UPDATE (5/15): Disney is now claiming that the images below on the website have always included the 3D rendered Merida, as she originally looked in Brave, and that the images floating around on the internet were for a limited line of products.
To which I declare, “Shenanigans!” I’ll go into this further, tomorrow, possibly, after I’ve had some sleep and gotten all my work done for my actual job.
And I’m still glad that, no matter what the sequence of events or what image was on whose website when, that Disney isn’t using a sexy version of Merida to try to sell more princess swag to my impressionable little girl.
Peace.
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We first brought you the story of Disney’s sexy makeover of their Princess line over the weekend, but it looks like fan outrage, including over 120,000 signatures on a petition to Bob Iger and a scathing editorial by Brenda Chapman, the creator of and one of the directors of Brave, has turned some heads at the House of Mouse.
As of this moment, this is what the Disney Princess site at http://princess.disney.com/ looks like:
Notice anything different? Gone is the “Sexy Merida” from the art we saw earlier:
And she’s been replaced by her old 3D rendered self. Huzzah!
Normally, I don’t approve of huge corporations just chucking things down the memory hole to hide their mistakes. But in this case– it sends a message.
More interesting still is that the rest of the sexy princesses have remained, still with their slightly vacant “come hither” eyes.
I gotta say, the more I think about this, the less I’m bothered by Merida and more bothered by Belle. You know, the one who was smart, into books, always had her hair a little out of place, and didn’t judge people by their looks? Oh, I don’t see her at all. I see the girl Gaston might have been into, though. Belle, Cinderella, and Rapunzel all look slightly off from how they used to. Mulan and Pocahontas look a lot more different.
Regardless, this is a victory, and now we can get back to enjoying the other 10 over-commercialized, vapid, shallow princesses and all the negative stereotypes they reinforce and go back to just keeping Merida as your feminist-friendly Disney princess.
And h/t to our Facebook friend Anna who spotted this change and pointed it out. (Yes, we do read your comments on Facebook.)