Jessica Valenti Says Shrek Has Gone Feminist
Feminist writer and activist Jessica Valenti (pictured), Executive Editor of
feministing.com, says the new Shrek movie has some feminism in it. Valenti writes:
“Apparently the latest Shrek movie has a tad o’ feminism in there:
“Cameron Diaz has admitted she loves the fact her character Princess Fiona gets all feminist in the latest installment of hit animation films Shrek. Shrek The Third sees Fiona team up with other princesses to fight the bad guys, the Daily Express reports. ‘We get kind of ‘bad a**’ and burn our bras. Sleeping Beauty and the others decide that instead of being damsels in distress wondering when our prince will come, we band together with the help of Julie Andrews (Fiona’s mother) to save ourselves,’ the star is quoted as saying.
“Neat. Did they have to go with the stereotypical bra-burning though?”
I haven’t seen Shrek 3 yet (both my kids are fans of Shrek, but the new one just came out and we haven’t gotten to it yet), so I won’t pass judgment on its feminist elements. In general I’m not a fan of pushing anti-male stereotypes or feminist ideals in kids’ movies, and sometimes traditional stories are being rewritten to make them more in line with today’s anti-male culture. In Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, for example, Beauty’s three evil sisters have been eliminated, an obnoxious male chauvinist (Gaston) has been invented, and the Beast has been turned from a kind, undeserving victim into a selfish and deservedly punished cad who can only be redeemed through a woman’s love.
To be fair, some of the modern shows/films that do push feminist ideals also have related redeeming qualities. For example, Mulan–where a young Chinese girl joins the army disguised as a man, endures sexism there but uses her brains to save the day–certainly pushes feminist ideals. On the other hand, the film stays faithful to the legend that Mulan volunteered for the army because she sought to replace and protect her elderly father, who she loved and who is portrayed as a man worthy of respect. [A quick note on growing old: if you had asked me when Mulan came out, off the top of my head I would've said maybe around 2003. It turns out it was 1998. It seems like it was just yesterday that we first got the video of that movie for my kids and watched it together].
Has anybody seen Shrek 3?
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