Women on Fringe

Fringe is a show that I have just recently started rewatching. I watched with my mother when it was on tv, and now my boyfriend wanted to watch it. While it has its problems, I do still think it's a great show, and has great characters.

Fringe is a sci-fi show, and I'm really glad that it has three female characters in major and minor roles. There is Olivia Dunhamn, Astrid Farnsworth, and Nina Sharp. They are all incredibly strong female characters.

Olivia Dunham (right) is a strong FBI agent with an unfortunate past. She tends to think and act emotionally. This is only to the dismay of Harris, who wants her fired at all costs. He hates her because she arrested him for sexual assault. Everyone else on her team are grateful for her emotional thinking. Thanks to it, she solves all her cases and truly take the initiative.

Astrid Farnsworth (left) is also an FBI agent. Unlike Olivia, she does not typically work in the field but in the lab, assisting Walter, an incredibly smart scientist.

Nina  Sharp (lower right) is the CEO of a large company call Massive Dynamic. She is older and has a robotic hand, but she doesn't let that, or anything for that matter, stop her.

Part of That World

The Little Mermaid is one of the most famous Disney movies, and Ariel is one of the most famous princesses. But personally, I don't think she or the movie get treated fairly. While it may seem that no one treats the movie badly, many people view the movie as anti-feminist.

People say this because Ariel trades her voice for legs, which I think people misinterpret as Ariel trading her voice for a guy (Eric). People then see then message of The Little Mermaid to be "change yourself for a guy!" I never saw it that way as a child and I still don't know. I think Ariel is a strong female character, and pretty darn feminist too.

Ariel is a free-spirited, determined, teenage mer-girl who is obsessed with the human world. As much as she loves her father, she is ultimately against him (and the patriarchy since he is the king) because he is holding her down. She wanted to visit the human world and know more about it for a long time before she saw and saved Eric. She has an entire song about it. I think Eric was just icing on the cake for her. He was also the very first human she'd up close. Right before she goes to see Ursula, her father has just destroyed all of her human treasures because of her obsession with the human word and her "love" for Eric. She upset, all her human treasures are gone, as well as she wants to visit the human world more than anything, so she would probably have traded anything to be human. Her trading her voice for legs was not because of her "love" of Eric alone, but of her love of the human world, and her determination.

Maleficent & Sleeping Beauty

A very popular trend these days is making villains (especially Disney) seem less evil. This can be seen as good, as we are used to the Good vs Evil binary, and now we can see Disney characters as both. I recently watched Maleficent for the first time, and the change in the characters is pretty astounding.

Character	Sleeping Beauty	Maleficent
Maleficent	Evil fairy/witch, angry for not being invited to a public party, curses Aurora	Fairy who wants to protect her home The Moors, falls in love with Stephan, is betrayed by Stephan who cuts off her wings, retaliates by cursing his daughter, watches Aurora grow up and begins to care for her and love her, tries to take back the curse but can’t
Aurora	Cursed as a baby by Maleficent, sent to live in the forest with three fairies to raise her, carefree and kind, likes to sing and dance with her forest friends, falls in love with Phillip	Cursed as a baby by Maleficent, sent to live in the forest with three fairies who don’t pay attention to her, carefree and kind, thinks Maleficent is her fairy godmother, likes to be with maleficent more than anything, has a crush on Phillip but he’s not really important
Flora, Fauna, Merriweather	The fairies assigned to raise Aurora, give her mediocre gifts for fairies, are relatively nice to each other only making sassy remarks sometimes, competent caregivers, raise Aurora as their own	The fairies assigned to raise aroura, give her mediocre gifts for fairies, are cruel and mean to each other, easily distracted, incompetent caregivers, forget about Aurora, if Maleficent hadn’t have helped, Aurora would have died (from multiple things, like starvation or falling off a cliff)
King Stephan	Aurora’s father, seems good, protects Aurora by sending her away	Betrays Maleficent by befriending her and loving her then lying to her and cutting off her wings, he was going to kill her, he goes mad trying to find Maleficent after that, he devotes his life to it, he does not care when his wife is sick and dying, he is the villain in these  events
Queen Leah	Aurora’s mother, loves her daughter, is distraught when she is cursed and is very happy when she returns home	Aurora’s mother, loves her daughter, is distraught when she is cursed, is sick, Stephan does not care, she dies
Diaval	Maleficent’s  crow	A crow Maleficent saves, turns him into a human when she wants to, her servant
Prince Phillip	Has mutual love at first sight with Aurora, strong love, saves her from her curse and from Maleficent	More of a crush, his kiss does not break the spell, it is not love, does not do much

