Merida from Brave Hero to Passive Princess

Like most girls, I grew up watching Disney films, especially the princess movies. Growing up we are taught to want to be like those beautiful princesses, and for a Latina watching Disney princess films, I felt a lost identity; I didn’t look like these white princesses. Actually, I dressed up like Jasmine from Aladdin one Halloween because she was the only princess of color. Beyond wanting to be white and a princess, I wanted to be beautiful. These princesses were beautiful and from what I understood, they were the "ideal woman". They were princesses, beautiful, and they always got the prince. Growing up that’s all I thought was important and was my goal as a girl.

When I heard last year that Pixar was releasing a film starring a female, I was intrigued. After Brave came out I heard great things about it. I heard that Merida wasn’t you typical princess. After watching the film, it’s apparent that Merida isn’t your “average” princess. She explains that she doesn’t really want to be a princess that she just wants to be a normal girl and explore. Merida complains about the standards she has to meet to be a princess and how that’s not who she is. The story, although does involve her getting married, is actually a story about a relationship with her mother. Merida is never sexualized, never falls in love, and has little to no interaction with men other than her father and brothers. Overall, it’s a tale about her journey and how she is a strong independent woman.

So when Disney decided to make Merida a princess, I was a bit hesitant. It seems as if those at Disney didn’t watch the movie. Merida really doesn’t want to be your stereotypical princess. Even the dress that Disney displays her in, is a dress that Merida protests to in the film and even rips when trying to shoot a bow and arrow (I thought the dress tearing as she stretched was to symbolize it’s constrictive nature). While I already thought what Disney was doing was a bit odd, I was caught off guard by how they did a complete make over of Merida. In the make over version, she’s more pale, her hair is less messy, her dress is now off the shoulder and more low cut, she has lipstick, and she has wider hips and more busty. Let’s just say, she looks definitely like a princess, she has been become sexier and skinnier.

But what’s the problem? She’s merely a cartoon?

Well, when little girls are being exposed to this, it isn’t exactly harmless. My experience as a little girl includes a longing to be white, stay skinny, be pretty, and even be sexy. The creator of “Brave”, Brenda Chapman had it right, saying,

"When little girls say they like it because it's more sparkly, that's all fine and good but, subconsciously, they are soaking in the sexy 'come hither' look and the skinny aspect of the new version. It's horrible! Merida was created to break that mold — to give young girls a better, stronger role model, a more attainable role model, something of substance, not just a pretty face that waits around for romance."

Merida isn’t any princess that is passive and waits for her prince; she was the hero of her own story. Making her into this shows that girls are just another product to consume and another object to be looked at. By making Merida into another object, Disney isn’t helping the shocking self esteem issues that girls develop.

I'm not saying that I hate Disney princesses, no, I loved them as a little girl. But Merida was suppose to break the mold of the classic Disney princess, and in her film she does, but Disney giving her this make-over will overshadow her story and just make her into another stereotypical princess. What a shame.

The Personal Is The Political: My Thoughts On Liberty and Sex

It seems as if people are getting annoyed with the fact that sometimes Thoughts On Liberty posts about sex. Actually, if you’re Liberty Without Apologies, you believe that ALL we talk about is sex and love straw man. Well let’s look at the posts on Thoughts on Liberty from the last two weeks:

1. How Slut-Shaming Empowers Sexual Abusers
2. This is How Many Shits I Give About Converting Conservatives into Libertarians
3. Time to Turn Off the News and Enjoy Life
4. Don’t Let Israel Turn Some Americans into Second Class Citizens
5. Yes, I am a Cam Girl and I Have Self-Respect
6. In News Surprising No One, Georgia Residents Glorify Racist Past
7. More Connected and Alone Than Ever?
8. Three Good Reasons Parents Don’t Vaccinate (Even Though They Should)
9. Don’t Let Boston Derail the Discussions On Immigration
10. Guns Aren’t the Answer to Rape
11. How a Fundie Christian Became a Casual Sex Advocate
12. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Personal Hero
13. Dear President Obama, the Economy is Making Us Sick
14. Flirty at Fifty? Fuck Yeah!

Out of 14 posts, 3 have to do with sex. What I mean by sex, is what I think people are complaining about – consensual sex. Although there are 2 articles dealing with sexual abuse and rape, I couldn’t consider those posts about sex given the fact that rape and sexual abuse are crimes, and problems in our society that cannot be seen as simply "sex". So even if you want to include rape as sex-related, that’s 5 out of 14 posts.

