Are Disney princesses too sexy?

I’m not sure if you’re aware of the rebranding Brave character Merida recently suffered. Once a normal-looking girl, the redheaded heroine received a substantial makeover… For want of a better phrase, she was “sexed up”.

There are now reports that Disney/Pixar has reversed its decision to make Merida’s hair a little glossier, her waist a little slimmer and her neckline a little lower. But how does the way our childhood heroines look affect our own self-perceptions?

Like Barbie, many onscreen females are somewhat idealised, to say the least: think Lara Croft, Esmeralda, Jasmine… the list goes on. Then think about plot lines  Prince Charming falls for Cinderella after she gets a makeover. Would he have fancied her in rags?

And it’s not just cartoons that do this to their female characters: Danny in Grease loses interest in Sandy as a sweet schoolgirl but loses his mind when she “shapes up”, smoking, squeezing into black leathers and grinding around like she’s got ants in her pants.

Now I’m not going to lie: I loved to see Ariel swish her red hair and watch Belle swirling across the dance floor in her twirly yellow dress as a youngster. Girls love that stuff. But there’s something really refreshing about Merida: she isn’t obsessed with her appearance and her entire aim in life isn’t to marry someone rich and handsome. I didn’t love the film, but her character was a break from the norm.

Columnist at The Times, Caitlin Moran, wrote of the original Merida: “This is the first Disney heroine ever not to have massive knockers, a 12-inch waist and the kind of mouth that could suck a potato up a straw. Well done, Disney! Well done for finally entering the 21st century.”

And of the ‘new and improved’ version? “A new picture of her showed her with a jacked-in waist, bigger tits, a lower-cut top and a load of eyeliner,” she says. “On top of this, Merida was no longer holding her bow and arrow and was, instead, standing with her hands on her hips, in the internationally recognised pose of, ‘I am a bit of a vapid pain in the arse now.’”

Moran points out that the “non-sexy, non-married, galloping, bow-shooting Merida” earned Disney £354 million at the box office during its first year of release. “Listen: Merida wasn’t for you, you bloodless, cash-counting idiots,” she says. “She was for every ten-year-old girl who hates itchy dresses and kissing, and just wanted to carry on being herself for a bit longer.

“You can’t put a price on a girl being able to watch a big Disney movie that says that’s an OK thing.”

Now I’m not going to come right out and link this sort of sexualisation to an increase in the number of young girls in the UK with eating disorders, or to a rise in demand for cosmetic surgery. But I do think it’s important to think about what we are exposing young girls (and boys) to. 

Let’s encourage them to do more with their lives than becoming thinner, sexier and more marriageable! Let’s show them how to become dignified rather than Disneyfied. And let’s make sure we stand up to the industry giants when they mess with the heroines who, like Merida, just want their “freedom”. That’s something we at Liberti are passionate about.

(This is the last ever Liberti blog from Joy Tibbs. To keep reading her insights, please visit the blog site of our ‘brother’ magazine, Sorted by clicking here. You can click here to visit her website or follow her on Twitter: @joyous25.)

New Year, new you!

It’s coming to that time of year where the turkey has been gobble gobbled and the last of the mince pies has been scoffed. Delicious as they were, we’re all starting to loosen our belts a bit and lose the odd button.

So as New Year approaches, many of us will be detoxing and – horror of horrors – debating a return to the gym. And what’s wrong so with that?

Well, nothing really. Sensible dieting and exercise are good for us all, whether we’re in shape or not. But what happens when losing weight becomes an unhealthy obsession? With many people already suffering from eating disorders in the UK, the pressure to lose weight can prove too heavy a burden for some.

Thinking along these lines, Women and Equalities minister Jo Swinson has written an open letter to magazine editors asking them not to promote post-Christmas ‘miracle’ diets. Pre-empting the avalanche of fad diets that surface at this time of year, she encouraged publications – including women’s magazines – to "celebrate the beauty of diversity in body shape, skin colour, size and age" instead.

Co-founder of the Campaign for Body Confidence, Ms Swinson suggests “fad diets and fitness myths” can promote unhealthy body image and be harmful to dieters’ physical and mental health.

"I am sure that you want to promote a healthy lifestyle for your readers but at this time of year in particular far too much of magazine coverage tends to focus on irresponsible, short-term solutions and encourages readers to jump on fad diet bandwagons,” she writes in the letter.

"As editors you owe more to your readers than the reckless promotion of unhealthy solutions to losing weight.

"If your aim is to give practical, sensible advice about losing weight – and not how to drop a stone in five days – you should encourage reasonable expectations, instead of dangerous ones, along with exercise and healthy eating."

The editorial team at Liberti magazine takes this very seriously. Every issue contains nutritional and fitness advice because this is something our readers have asked for. However, our experts always focus on the positives – which foods you should eat to achieve a more balanced diet, and the types of exercise that would work best for you, for example. If you’re looking for motivation to shift a few pounds, I’d definitely advise you to check it out (and that’s not just because I work for the mag!).

But more than that, Liberti encourages women to enjoy a lifestyle that is positive all round, not just looking at the physical, but fully embracing life and all that it has to offer. Our team of writers discuss ways to develop emotionally and spiritually, as well as looking at tons of ways to reach out to people in our communities and across the globe.

If you’re looking to make some changes this New Year, forget the fad diets and the punishing exercise regimes and get Liberated! January needn’t be a time of bleakness and giving things up; it’s about establishing what our purpose in life is and pursuing this purpose with great gusto.

Wishing you a very happy New Year from all of us at Liberti xxx