Wednesday, May 23, 2001
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Wednesday, May 23, 2001 |
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In today's fairy tales, women rock By BILLY MURPHY It is only a recent phenomenon that children's animated movie heroines kick butt. Would it have made a difference if girls and boys of a different era had grown up watching girls in Disney movies react actively and aggressively instead of passively? Imagine, if you would, Cinderella quietly putting down her mop bucket, walking up to her stepmother and stepsisters and proceeding to give them a serious "tail-whupping." Or what if Snow White, instead of shrinking back from the woodsman (the first hired hit man?) had snapped, then landed a precise blow to his nether-regions and in turn, carried his heart back to the wicked Queen? Well, Disney is no longer the only company producing kids' fairy tales and in the new, highly-rated animated movie, "Shrek," the princess kicks butt. My view when I watched "Shrek" was askew in a few ways. First, the movie was so crowded, we had to sit on the second row on the far right, so I had to look straight up and to the left to see the now distorted screen. Second, I am beginning to see the world from the eyes of my 5-year-old daughter who is being taught in not-so-subtle ways that, "Girlfriend, you don't have to take no crap." In the movie, Princess Fiona is a typical, beautiful and beautifully dressed damsel in distress, but no weakling, she. In a "Matrix-like" fight sequence, Fiona makes easy work of Robin Hood and his Merry Men in a way that would make Stallone, Segal or Van Damme envious. The woman as warrior trend started a few years back and has picked up steam consistently and successfully. I think it started with my favorite science fiction movie, if not my favorite movie of all time, "Alien." In that, the traditional male hero role is replaced seamlessly with a female. Here name was Ripley, believe it or not. Now, it seems this version of women's empowerment has found its way to the kid's fairy tale. It's about time. Some fear (mostly guys, I'm sure) that all this signals the end of a need for men; man the protector, man the defender, man, who never asks for directions. In movies like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" the man or the boyfriend is incidental to the life of the storied female. Could there be another reason for living, for the girl, other than capturing the heart of her very own hunter and gatherer? You mean the world doesn't revolve around the when and where of him popping the question? Today, it seems, the man is more likely to get popped in the mouth by an elbow or a forearm. Maybe Julia Robert's parting shot in "Pretty Woman" was more then a cliched sound bite, but a true prophecy of things to come; that after she was rescued by her prince, she would "rescue him right back." In the miniseries, "The 10th Kingdom," an updated Snow White encourages her friend: "You're still lost in the forest. But lonely, lost girls like us can rescue ourselves." Like the Power Puff Trio, today's girls seem to be all made of sugar and spice and chemical X. In "Shrek," there is an even more important message surrounding Princess Fiona that teaches, finally, that it's not all about looks. To write any more would give away a great plot twist and the true magic of the movie, but I hope to see more and more stories that teach kids the importance of looking inside a person. Because, in the end, fairy tales shouldn't be about teaching kids the boundaries they are supposed to live within, but about what they can become. [Visit Billy Murphy on the Internet at www.e-billy.net.]
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