Disney fighting against clichés? Vaiana 2, exploring heroine

Sandrine Aragon, Sorbonne University

The heroine of the first feature film of DisneySnow White in 1937, is the victim of a stepmother jealous of her youth and her beauty. She takes refuge with seven small old boys, for whom she does housework, before being poisoned and “saved” by a prince who kisses her without her consent, asleep in her coffin. We are expecting the new live action version, in 2025, with Rachel Zegler. Disney is announcing a combative modern heroine, but can the story still touch girls today?

For decades, Lhe Disney heroines conveyed conservative gender stereotypes : Cinderella (1950) doing housework and dreaming of finding Prince Charming at the Ball, Sleeping Beautyawakened by the prince who kisses her while she was asleep (1959), Jasmine in Aladdin (1996) saved by the hero, a kind Arab thief, etc. Stories giving rise to sexism, rape culture and racism and participating in the conditioning of little girls.

The emancipation of Disney heroines gradually appeared in the 1990s. Ariel, in The Little Mermaid (1989) breaks out of the limits imposed by her father to realize her dream, then in 1998, Mulan frees herself from Chinese conventions prohibiting girls from fighting; Rapunzel (2010) escapes from the tower where her jailer is holding her, to discover her origins; Rebel, in 2012, rebels against the traditions of her clan in Scotland and chooses the bow rather than the tapestry. Vaiana is part of this lineage, from the trailer which invites the girls to “unleash their strength” and “take charge of their destiny”.

A Disney heroine master of her destiny

Moana, Tahitian first namemeans “she who possesses strength” or “rock water”. In the first opus, the heroine, daughter of the king, goes against her father’s wishes to cross the Coral Reef. Her grandmother Tala inspires her to become more independent. In Moana 2the heroine is now the chosen one of her people, recognized as “the explorer”. She leaves with the blessing of her parents towards dangerous seas, to save the unity of Polynesian nations. She in turn inspires other girls, like her little sister, and joins a crew that opposes clichés: a girl naval engineer, a muscular artist and an old gardener, proud to join this charismatic leader who asserts herself.

Vaiana shakes up the gendered pattern of the prince coming to rescue the princess.

She will save her people, without weapons, but with her bravery and intelligence. She defeats a god and she becomes a demi-goddess gaining her tattoos and weapons. His valor grants him the support of the goddess Matangi. The victorious sorority once again dominates over the traditionally highlighted female rivalry, after the Snow Queen which celebrated the union of two sisters and Encanto a family of strong women.

Trying to escape ethnocentrism

The film attempts to re-establish a vision of the Pacific Islands decentered from the outsider’s perspective. The islands of Polynesia have been known Westerners from the Bougainville expedition in 1766. He describes Tahiti as a paradise, a place of pleasure for lascivious women. Gauguin’s paintings then nourish the imagination of this luxuriant Eden with women and very young girls languid under the coconut trees, eroticized by the Western gaze.

Vaiana presents a Polynesian woman who is not reduced to the stereotypical image of the seductive vahiné. She is no longer Pocahontas observed by the foreign settler. If Moana dances with flower necklaces, she does so following the traditions of her people, to celebrate her return and not to seduce a man.

The scenario is inspired by Tahitian legends, folklore, dances, songs and local languages. Co-writer Dana Ledoux Miller, originally from the Samoan Islands, and her team of consultants contributed to renewing the image of Pacific Islandersbearers of an ecological culture and in search of union between peoples.

These representations help to build a peaceful world where others are not a danger and where their culture is understood and appreciated. Showing only images of white children dangerously invisibilizes an entire part of the planet, as the Afrofeminist author points out. Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie :

“The single story robs people of dignity, it prevents us from considering ourselves equal as human beings. »

Books and films play an essential role in perceiving the world and possibilities, overcoming prejudices and having an inclusive and peaceful vision.

The sexism of travel history

By setting sail 3,000 years ago, Moana also puts the adventurous women caught in the silences of history in their rightful place. Women have always been on the journey, but there are few stories to tell. Françoise D’Eaubonne in 1987 in The Great Adventurerstackled this gray area of ​​history: the very term adventurer was long associated with demi-mondaines or unscrupulous creatures, while the adventurer was the one who traveled the world. Women are also on the journeyheadlines journalist Lucie Azema, in 2021 and it’s “emancipation through departure”. Unlike the model ofOdysseywith Ulysses awaited quietly at home by Penelope, many women took to the road or scoured the seas: sisters on pilgrimage, women going to work far away, women pirates.

Thus, in the 18th century, when women were prohibited on scientific ships, Jeanne Barrett, disguised as a man, had hired herself as a servant to the botanist Commerson. She was the first woman to circumnavigate the world with the Bougainville Expedition and a pioneer in botany.

Exploration is not inherently masculine. Celebrating these great adventurers is reestablishing the historical truth of all those who traveled the world : the English Lady Montagu in the 18th century in the East or Marie Kingsley in the 19th century in West Africa, the Americans Annie Smith Peck in the Andes or Nellie Bly who circumnavigated the world in 72 days, the Swiss explorer Isabelle Eberhardt in the Sahara , the French Alexandra David Neel in Tibet, the African-American Sophia Danenberg on Everest.

In 1988, Australian Kay Cottie was the first woman to sail solo and non-stop around the world. Florence Arthaud, Isabelle Autissier, Catherine Chabaud, Ellen Mac Arthur have been traveling the seas alone and winning races in front of men. In 2023, Kirsten Neuschäfer is victorious in the Golden Globe Race, a solo round-the-world trip, non-stop and without modern means of navigation. The youngest person to have traveled solo non-stop around the world is also a woman: New Zealander Laura Dekker. She performed this feat at the age of 16. She started sailing alone at 6 years old.

Paradoxically, with the cartoon Moana 2, a fiction reveals a truth eclipsed by an official history still often mixed with an ethnocentric and masculinist vision: women have also explored the world.

Sandrine Aragonresearcher in French literature (gender, reading, women and culture), Sorbonne University

This article is republished from The Conversation under Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.