Are Disney princesses too sexy?

I’m not sure if you’re aware of the rebranding Brave character Merida recently suffered. Once a normal-looking girl, the redheaded heroine received a substantial makeover… For want of a better phrase, she was “sexed up”.

There are now reports that Disney/Pixar has reversed its decision to make Merida’s hair a little glossier, her waist a little slimmer and her neckline a little lower. But how does the way our childhood heroines look affect our own self-perceptions?

Like Barbie, many onscreen females are somewhat idealised, to say the least: think Lara Croft, Esmeralda, Jasmine… the list goes on. Then think about plot lines  Prince Charming falls for Cinderella after she gets a makeover. Would he have fancied her in rags?

And it’s not just cartoons that do this to their female characters: Danny in Grease loses interest in Sandy as a sweet schoolgirl but loses his mind when she “shapes up”, smoking, squeezing into black leathers and grinding around like she’s got ants in her pants.

Now I’m not going to lie: I loved to see Ariel swish her red hair and watch Belle swirling across the dance floor in her twirly yellow dress as a youngster. Girls love that stuff. But there’s something really refreshing about Merida: she isn’t obsessed with her appearance and her entire aim in life isn’t to marry someone rich and handsome. I didn’t love the film, but her character was a break from the norm.

Columnist at The Times, Caitlin Moran, wrote of the original Merida: “This is the first Disney heroine ever not to have massive knockers, a 12-inch waist and the kind of mouth that could suck a potato up a straw. Well done, Disney! Well done for finally entering the 21st century.”

And of the ‘new and improved’ version? “A new picture of her showed her with a jacked-in waist, bigger tits, a lower-cut top and a load of eyeliner,” she says. “On top of this, Merida was no longer holding her bow and arrow and was, instead, standing with her hands on her hips, in the internationally recognised pose of, ‘I am a bit of a vapid pain in the arse now.’”

Moran points out that the “non-sexy, non-married, galloping, bow-shooting Merida” earned Disney £354 million at the box office during its first year of release. “Listen: Merida wasn’t for you, you bloodless, cash-counting idiots,” she says. “She was for every ten-year-old girl who hates itchy dresses and kissing, and just wanted to carry on being herself for a bit longer.

“You can’t put a price on a girl being able to watch a big Disney movie that says that’s an OK thing.”

Now I’m not going to come right out and link this sort of sexualisation to an increase in the number of young girls in the UK with eating disorders, or to a rise in demand for cosmetic surgery. But I do think it’s important to think about what we are exposing young girls (and boys) to. 

Let’s encourage them to do more with their lives than becoming thinner, sexier and more marriageable! Let’s show them how to become dignified rather than Disneyfied. And let’s make sure we stand up to the industry giants when they mess with the heroines who, like Merida, just want their “freedom”. That’s something we at Liberti are passionate about.

(This is the last ever Liberti blog from Joy Tibbs. To keep reading her insights, please visit the blog site of our ‘brother’ magazine, Sorted by clicking here. You can click here to visit her website or follow her on Twitter: @joyous25.)

In the eye of the beholder

Plus-size model Jennie Runk says she is surprised by the amount of attention her beachwear adverts for H&M have attracted, but I can’t say that I am.

The size-16 model tells the BBC: “When my Facebook fan page gained about 2,000 new likes in 24 hours, I decided to use the attention as an opportunity to make the world a little nicer by promoting confidence. I've since been receiving lots of messages from fans, expressing gratitude.

“Some even told me that my confidence has inspired them to try on a bikini for the first time in years. This is exactly the kind of thing I've always wanted to accomplish, showing women that it's OK to be confident even if you're not the popular notion of ‘perfect’.”

Runk describes a childhood full of self-loathing: of large thighs, braces and wire-rimmed glasses. “Having finally survived it, I feel compelled to show girls who are going through the same thing that it's acceptable to be different,” she says.

“You will grow out of this awkwardness fabulously. Just focus on being the best possible version of yourself and quit worrying about your thighs, there's nothing wrong with them.”

I think it’s great that H&M has chosen such a beautiful, inspirational woman for this campaign, and I’m delighted that she has inspired women to get back in their bikinis.

But it seems that there is still something of a disconnect when it comes to women and body image. Because although we like to identify with these adverts and similar ‘real woman’ campaigns from Dove and M&S, research shows that when we buy clothes, we want to see them worn by slender models and mannequins; even if we’re carrying a few extra pounds ourselves.

