海角大神

Recently, Disney released a聽. This prompted聽聽because the character's design was altered,聽.聽The new Merida has been "prettified"--made more conventionally attractive in a way that undercuts the character's strengths, to the detriment of the children who view her as a role model.

In response,聽A Mighty Girl released a聽聽to Disney that outlines the reasons why the redesign is problematic. The petition聽culminates with a request: to pull the new 2D Merida and restore the character to her original form.

Yesterday, Disney executives went on record regarding the petition. They're refusing to retract the new Merida--and their comments show they've missed the point.

聽reports on the refusal to retract the new Merida:

"Disney has no intention of abandoning its sexier version of the Scottish archer featured in the movie, "Brave."

The modified Merida was created specifically to welcome the character into the company's princess collection. And according to a Disney representativeon Wednesday, the image of Merida that sparked this maelstrom is part of a limited run of products including backpacks and pajamas.聽But images of the original Merida will also be available on consumer products, the Disney representative said."

No one ever doubted that the original Merida would still be available on products; the objection is to the new Merida redesign. Full stop.聽The fact that it's "part of a limited run" doesn't make it any less problematic.

A Disney representative expanded on their stance in an exclusive interview with fan site , calling the controversy "blown out of proportion." This makes clear that Disney execs either don't truly understand聽, or are willfully ignoring them.

According to Inside the Magic:

"[Disney] had no intention of changing who Merida is. The artwork that has circulated online depicting the new 2D rendering of Merida was intended to be used only on a 鈥渓imited line of products鈥� as a 鈥渙ne-time stylized version.鈥� They noted Disney uses different styles of art on characters regularly, changing them to fit their needs at the time.

And in this case, that time was the coronation. Noting that Merida wanted to 鈥渄ress up鈥� for her coronation ceremony, the new 2D artwork was created, first debuting on the official invitation that was sent out to the media."

So, Disney's justification for making the change is that Merida herself wanted to dress up for her coronation ceremony. This seems disingenuous: Merida is a fictional character who doesn't聽want聽anything 鈥� and besides, at the actual coronation in the Magic Kingdom, Merida was聽than from the new 2D art.

And where is this "limited line of products" to be sold? At Target, according to Inside the Magic. Have a look at for the Disney Princesses.

It's all about the new Merida, and it features rather frightening products, like聽聽with spindly space alien arms.

Ugh.

In their exclusive piece about Disney's response, Inside the Magic concludes:

"Looking forward, [Disney execs] could not say exactly how she would be depicted alongside the other Disney Princesses other than to again repeat that this 鈥渙ne-time stylized version鈥� was only intended for the coronation and some products, hoping to create some calm in the communities who are up in arms over the matter."

This brings us to the crux of the matter: If Disney hopes that the girl empowerment community and our allies will be placated because 2D Merida is only temporary, they're missing the point.聽People are up in arms because the changes to Merida --聽even if temporary in nature --聽completely undercut the character, selling girls short.

Let's review the chief problems:

- They took a strong character and weakened her.

- They took a natural beauty and glamorized her.

- They took a youthful 16-year-old and made her look like she's 22.

- They disrespected the fact that Merida is a princess who goes against the grain, eschewing the trappings of being a princess in favor of being an individual.

By squeezing a character so widely regarded as a barrier-breaking role model into a cookie cutter mold, Disney's Consumer Products Division sent the message that in the end, looks are all that matter.

In short, if Disney's response is, "Don't worry, folks; this new Merida is only temporary!", they've missed the point. Let's call on Disney to address their poor decision to redesign Merida in the first place--however temporary and "limited" that change might be and reassure us that they will treat this character with integrity in the future.

Sign the petition聽.

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P.S. I hope A Mighty Girl will consider updating the petition to a) include Target, which is apparently to be the main retailer of products featuring the new 2D Merida; and b) respond to Disney's response, outlined above.

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To read my previous posts on Merida, click聽.

To read my previous posts on the Disney Princess brand, click聽.

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