So my tip to those who think that all we talk about is sex, and that we’re desperate housewives who only want to talk about sex, is that you’re wrong. Familiarize yourself better with Thoughts On Liberty if you want to make such a claim.

But even if we were talking only about sex, how is that not talking about liberty?

There are multiple reasons why the liberty movement should concern itself with sex, the first being that libertarians should fight for cultural acceptance, which includes sex.

Rachel Burger, associate editor of Thoughts on Liberty, said it best:

The thing is, Thoughts on Liberty is not just another run-of-the-mill libertarian blog that tows the libertarian line on every libertarian problem. TOL also fights for cultural acceptance. Don’t think this is a libertarian problem? Familiarize yourself with Hayek’s knowledge problem. You don’t know how to run someone else’s life. It’s fair to offer an alternative, even when it comes to sex.

What makes the libertarian movement so great is that there are multiple opinions in one spot – there are anarchists, minarchists, left-libertarians, right-libertarians, and just people trying to make their way around the movement. Because we all have different experiences and opinions, it’s important to look at all different perspectives; that’s how we build tolerance. As libertarians, we should especially agree that we don’t know how to run someone else’s life.

So when Thoughts on Liberty is arguing about how casual sex isn’t a bad thing, how is that not fighting for acceptance given the fact that society says casual sex is wrong? Or how is a cam girl explaining how she has self-respect not fighting for acceptance since society has all these myths surrounding why women go into sex work? In order to have liberty, we have to be able to be accepting of different cultures and ideas; that’s how we become free.

Next, at the end of it all, the personal is political. What do I mean by that? I mean that the government has multiple hands in the personal lives of people. Although we want to split these two things, we can’t because they’ve been intertwined time and time again.

This isn’t just with sex. There are multiple things we would deem personal that the state has interfered with and we still address. For example, Mayor Bloomberg’s war on soda, marriage equality, school choice, whether or not kids can have lemonade stands, and the choice to buy health insurance. These are all private, personal matters that the government has interfered with. Newsflash- the government has interfered with sex too, involving itself in access to birth control, sexual education, sex workers, and even how we have sex.

It wasn’t until Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 that anti-sodomy laws were finally labeled unconstitutional. Anti-sodomy laws and crimes against nature statutes tells us what positions we can have sex in, what kind of sex we can have, and to ultimately tell us that we can’t have sex with a same sex partner. That is a perfect example of making the personal political.

When school boards only allow government-funded abstinence-only education, that’s the government making sex political.

When the government makes prostitution illegal, that’s the government making sex political.

When polygamy is illegal, that’s the government making sex political.

Even rape culture, victim blaming, and slut shaming have found their way into our judicial system, preventing victims from getting justice, that is political.

So yes, talking about casual sex, polygamy, and sex work are our thoughts on liberty, because liberty is about removing government from the personal. No one complains that people talk too much about school choice or marriage equality or what food we can eat, but for some reason people feel so uncomfortable when women talk about sex in the context of liberty. Cultural acceptance is liberty because one person doesn't know what's best for another. 

Case of the Mondays: Link Roundup

It's Monday once again!

Now that I am done with my junior year - today, for me, is a lazy Monday!

Here are links you should check out on your gloomy Monday:

• Start your Monday off with: 7 Creepy Things That Everybody Does
• If you weren't aware I also do concert photography: Shamrock Fest 2013 posted my photos on their official facebook. Enjoy (:
• My latest at Thoughts On Liberty: Time To Turn Off The News and Enjoy Life
• This week I was featured on Spatial Orientation's Caturday!
• Reason's Nanny of the Month for April: What Kind of a Monster Bans Chipotle?!
• Gina Luttrell at Thoughts on Liberty: This Is How Many Shits I Give About Converting Conservatives to Libertarians
• Sex Positive, ftw! Anonymous post at Thoughts on Liberty: Yes, I am a Cam Girl and I Have Self-Respect

Enjoy your Monday (:

Lazy Sunday Video

Violence & Silence: Jackson Katz, Ph.D at TEDxFiDiWomen

Jackson Katz, Phd, is an anti-sexist activist and expert on violence, media and masculinities. An author, filmmaker, educator and social theorist, Katz has worked in gender violence prevention work with diverse groups of men and boys in sports culture and the military, and has pioneered work in critical media literacy. Katz is the creator and co-founder of the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program, which advocates the 'bystander approach' to sexual and domestic violence prevention.

Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, and the Perpetuation of Rape Culture in Hip Hop

TW: Rape, Sexual Assault, Graphic Lyrics Depicting Rape and Violence Against Women

Last month, Rick Ross lost an endorsement with Reebok over his lyrics that obviously depicted date rape (even if Rick Ross doesn’t think so):

Put Molly all in the champagne.  She ain't even know it.  I took her home and I enjoy that.  She ain't even know it.

Newsflash: Putting a drug in a woman’s drink and then having sex with her while she’s unconscious – is rape.

This week, Lil Wayne lost an endorsement with PepsiCo due to his reference to Emmett Till:

Beat that pussy up like Emmett Till.

If you don’t remember, Emmett Till was a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago who was violently beaten and killed in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman. In my opinion, the lyric is not only offensive to women for comparing a sexual act to the level of violence that Till experienced, but especially to Till, whose death helped advance the Civil Rights Movement. Disgusting.

Now, I believe in the importance of free speech. We should all be able to say what we want to say. That being said, I completely support any company that takes away endorsements from people that they believe do not reflect the values of their company. Taking away an endorsement doesn’t limit anyone’s free speech, it’s just them choosing who and who not to associate with.

Although I believe Reebok and PepsiCo has taken the proper stance against these types of lyrics, I find it odd that this hasn’t happened more often given that tons of hip-hop songs promote violence against women and rape culture. Rick Ross and Lil’ Wayne are not even close to being the only rappers that have endorsements and have lyrics promoting rape.

Even Reebok still endorses rape-promoting rappers such as Tyga, who in his song “Ice Cream Paintjob” raps,

Money ain’t a thing to the Young Money gang baby. Our navy, our ate and leave and rape your lady or maybe take more whores, show me your titty.

Although Reebok and PepsiCo are kind of standing against misogyny in hip hop music, it still seems very profitable to promote rape culture and violence against women in music.

If there’s no stranger to rapping about violence against women, it’s Eminem. In songs like “Stay Wide Awake”, “As The World Turns”, “Kill You”, “Celebrity”, and “Who Knew”, Eminem raps about raping women. Here’s a bit from “Stay Wide Awake”:

Sit down beside her like a spider, hi there girl, you mighta

Heard of me before, see whore, you're the kind of girl that I'd assault

And rape. then figure why not try not to make your pussy wider?

F*ck you with an umbrella, then open it up while the sh*t's inside ya

I'm the kinda guy that's mild but I might flip and get a little bit wilder

Oh, Eminem’s endorsements include Chrysler, Lipton, and G-Shock and has total net worth of over $140 million.

Rapper Chief Keef recently signed a $6 million contract with Interscope Records. Oh and here’s what he thinks about women and their worth:

You aint gonna let me f*ck and I feel you, but you gone suck my d*ck or I’ll kill you.

Recently Tyler the Creator, who has a net worth of over $5 million, was dropped from PepsiCo for a controversial commercial that he created for Mountain Dew. Yet, PepsiCo shouldn’t have been surprised that Tyler would make an offensive commercial that is racist and pokes fun of violence against women, especially with some lyrics like:

Rape a pregnant bitch and tell my friends I had a threesome

and

And you call this shit rape but I think that rape’s fun

and

Gorgeous, baby, you’re gorgeous. I just wanna drag your lifeless body to the forest and fornicate with it but that’s because I’m in love with you. 

It seems that although PepsiCo and Reebok have spoken against certain of the artists they are endorsing, there still is a bigger problem in hip hop music. The perpetuation of violence against women and rape culture is not anything new in rap music. Although losing endorsements maybe might deter a rapper or two from using these themes in their music, with hip hop being a multiple billion dollar industry, themes like violence against women and rape culture don’t seem to be going away any soon.

The insulting message of these lyrics isn’t the only problem stemming from this however. Psychology Today notes that exposure to rap music increases sexist attitudes towards women. Multiple studies in The Psychology of Women Quarterly and Sex Roles found that men who listened to lyrics that depicted sexual violence and viewed music videos depicting women in subordinate roles were more likely to express misogynistic beliefs and increase sexually aggressive behavior towards women.

I would never advocate for our government to censor music; these artists have full protection under the first amendment and I would never want to take that away from anyone no matter how much I disagree with them. That being said, it would be nice to see more corporations realize that these lyrics are not in line with their beliefs and therefore don’t reward these artists with lucrative endorsement deals. Maybe with the news of Lil’ Wayne and Rick Ross, more companies will wake up and realize what they’re endorsing: a culture that perpetuates violence against women.

[Note: I am not claiming that hip hop music is the only music that promotes violence against women. I am only using hip hop in this post based on the endorsements that were lost. Just wait, there will posts on misogyny in other genres of music]