The film doesn't need to tell us whether Merida is gay. Those themes resonate with struggles far and wide, but perhaps most strongly, these days, with those of LGBT people. And it's about having the bravery to embrace one's own identity. It's about the terrible things that can result when people-especially family members-don't try to understand one another. It's about the compassion it takes to, as Merida and Elinor put it, "break tradition," to change both society's rules and the prejudices within ones' own mind. But this talk about freedom to marry resonates especially well amid the current debate over same-sex marriage - so vividly, in fact, that it's tough to believe it wasn't an intentional association.Īt its core, Brave preaches acceptance. These, too, are classic desires voiced by young adults searching for their own identities. She wants the freedom to marry whomever she wants. She says that she wants to live on her terms, not the terms placed upon her. Then, look to the movie's end, when Merida-with her mom's blessing-gives a rousing speech to her father and his lords about marriage. 'Brave' Is Good by Any Standard But Pixar's With that in mind, here are five ways of looking at Pixar's motivations for being so coy:
No, this is a deliberate sort of ambiguity. Pixar is notoriously meticulous-the Easter eggs and subtle references in each of its works are legion-and it's unlikely that the filmmakers simply didn't think to give Merida any sort of love interest. Is this ambiguity intentional? Almost definitely. Over the course of the film, she shows romantic interest in neither boys nor girls it's only by assumption that her parents-and, presumably, most viewers-think she's heterosexual.
While Markovitz's appeal to lesbian stereotypes is outrageous, his underlying question isn't. But it's quite possible that while watching Brave's tomboyish heroine shoot arrows, fight like one of the boys, and squirm when her mother puts her in girly clothes, a thought might pop into the head of some viewers: Is Merida gay? The two events don't seem to have much in common at first glance. At the same time, legions of kids will swarm into theaters to watch Pixar's Brave, the animated story of a young Scottish princess named Merida who goes to extreme lengths to avoid having to marry one of the three noblemen that her parents have chosen for her. Today, crowds will line the streets of cities like New York and San Francisco for parades that mark the high point of LGBT Pride Month.
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