In my adventures today, I picked up a copy of Peter Pan. I was so excited to bring it home and watch it with The Short Bus, he loves pirates, and has never seen the movie.
As I'm sitting here watching it with him, I'm on the verge of tears. What the hell? Wendy! Can't you see what's happening here!? Girl, wake up! This cute, fun boy shows up, and one of the first things he says to you is, "Girls sure do talk a lot." Then, he starts talking about taking her from her home to his where she can take care of him and his friends.
And SHE goes along with it! Really?!
They finally get to Neverland where Peter's bitch friend gets her shot out of the sky, he, of course, saves her life, then when Peter tries to banish Tink, Wendy defends her! When Peter's other friends, the mermaids, try to drown her, she finally tries to stand up for herself, and this time Peter defends the mermaids. At this point, Tiger-Lily shows up. I don't know about you, but if I were Wendy, I'd have a hard time going along with saving yet another friend of his who is going to treat me like crap. Yet, she follows right along.
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So, Wendy is expected to be "the mom" while John & Michael are expected to be little boys and "never grow up." She tells stories, gathers firewood, and generally keeps the boys in line, while Captain Hook uses and lies to Tinkerbell... because she's "a jealous female" and can be "talked into anything."
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Seriously, could there be any worse portrayal of women?
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While these characters have brief moments where they stand up for themselves, the general idea is that women are weak willed, stupid creatures, who are only here to clean up, and ruin everybody's fun.
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Even when Tinkerbell saves Peter's life, and he finally tells her, "you mean more to me than anyone in this whole world," she continues to play a secondary role in his life.
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All in all, I think my favorite character in the movie is the Crocodile. *sigh*
Some things just aren't the same once you grow up.
5 comments:
WENDY IS A GIRL!!! SHE SOULDNT HAVE BALLS TO START OUT WITH!!!
bah. I knew someone was going to say that... fine..I'll rephrase it.
disney has for the most part done a poor job with the image of women... and families for that matter. It's upsetting that these are the movies we are supposed to find most appropriate for young kids...
K loves the characters from Peter Pan but she has never been crazed on the story... thank goodness she's got more brains than a disney chick.
I'm sorry, but you can't blame Disney for stories that have existed for decades before they turned them into animated movies.
If you want to blame someone, blame the men who wrote these stories. They are the ones who objectified women and portrayed them as weak and completely dependent upon men.
And not all of Disney's movies do this.
Look at Ariel from the Little Mermaid, she's spunky and defiant. Same with Jasmine from Aladdin, and Belle from Beauty and the Beast is brave, intelligent, and has no problem speaking her mind.
Now if you want to be pissed about something, be pissed that they changed the story of Pocahontas. She went to England with John Smith and then died because her body was not used to all the germs that she encountered. If I remember correctly she died of the flu.
Okay...off my soapbox now.
Definitely go check out some of the commentary at tribe... this has become a fascinating discussion!
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