movie on basically saying, "It's okay to be overweight, you don't have to change that!", or at least, perceiving such a message? This would probably force the studio to bring what should've been a minor thing into the fore through a forced pro-exercise message--which, ironically, would turn right back into the negative body-image debate, as some viewers could perceive that the character is working towards an unrealistic goal that, again, is reinforced by popular media. The thing is that most studios try to work towards a character design that is appealing to a broad range of audiences, and, especially with a lot of the larger studios like Disney in recent times, audience expectations determine what is appealing.
Don't get me wrong, a healthy diet and continuous exercise is a good thing, I'm not arguing with that. I only bring up such a scenario to illustrate the fact that, by trying to be as politically correct as possible, you run the risk of offending just as many people as you try to please. What may be politically correct in one place is not in another, and there is no truly satisfying anyone. Why I risk my own scant popularity on the Internet through this blog is not to tear down whatever progress may have been done for the portrayal of women in media; I'm simply speaking out on behalf of the storymakers.
Films, books, television shows, and the like are all creative endeavors, the better ones more so, but as I said earlier, their success is determined by what is popular at the time rather than what may be needed. This forces the creator of the property to walk a very delicate line between being true to one's desires and the tastes of the masses. Sometimes they strike a balance, achieving something that, while popular, hasn't been toned or produced just to please a group of people and make money. What I'm saying is that a story shouldn't have to please protest groups in order to be successful; a story should simply be the best it can be in any respects, and I feel that sometimes that potential is limited by somewhat trivial expectations. I think that a lot of us miss the point of what a fictional story is supposed to be; a lie that tells the truth, and helps us become better people because of it. We really shouldn't care about what a character looks like so long as they, and us, are learning a worthwhile lesson. Of course there are going to be storytellers that voluntarily make blatant cash-grabs that, as far as values and morals are concerned, are about as dry as a bone, but for every ten awful popcorn flicks there's a work of art with a heart of gold waiting to be discovered, so long as people aren't distracted by and try to nitpick every imagined flaw. And this is where I turn it back to Frozen; what's important about this movie is it's message of overcoming internal doubts and fears, as well as that of familial love. If people paid more attention to stuff like that, then maybe we'd get better stories in the end.Obviously this is a really complicated issue that we face, but this is just my two cents on the matter. Take of it what you will.
This is MovieDragon009, signing out!
