General

‘Brave’s’ lesbian princess?

Internet backlash after a reporter suggests a Disney-Pixar princess might be gay

Entertainment Weekly’s Adam Markovitz is under fire for suggesting that the arrow-wielding, suitor-denying princess in Disney-Pixar’s latest animated feature, Brave, might be gay. Because princess Merida can “fight like one of the boys” and is prone to “squirm when her mother puts her in girly clothes,” Markovitz argued that some viewers might be confused about her sexuality.

Backlash ensued on Twitter and on websites, like Crushable.com where author Jenni Maier sardonically writes: “Parents all over the country with teenage daughters who don’t want to get married because it interferes with their high school sports practice schedule should just join PFLAG right now. Their daughters are all gay. It’s a shame right. Unless, and this is a big unless, unless their daugthers are openly swooning over boys and carving their names into their arms. Then there might be hope. Otherwise, gay, gay, gay, gay gay.”

Maier, evidently, doesn’t buy that princess Merida is gay. “She’s an independent female protagonist who wants people to see her an individual with her own wishes, hopes, dreams, thoughts and aspirations,” she writes. “But clearly, Adam Markowitz, missed that entire lesson. Which is understandable when you’re watching a children’s film with the goal of outing an animated character.”

At last count, Markowitz’s EW article had 685 comments. Make that 697. And they’re not all scathing. Notorious J.O.E. writes, “What’s wrong in hypothesizing if this character is gay?  Based on the many, MANY comments posted here, it’s “offensive” to merely wonder if the character is gay…as if being gay is an offensive thing.”

 

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