While these changes are definitely interesting, not all of them are good, like showing the fairies as incompetent and the Queen dying. But besides some things, both show very different , strong, and interesting female characters. 

It's Up To You As Nancy Drew!

Nancy Drew has been the world's best amateur detective since the 1930s. She was the creation of Carolyn Keen. She is a strong female character in books written by s female author. She is still well known today. Books are still being written, a movie was made a few years ago, and Her Interactive has produced interactive Nancy Drew video games, keeping Nancy Drew relevant and an extremely popular icon. I will mostly be discussing the games

Her Interactive started making Nancy Drew games in 1998. There are now over 30 Nancy Drew games. In these games, Nancy solves mysteries all over the world and meets many interesting people. You have to talk to suspects, solve puzzles, and collect objects and clues to solve the mystery. You play as Nancy from a first person point of view. You hear her but never see her. This means anyone can be Nancy. I can be Nancy, my cousins can be Nancy, even my boyfriend can be Nancy. 

Nancy's best friend's Bess and George (cousins, and both girls) are able to help Nancy during certain games and give her hints. Sometimes they are even playable. Nancy, Bess, and George, along with many of the female characters thy encounter, are strong female characters. A lot of the villains turn out to be females, destroying the stereotype that women are always good and pure. Nancy (and George) can also be a bit rude/blunt sometimes, also destroying the stereotype. Nancy also always proves anyone wrong who says she 'just a girl' or a little girl detective,' which does happen.

Nancy Drew is a great role model for young girls. She promotes cleverness, wit, critical thinking, problem and puzzle solving, and so much more. Everyone can, and should, be Nancy Drew. 

Fashion Dolls

Barbie was the first American, mainstream fashion doll, launched in 1959. Barbie has held more than 75 jobs, including being an astronaut, surgeon, business executive, and United States President. In recent years, dolls in the line have become more diverse, especially in ethnicities. However, people still like to shame Barbie for having an "unrealistic body," despite her accomplishments, which people tend to forget about when saying she is a bad role model. Action figures are hardly criticized for their unrealistic proportions. Almost every fashion doll line faces criticisms, some more deserving than others. These doll include lines like Bratz, Monster High, and the new Lammily dolls.

Until recently, I was not aware that Bratz dolls were considered "slutty," but they are. I had a good handful of Bratz dolls as a child, maybe ten. I love them though, and their flashy, stylish, urban outfits. Of the four main Bratz dolls; Yasmin, Chloe, Sasha, and Jade; only one, Chloe, is white. There was diversity in the line and it promoted strong friendships and following your dreams, although in typically feminine professions like fashion design. However, I still don't understand why people think they're "slutty." Is it the big lips? The makeup? The clothes? Most fashion dolls have thin lips, so girls with naturally big lips can see them and feel better. Makeup is a wonderful form of self-expression. They wore a lot of "short" skirts but also a lot of long pants. They were also shorter dolls. Bratz always seemed like regular teen girls to me, and it makes me sad that they're labeled as sluts now.

