Masks and Tiaras: How Princess and Superhero Culture Reinforce Sex as a Commodity and Male Disposability (long)

HotDealsInTexas · 2016-03-15T18:43:42+00:00

With Magic Hoo Hoo sex and beauty provide a buffer between the heroine and harsh realities while allowing her to appear independent and brave. A dutiful male will slay the dragons – real and metaphorical – while she gets all the credit for telling him to do so. For example, Princess Anna is seen as the hero in “Frozen,” not Kristoff.

Anna is considered the hero not because she's the princess, but because the movie ultimately focused on her and Elsa's character development - Anna moving past childish expectations like expecting a Prince Charming to come and sweep her off her feet, and Elsa learning that hiding from your problems and dwelling on your fears doesn't make them go away.

Also, Anna did plenty of useful stuff. Like, you know, going off into the mountains on her own, trying to talk Elsa down from her anxiety-induced snowpocalypse, and literally jumping in front of a sword to protect her sister, instead of trying to save her own life by kissing Kristoff.

The message to girls and young women is that playing hard to get is rewarding, and that being beautiful gives one access to the most privileges, requiring fewer responsibilities and sacrifices than becoming successful. The choice of partners is also better.

This I kind of agree with.

This could be why I only see eight girls in line to meet Princess Merida at Disneyland, two of whom are clutching Princess Rapunzel dolls, yet just half an hour later hundreds of girls are clamoring to squeeze into the Royal Theatre next door to watch the “Frozen” stage show.

It could also be why the number of girls who tried archery after the popular “Hunger Games” series was released didn’t measure up to the number of girls who dressed up as Princess Anna or Princess Elsa from “Frozen” for Halloween, or bought Anna or Elsa merchandise.[1] Interestingly, products featuring Elsa, the more magical and glamorous of the two sisters, outsold Anna merchandise at some retailers at a rate of about two to one.

Possibly. However, I'd like to note that Frozen treated Elsa's powers as an obstacle, something that was harming her until she discovered the way to control them.

When Harry is an infant, the evil wizard Voldemort descends on the family’s hiding place because of a prophecy that Harry will grow up to destroy him. James yells at Lily to take Harry and flee, so he can hold Voldemort off. He dies protecting them, and then Lily dies protecting Harry, but because of her love, Voldemort’s killing curse backfires and irreparably damages him, and all Harry is left with is the famous lightening bolt shaped scar on his forehead.

The primary message is that love is stronger than hate. The secondary message is a mother’s love is more powerful than a father’s, and a mother’s death more profound.

Dayum. I never thought of this, but holy shit. Then again, there is sort of an explanation for why Lily's sacrifice was treated as more important: Harry had to stay with the Dursleys because Lily's sacrifice protected him as long as he lived in the same household as her living relatives - and James didn't have living relatives. So even if both of them contributed to why Harry survived the first killing curse, it may be that Lily had the greater effect afterwards.

Anyway, I'm not going to quote all the stuff about magic and superheroes, but I'm not sure the "female heroes can't solve problems without magic" really works, since most superheroes have "magic" powers too - the main difference is in anonymity.

Our test is called the “MacGyver Test,” named after the popular 1990s television adventure series, that a film or show passes if it meets any of these criteria:

Plot does not require the absence of the mother for the father to be portrayed as a competent dad.

Honest, hard-working man is in a successful or leadership position and/or is not a chump.

Female protagonist shows interest in the male protagonist before he is the hero.

Male protagonist solves problems in creative ways, and only uses violence as a last resort to accomplish his goals or mission.

I like this one. Off the top of my head, I can't think of one that meets all the criteria, but I have a few that meet one or two.

How to Train Your Dragon: resoundingly fails criteria 1 and 3. However, Hiccup definitely prefers to avoid violence, in total contrast to the rest of the cast. Point 2? In the original film, Stoick does kind of fall into the "Chump" category, but in the TV show spinoff and the second film he shows that he is actually a competent leader, and in HTTYD2 there's a major point where he was right and Hiccup was wrong. Hiccup is also in a leadership role in the TV show, and while he makes mistakes he's probably the most levelheaded of the main cast.
Harry Potter: not sure I'd call Dumbledore "honest," since he manipulates other characters for a good cause, but hardworking, competent, and in a leadership position? Yes. Then again, a lot of works pass on this category when we include mentors.

And, apart from that, uh... half the shit I watch is shonen anime, so heroes who avoid using violence to solve problems are in short supply.

Rethgil · 2016-03-15T21:34:12+00:00

Princess culture is a brilliant term. Been looking for way to sum up modern female entitlement attitudes. This nails it. 'Toxic male disposability in the Princess culture' is a great study waiting to be written.

Title	Masks and Tiaras: How Princess and Superhero Culture Reinforce Sex as a Commodity and Male Disposability (long)
Author	Twaterrific
Upvotes	11
Comments	4
Date	March 15, 2016 5:10 PM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/4ajdk5/masks_and_tiaras_how_princess_and_superhero/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/masks-and-tiaras-how-princess-and-superhero.953962 https://theredarchive.com/post/953962

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