Representations- Feminism

Tia Brown

Feminism

In the opening of the film Brave, we see instantly that the mother is playing with her daughter. Because this film is set in an era where women’s only job was their children, this opening shows clearly the role of the mother. This was the specific ideology of women in this century. The social status the women had to receive was due to caring for their husbands and children. This film show the feminism very clearly.

This film is set in the Viking era, which is mainly around the 11th –12th century. In this time, women barely had any rights at all, unless they were royalty. And that is what the main character is. She is a princess yet the factor of feminism is still involved.The young girl has to be betrothed, learn how to become a queen and how to rule kingdoms and to frown upon any weapons. This was precisely what the feminist view was in the time period that this production was set in.

Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies which share a common stated aim: to define, establish, and defend equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to

establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment.

Another side to feminism in this time, is when a young girl receives a weapon she is delighted but this is not how women behaved and acted in this time. The mothers reaction shows clearly how women would of acted to receiving such a gift. In this time period, women should not have been receiving weapons as gifts but being the ‘Angel of the house’, this meant that they had to take care of the house and the people habiting it.

The father had given his only daughter a weapon. In this time it was not the right thing to do socially but his way of life made it different. In this scene, we see the young girl practicing with her new bow, the father who bought it for her is helping and giving her confidence. He is teaching her how to protect herself, the role of a Viking father.However, we see in the mothers face that she does not like the new event. The mother is slightly concerned for her only daughter not following her footsteps and not becoming the queen she is meant to be. She has been swayed from her path.

In this scene we also see how woman should look. The mother has a figure that most characters have and is a modern day stereotype to have a certain figure. The feminism in this shows that women had to look specific. This was and still is a social ideology that women should have skinny but curvy bodies. From this stereotype, many women believe that this is an act of feminism. However, this shot shows the mother trying to teach her only child how to rule the kingdom and the geography of the land, all to become a good queen.

In this shot, we see the mother trying to teach her daughter how to play the harp. This was also an ideology in this era, the daughter should become exactly like her mother. We can see on the mothers face that she is slightly angry because her daughter is not enthusiastic about learning. From this we can tell that the mother is having trouble trying to teach her daughters the life of being a queen.This is all the representation of how women are portrayed in a Disney film making young children believe that they should live up to the ideologies set as a representation.