So I read this review several months ago. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/pixar-brave-merida-disney-princess-feminist-341124 . Tonight, I finally got around to watching Brave. Now, what is below was written after reading the article, but before seeing Brave. But, after seeing the movie, it still feels pretty accurate. But my focus isn't on Brave because I hadn't seen Brave.

(Be sure to read the review linked above first!)

Let me tell you why that's horseapples.

Now, it's not that I'm against strong female characters. But I feel in the past few years, it's become a bit prominent, and now it feels kind of forced in movies. Sure, being independent is cool, but getting married and settling down is important too. But my point is about either of those things.

You see, I grew up with classic Disney, and all those girly girl princesses. But guess what? I am a strong, independent female individual. Just because I didn't grow up with particularly strong female characters in my movies doesn't mean I'm not one now.

I guess my era was kind of where it started. I mean, the article mentions Mulan, and apparently, that came out when I was eight. Gees, did I see that one in theaters?

Anyway, you don't want to be like one of those independent women because they're independent, you want to be like them because they're cool and badflank. Sure, they can take care of themselves as a bonus, but there's nothing wrong with being girly AND strong—case in point, Mulan. Yeah, she's a hero, but at the end of the day, she's a girl with girly wants and needs. Excluding the second movie in that observation. Her reason for going off to war in the first place was sentimental.

So, rather than making a female independent and even boyishly tough, why can't people keep them both? Either they're a rogue warrior who doesn't need anyone, or they're a girl who needs a prince. Somehow, Mulan does this really cool thing of incorporating both.

But even if I hadn't seen Mulan, I'd probably still be the same woman I am today, more or less. Did movies really influence my life that much as a child? I mean, to an extent, movies and TV affect kids, but does everything they watch transfer to later in life? Wouldn't that mean you're just watching too much TV?

I mean, one of my favorite shows was Pound Puppies, and two movies that I watched repeatedly were about Babar the elephant. Now, when I was little, I used to pretend to be a dog. Now that I'm older, I relate better to cats in my actions. I also don't remember much from watching Babar, even though I'm pretty sure those were a constant. There are a lot of movies I remember watching that now I barely remember, even if I saw them twenty times a month. Did those still have an influence on me?

I mean, I watched the girly princess movies, but I'm not into romance now, either movies or books. I'm not into the gushy girly stuff. Yet that is what I was exposed to. I watched Cinderella, The Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, Robin Hood... so, they aren't all about princesses, but they also aren't feminist movies. If those movies I just listed contain a girl, they generally fall in love with a male of some sort, usually a prince, and they ride off into the sunset, and that's it.

And yet, isn't that what I expect out of life? I mean, I want a guy who will take care of me, and yet, for now, I'm independent. And I'd like to keep some level of independence even after I'm married. I'm my own person, and marrying someone doesn't make me a part of them. We're not going to be two halves, we're just going to be two people. You can put a cake on top of another cake, and make a large cake, but you can still split the two cakes back to what they were originally. Kind of like that. We can be a whole, but we don't have to be all the time.

So I guess Mulan would be a good way to sum it up. She's emotional, with family ties, but she's also smart and independent, but she's not afraid to rely on a guy either. But I'd assume any guy who marries her now knows to give her her space. She's her own person, and she's shown that by striking out on her own and going against the norm. She never set out to be a hero, that just happened. It wasn't forced, like destiny or fate. It wasn't a mission or anything. It just happened that way.

Kind of like... I don't know, REAL LIFE? Sometimes things happen, and we don't know they're going to, but we go with it anyway and do our best. And maybe something good comes out of that.

Basically, what it boils down to is that girls don't need feminist movies. They don't need strong female characters. Are those things bad? Well, not really, I'd say. But there's nothing wrong with exposing your child to a variety of movies. Show them the girly girls, and show them the strong girls. Let them decide for themselves what to watch. Some girls were made to depend on men, and some were made to stand on their own. Either one is okay, as long as you take your time and choose your relationships wisely. It's not about how you go looking for a spouse, it's who you go looking for.

http://imgur.com/gallery/BmDxp

“Jasmine was in a relationship with a dirty homeless boy name Aladdin (who later became a prince, but lied to her about her past, after which she accepted him anyway), Snow White lived alone with seven men (who did have the mentality of children, mind you), Pinnochio was a liar (puppet or human, it was still true), Robin Hood was a thief (although he stole from the rich to give to the poor, so at least his cause was noble), Tarzan walked around without clothes on (but at least in the Disney version he had underwear), a stranger kissed Sleeping Beauty and she married him (because love at first sight is totally legit), Cinderella lied and snuck out at night to attend a party (and also was poor one day and married a prince the next—talk about unrealistic).” And if you think movies are raising kids, you better get your little girl those archery lessons, and hope she doesn't run into any bears.