"Be Yourself. Be Unique. Be a Monster." Monster High encourages children to be themselves. The line is bright, colorful, and fun. They appeal to children and adults alike, as I collect them and know of many other adult collectors, and my cousin who is 4 loves them as well. The dolls have so much personality, just like Barbie. They have POC coded characters, like Clawdeen Wolf and her family, who are coded as black. They also have disabled characters, like Vandala Doubloons who has a wooden leg and Rider/Finnegan Wake who is wheelchair bound. Monster High is a popular doll line with growing diversity, but the line is still criticized. They are criticized for being too thin, which granted, they are thin. That criticism is justified, however, there are some that are just rather off the wall like that Monster High is "hypersexualized" and "satanic." The girls are high school students as well as fashion dolls, and they dress like it. And the dolls are monsters so there has to be Illuminati symbolism. It makes me sad that some parents won't get Monster High dolls for their children because they are monsters, because the dolls and movies are all so positive and encourage children to be true to themselves.

Lastly I'll be talking about Lammily dolls, a doll line I may not have even heard about if I did not follow doll blogs. Lammily is average. Her tagline is "Average is Beautiful." She is marketed as the anti-Barbie, specifically size wise. The more I read about Lammily for this post (I knew very little about her besides the fact she was average), the more I accepted that Lammily is a step in the right direction, however, she is by no means the whole walk. I do not really like the reasoning the creator, Lamm (yes he named her after himself), had for making her, "If Barbie were a real woman, she'd be intimidating and cold, and what I like about real women is that they're warm and friendly. I just wanted to create an image that would reflect that." I do not know why he'd think Barbie would be cold, when she is shown to be a caring and loving character. Is it because she has power? Or is it because of her body? Neither give any reason for anyone to think she'd be intimidating and cold if she were real. That's not my only problem with Lammily. Like I said, she is being market as the anti-Barbie, like she is constantly screaming "I'M NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS" in her ads. I do not like that they are pitting female dolls against each other. This is seen a lot in the Lammily ad and children’s reaction to Lammily. It's sad that their only marketing strategy is this, because Lammily is then essentially promoting girl hate. On top of all that, Lammily does not have much of a personality (yet) and is boring. It's overusing the fact that she is average. But despite all that, I do think Lammily, as a doll, is good and will hopefully promote better self-esteem in girls. A new wave of more diverse Lammily dolls are on the horizon (though they all have the same "average" body). Lammily will be able to start a whole new doll generation, I think, as long as the marketing steers away from pitting the "Lammilys" against the "Barbies," and once she proves average is not boring. 

Pixar Leads

Inspired by another classmate's post who analyzed female characters in John Hughes movies, I decided to analyze female characters in Pixar movies. The majority of Pixar movies have male leads who go on life changing journeys and adventures. Buzz and Woody go on adventure to get back to their owner Andy and eventually become friends; Flik, an outcast ant, volunteers to find warrior bugs to defend the ants from grasshoppers but ends up finding circus bugs and has to fix his screw up before anyone finds out; Mike and Sully try to get Boo back home; Marlin is trying to find his son; etc. Even The Incredibles, which has two main female characters (four including Mirage and Edna) is still about Bob Parr's boredom with civilian life and his desire to be a superhero again, as well as Sydrome's hatred toward Mr.Incredible. Pixar movies are very male-centered. Until Brave, that is. In Brave, Merida goes on a life changing adventure, just like all the make Pixar leads. Merida doesn't want to get married but her mother. Queen Elinor, wants her to, so she goes to a witch asking to change her mom, and she becomes a bear. Merida desperately tries to change her mom back, and Merida learns how much she and her mom do love each other despite their not seeing eye to eye, and Elinor learns to respect Merida's decision. Brave did well with ratings, and seems to have inspired Pixar to create films and tell stories with more female leads, like their upcoming film Inside Out. Unfortunately, from what I've seen in the trailer, it seems the film could be sexist? The mother's main emotion is (sterotypically) sadness and the father's main emotion is (stereotypically) anger, it is also shown he doesn't understand his wife or daughter. But it's not out yet, so we'll see.

