Comments for Tales of the Marvelous

Comment on Favorites Friday: Disney Women by megwrites

megwrites — Sat, 18 May 2013 22:04:24 +0000

Even more than the specific movies, I think the greater problem lies with the whole “Disney princess” marketing campaign, where the characters are stripped from stories and glamorized into little more than fashion plates. On the merchandise they are often wearing dresses even more elaborate than their ball gowns in the movies. Mulan isn’t depicted with her sword, but with a fan or umbrella. Belle rarely has her beloved books, and there’s no handy frying pan for Rapunzel to use. Most of the related toys that go with these characters are purses, high heeled shoes, tea sets, and the like. Not that there’s anything specifically wrong with those types of toys, it’s just that little girls are inundated with them.
I read an interesting book about this whole phenomenon that I would recommend. It’s called Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein.
I do like the characters you came up with, though. I especially like Chicha; it’s fun to see a pregnant mom character who is perfectly capable of dealing with the bad guy! Ellie is a fantastic character. It would be great to see an entire film dedicated with a quirky, confident girl like her.

Comment on About the Author by kkline922

kkline922 — Sat, 18 May 2013 19:56:32 +0000

Werd. Just dropping by to say I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger award. Cheers!

Comment on Favorites Friday: Disney Women by kkline922

kkline922 — Sat, 18 May 2013 17:38:04 +0000

Belle was good, and I did love John Carter: Dejah was definately made stronger. Slowly, our world turns for the better.

Comment on Saturday Snapshot: A Small Foray into Gardening by Divers and Sundry

Divers and Sundry — Sat, 18 May 2013 01:04:03 +0000

yikes! tomato plants! i need to get on that. i look forward to progress reports, unless, of course, you don’t post any…. and then i’ll know

Comment on Favorites Friday: Disney Women by Robert Paul Gmelin

Robert Paul Gmelin — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:34:20 +0000

As much as I love strong women (and they heavily populate my own writing), it’s unfortunate that we are still at a point where a principal characteristic of a strong female character is that she is in fact female. Why can’t she just be a strong character? Nobody refers to, say, James Bond as “a strong male character.” The strongest character in my book is a girl, but she wouldn’t have any idea why anyone would consider that significant.