Her only clue to undoing the hex is the witch’s riddle, to “mend the bond torn by pride.” Merida comes to believe that the “pride” mentioned in the witch’s riddle refers to her “selfish” ways at the same time, her mother recognizes that her daughter should find love on her own schedule. After the witch’s sorcery unexpectedly turns her mother into a bear, Merida tries to break the spell before her mother becomes a bear permanently.
Fed up with her mother’s wish to control her and make her more feminine, Merida slashes her mother’s tapestry before running off to a witch for a magical remedy to end her powerlessness. Her mother then chastises her for humiliating the suitors, a breaking point in their relationship. The upshot (technically speaking, the last arrow launched) is Merida’s dramatic bullseye that split what had seemed to be the winning arrow of one of the suitors, making her the victor. Merida surprises the crowd attending the competition when she herself enters the contest at the end. When faced with the unwelcome prospect of suitors competing for her hand in marriage, Merida strategically proclaims that the contest will involve archery, a selection based on her skill and love of the sport that her father encouraged from an early age. While her mother carps at her, her father is part loveable buffoon, part brave warrior who fought off a mighty enchanted bear, Mor’du, losing one of his legs to the bear in the encounter. Plot SummaryĪ Scottish princess Merida embraces the tomboy model of conduct, preferring archery over princess etiquette. This article argues that her tomboy trajectory ultimately affirms rather than defies traditional gender roles that the film reputedly eschews. Merida’s shift from hegemonic masculinity epitomized in the archery contest to humility and penitence as she transitions out of childhood does not support her stature as a role model that flouts gender stereotypes. Given the importance of archery to Merida’s tomboy identity, the role of the sport in how she performs gender ( Butler 2004) merits analysis. Of note, the feminine transformation also dispensed with her bow and arrows, excising her toxophily and eliminating her “refreshing” tomboy image ( Lester 2019, p. The Merida doll was shaped in a more sexualized form than in the film, reflected in the curves of her body and the appearance of wearing makeup. The controversy in 2013 that ensued when Disney re-formulated Merida as part of her “coronation” as an official Disney princess reveals the salience of her archery accoutrements.
This attribute distinguishes her from other princesses whose identities are not linked to a sport. 2018a), or Merida products such as t-shirts on ). In discussions of Merida’s influence as part of the Disney princess collection, however, the importance of her prowess in archery has been largely overlooked, even though promotional material and products generally feature her with her bow and arrows (see for example ( Hine et al. In fact, folklorist Jack Zipes lauded Brave as “a feminist fairy-tale film” with an empowering departure from the tale of “King Thrushbeard”, a story with a tale type that closely aligns with the plot of Brave (Aarne–Thompson tale type 900) ( Zipes 2015). Even with its coverage of the fraught balance between “masculine” and “feminine” traits in a role model for children, Disney/Pixar won significant acclaim for Brave ( 2020 see the lengthy “Awards” section on Pixar website).
IS BO THE WITCH FROM BRAVE FREE
Within its depiction of mother-daughter tension, Disney/Pixar explored a “range of femininities” in which Merida as “mighty maiden” breaks free of the princess mold ( Reilly 2016, p. This desire to control her own fate occurred as she navigated the complexities of mother-daughter dynamics ( Kapurch 2016 Manwell 2016), a long-standing cross-cultural theme in fairy tales and other children’s stories ( Tatar 2020). Princess Merida, the heroine of the 2012 Disney/Pixar film Brave, received notice for acting as her own narrator (unlike her same-era peer Rapunzel in Tangled), while asserting agency in resolving conflict ( Whelan 2012).
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