Movie	Female Character(s)	Role in Film
Toy Story	Bo Peep	Woody’s love interest
Bug’s Life	Atta, Dot, Queen, Rosie, Gypsy	Stressed out princess, only ant that likes Flik, Queen of the Ants, circus performers
Toy Story 2	Jessie, Mrs.Potatohead, Bo Peep, Tour Guide Barbie	Hero/toy who doesn’t want to go back in a box, Mr.Potatohead’s wife, Woody’s Love Interest, helps the heroes
Monster’s Inc.	Boo, Celia, Roz	Babbling child who accidently goes to the monster world, Mike’s girlfriend, angry secretary
Finding Nemo	Dory	Fish with short term memory loss who accompanies Marlin in finding Nemo
The Incredibles	Helen Parr, Violet Parr, Mirage, Edna Mode, Frozone’s Wife (not seen)	Superhero mom (stretching), superhero daughter (invisibility and force fields), Syndrome’s assistant but ends up being on the good side, designer for the supers, part of the most iconic conversation of the movie and is never seen
Cars	Sally, Flo	Lawyer and Lightening McQueen’s love interest, owns the gas station and is Ramone’s wife
Ratatouille	Collette	Only woman in the kitchen at Gusto’s restaurant
WALL-E	Eve, Mary	Protagonist robot, woman on the ship who helps the robots
Up	Ellie	Grows up and dies within the first 15 minutes of the movie and the story is driven by her/her death
Toy Story 3	Jessie, Mrs.Potatohead, Barbie, Bonnie	Toys in a hellish daycare trying to survive, (Bonnie) imaginative child who gets Andy’s toys
Cars 2	Holley Shiftwell, Carla Veloso	Rookie spy, race
Brave	Merida, Queen Elinor, the witch	Princess who doesn’t want to marry and gets her mother into a bear, very proper queen who believes Merida should be a proper princess, Merida comes to her to change her mom
Monster University	Professor Hardscrabble, Squishy’s Mom, Claire	Legendary scarer and Dean of Monsters University, Squishy’s mom who lets Oozma Kappa live at her house, uninterested announcer for the games
Inside Out (not yet released)	Joy, Disgust, Sadness, Riley, Riley’s Mom	Riley’s emotions, (Riley) young girl struggling with her emotions, her mom

Act Your Age

                  

I haven't watched Disney Channel's cartoon Phineas and Ferb in a while, but when I saw that a new special had aired and showed the wiz-kids as teenagers, entitled Act Your Age, I just had to check it out. Phineas and Ferb is a smart show. This episode was not smart. 

The show itself focuses on step-brothers Phineas and Ferb, who are somewhere between the ages of 8 and 12, who are spending their endless summer with their friends building contraptions and doing extraordinary things. This episode takes place when they're teenagers, and they're at the end of their summer before college. This is something I think fans had wanted to see for some time, but it turned out to be very cliche, forced, and rather sexist.

This episode is mainly about Phineas and Isabella, one of Phineas's best friends who has had a crush on him since they were kids, getting together. Their friends try to force them together, which is creepy and weird. It's full of John Hughes/ 80’s boy-girl dynamics. This episode hardly focuses on any other characters. Ferb is going to study abroad and he and Phineas are shown with little interaction. The episode is literally all about forcing Phineas and Isabella together. 

The sexism and gender stereotypes run rampant in this episode. For example, Phineas laments to his male friends that he is the "friendzone" (ugh) when it comes to Isabella, when his friend Baljeet tells him not really, since she's liked him since they were kids. Baljeet says Isabella's crush was obvious. Phineas says he never knew and why didn't anyone tell him and Baljeet replies "We are guys. We do not talk about feelings." Ah, the stereotype that men don't have feelings. The other example I find even worse. Ginger, one of Isabella's friends, is dating Baljeet. She is trying to get Baljeet to see the movie she wants to see (via text) so her friend Adyson tells her to "manipulate the situation" to get what she wants, and worse, it works. So this episode teaches the young kids that are watching this that boys have no feelings and girls are manipulative.

Maybe I've changed or maybe the show has changed, or maybe both, but episode tried way too hard. It was like watching fanfiction. A very sexist, cliched, forced, 80's-movie-esque, alternate universe, dull fanfiction. It was certainly not the smart Phineas and Ferb I know and love, but fans still love it anyway, all because Phineas and Isabella got together.