While we take comfort from models that look more like us, we still aspire to look like the airbrushed models shown in Vogue and Cosmopolitan. We admire natural beauty but still lust after perfection.

It’s also interesting to note the way we see ourselves compared with the way other people see us. As the latest part of its Campaign for Real Beauty, Dove hired a forensic sketch artist to draw several women, based only on their descriptions of themselves. The artist then draws a separate portrait of each woman based on descriptions of them from relative strangers.

The resulting sketches are displayed side by side and in every single case the ‘stranger’ portrait is more flattering than the woman’s own version. A tagline of “You are more beautiful than you think” is then added. (You can watch the YouTube video here.) 

However many campaigns we see that tell us ‘it’s ok to be normal’, they will always be futile if we are unable to accept ourselves as we are. Often we think it’s ok for our friends to be a little overweight, have a giant spot or start going grey, but if it happens to us it’s panic stations!

I don’t really know what the solution is, apart from praying about it and being the best versions of ourselves we can be. That means looking after our bodies but not having unrealistic expectations of them; seeing beauty in others but also in ourselves; and working on being beautiful (kind, generous, truthful etc) on the inside too.

If you’ve got an extra minute, it’s worth checking out this short blog entry from photographer Jaime Moore about real princesses. And (completely off topic, but amusing none the less) if you have an additional ten minutes, watch this video of two Dutch guys experiencing simulated labour pains!

Read more from Joy in the next issue of Liberti magazine.

Be careful what you buy!

The recent collapse of a building in Bangladesh that killed more than 700 people has provoked reaction from across the globe. 

Firstly, because so many people lost their lives. Secondly, because labour conditions had clearly been so terrible for so long. And thirdly, because some of the people in charge – on the ground and overseas – have tried to shirk their responsibilities and pass the buck.

The collapse of this illegally built structure was the third deadly factory-based incident in Bangladesh in just the last six months. While the factory owners and managers are clearly guilty of negligence, so, to some degree, are the firms they were supplying in Europe and beyond.

Now it would be easy at this point to point the finger at companies like Primark, especially as this particular firm has found itself in hot water in the past in relation to child labour infringements. However, it’s not just the low-end fashion firms that are to blame – some at the very top of the chain have also been embroiled in worker-related scandals. I would go as far as to say that the problem is pretty much industry-wide.

It’s encouraging to hear that Primark and Loblaw have agreed to compensate the families of garment workers that were killed while making their clothes. And it’s also a good sign that representatives from 45 companies, including Gap, H&M, Nike, Wal-Mart, Primark, Marks & Spencer and Tesco have met with officials from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association in Dhaka to discuss factory and worker safety going forward.

But what’s all this got to do with us? Well, according to Reuters, around 3.6 million people work within Bangladesh's garment industry, making it the world's second-largest apparel exporter. Around 60% of these exports are shipped to Europe. So although we may be reluctant to accept it, we too are partly to blame for the maltreatment and even the death of workers in the developing world because of the choices we make as consumers.

Most of us work in environments where we are safe and comfortable; where health and safety measures are legislated and enforced. We are paid a fair wage and given holidays and other perks as standard. We expect to be treated well by our employees and protected from abuse and discrimination. We know our rights and we are determined to stand up for them.

On the other hand, these factory workers – the majority of whom are women, by the way – do not have such an easy ride. Many work long hours for next to nothing because they have no other prospects and need to feed their families. There is no job protection for workers and if injury occurs and the employee can no longer work, there is rarely any compensation.

As you try to do your bit for the environment by buying organic cotton or feel a bit smug about keeping those in developing countries in employment by stacking your wardrobe to overflowing, think about what your buying habits actually mean to the people making those clothes: those in Bangladesh and beyond.

Now many of us have tight budgets, and that’s fine: buying ethically doesn’t necessarily mean breaking the bank. But it might mean buying one item from a ‘safe’ source rather than three from a company that outsources its work to unknown entities.

One great way to monitor what you’re buying – whether it be clothing, food, banking services or other goods – is to download the Good Shopping Guide app, which is available from iTunes and the Apple store. It costs just £2.99 and provides a list of the good, the bad and the ugly in terms of the environment, human rights and animal welfare.

Read more from Joy in the upcoming issue of Liberti.

(Also, click here to get a Christian take on this situation. This blog from Rhythms looks at the biblical command to clothe and feed the poor, and how this has been turned on its head so that the poor are not only clothing us, but are dying the process.)