OOJ: Brave

today's Object Of Joy (OOJ) is Pixar/Disney's new animated movie, Brave, which stars Merida, Disney's first truly badass princess. ever since Snow White in 1937, Disney princesses have been ridiculously powerless- trapped in death-like sleep (SW, Sleeping Beauty), mute (Ariel), or more commonly unable to solve their own problems and reduced to following other, wiser people's instructions (Cinderella, Jasmine).  Mulan was tolerable, but she had to prove her strength by hiding her true identity and pretending to be a guy. Pocahontas was a terribly eroticized, exoticized revision of history (no joke, turn off the sound and watch her first few scenes when she's running through the forest: you see a woman with a body like Beyonce's in a skimpy dress that looks like it's going to fall off her any second, whipping her hair around in the wind). Tiana was spunky and had career ambitions of opening her own restaurant, but still gave up her dreams in order to save a boy she loved (similarly to Belle, who sacrificed her life for her father). these movies all typically ended with a kiss, if not a wedding, as the princess and her true love (always a boy) lived happily ever after, seeding millions of children with the holographic truth that life success = smooching a light-skinned boy.

how can pixels create hair that looks like this???

enter Princess Merida, who acts entitled, as princesses are, and self-centered, as teenagers are. the story is driven by her quest to fix a mistake that was born out of her entitlement and self-centeredness. my favorite moment comes early in the movie when Merida shows up at an archery tournament (where the winner wins her hand in marriage, of course) and declares to the crowd: "My name is Merida and I'll be shooting for my own hand!" oh, i whooped big when i heard that! and also promptly started crying because finally, finally, here is a girl who does not need a man to feel whole or loved. even more incredibly, the movie ends with nary a kiss- in fact, male characters are mostly sidelined, existing mostly as buffoons or spectators. 


i am not naive enough to think that this movie marks a new beginning in heroine movies. but it is enough for me, for now, that it exists and that children will see it, this new heroine who has both the confidence to break with tradition and the humility to take responsibility for poor decisions.