The similarity between Maleficent and Frozen you may have missed: http://t.co/ZBIR4VsaUO pic.twitter.com/NsgAbtixz6
— Marie Claire (@marieclaire) June 17, 2014

The New Kind of True Love

We don't always need Prince Charming to save the day.

By Laura Cohen

We know the standard Disney fairy tale formula by now: The princess is either cursed, trapped, or in some other major predicament, and only one thing can save her — true love. And that true love has always come in the form of a dreamy prince. Until now.

Disney's Maleficent has made a splash at the box office over the past few weeks, and besides being a cinematic masterpiece starring Angelina Jolie, it put a new twist on an old classic. It turns out the seemingly evil queen isn't so bad at all — she's been betrayed by the man she believed was her true love when he takes what is most important to her. In revenge, Maleficent seeks to lure his daughter, the princess, into an eternal sleep, but ends up bonding with her in a way we did not expect. Instead of Prince Phillip saving Aurora with that true love's kiss, it was a kiss on the forehead from mother-figure Maleficent herself that did the trick.

Strong female bonds are important to many women and a remain big part of many of our lives. Let's be real, there's just some times where you need a girlfriend, and the man in your life just doesn't get it. Mothers and daughters, sisters and friends — these are the female bonds that actually end up saving us the most in real life, so it's about time the movies reflect that. Especially Disney movies, which attract moviegoers of all ages.

Frozen was the first to shake things up last year. First, soon-to-be-queen Elsa actually attempts to talk some sense into sister Anna who wants to get engaged to someone she just met and doesn't know, shutting down the classic princess story formula from the beginning. After Hans won't even kiss Anna to save her freezing heart (since he's a complete jerk and was only using her to acquire the Kingdom of Arrendelle), we thought maybe noble mountain man Kristoff would be the solution. But it turned out to be the act of love between two sisters that saved the day. Anna's near sacrifice for Elsa unthawed her own heart and showed Elsa how she can stop the eternal winter. Throughout the entire film, Anna’s relationships to Hans, Kristoff, and even trusty snowman Olaf are totally secondary to the one with her sister.

These may be princess movies, but they represent so much more. Close relationships among women are crucial in today's world, whether we're battling congress for better gun control or coming together to decrease the wage gap. It's time that female solidarity is reflected in the movies we view.

Not only are we starting to get more female lead characters starring in movies (whether fantastical or animated), they're actually getting to love and care about each other — all without needing to be "saved" by men. Let's keep this up.

Yes, the 'Maleficent' rape scene matters for all women: http://t.co/4UBItXMbbg
— The Daily Dot (@dailydot) June 17, 2014

BY ALICIA SWIZ

Angelina Jolie is talking about rape.

Last week the Academy Award-winning actress all but took over the Internet when she joined Foreign Secretary William Hague in leading the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. The summit came just days after the opening of Jolie’s current film, Maleficent, which opened at number-one at the box office and has since grossed over $150 million worldwide. The Disney production is a retelling of the 1959 animated classic from the villain’s point of view, one that has received mixed reviews among critics but garnered significant attention in feminist circles for its provocative storyline.

As Jezebel’s Dodai Stewart describes:

The moment that transforms Maleficent from a fun-loving, quirky woodland fairy into cruel, pissed-off sorceress is an act of violence. The man she thought was her friend drugs her, and while she is unconscious, he saws off her wings. She wakes up bleeding, in pain, a part of her destroyed. Sobbing. It feels like a sexual assault.

Yes, it does, and according to Jolie (who also serves as the film’s executive producer), it was meant to. During an interview on the BBC Woman’s Hour, Jolie was explicit that the integral scene was intentionally written as a metaphor for rape. 

This is no small feat in a feature film by one of America’s most prominent and beloved studios, known for its portrayal of women as lovesick, house-arrested, eye-candy. Jolie’s participation in lobbying for legislative change on a global front is inspiring, though it may be Maleficent that is challenging the most insidious of oppressors—the Hollywood feature film. As the L.A. Times’ Betsy Sharkey points out, “It’s one thing to speak in front of global dignitaries about the need to combat rape; it’s quite another to slip that message into a global blockbuster.”

It is no secret that there is tremendous gender disparity in Hollywood—where the stories of men are told in the words of men, through the lenses of men, and about the desires of men. In 2013, the MPAA reported that 52 percent of movie going audiences were women, yet of the year’s top 500 grossing films, women comprised only 30 percent of speaking roles, only half of which were protagonists.  When women are present (as characters who are predominantly written by men), they are often regulated to the usual roles of ingénue, mother, or wicked witch/queen/stepmother.

This is a pattern so consistent that The Atlantic's Raina Lipstiz argued Thelma & Louise was the last great movie about women. That was 23 years ago.

Combating this is one of the ways Maleficent creates real change, as making a truly progressive film for women means more than just passing the Bechdel Test. Maleficent has two female protagonists, and the majority of the film focuses on the relationship they develop with each other. It was written by a woman, Disney veteran Linda Woolverton, who credits the film with one of the most emotional moments of her career, the kiss scene between Maleficent and Aurora/Sleeping Beauty.

You have to rewrite these things 100 times, and every single time I wrote it I could barely get through it. I did Homeward Bound, you know that dog movie? Every single time I wrote the moment over the hill when everyone comes back at the end, I would cry into my hand over the keyboard. The kiss scene was like that for me.

Woolverton’s emotional attachment and her assertion that 20 years ago she couldn’t have written “as complex a lead character” is a reflection of the rampant sexism in Hollywood, echoing the growing frustration of female moviegoers who yearn to see characters in their likeness and stories that mirror their own experiences.

Of course, the film has it’s flaws and allows ample opportunity for feminist critique. It is, in fact, a fairy tale created in the same old storybook of kingdoms and hierarchies and colonization, one so lackluster in creativity that blogger Lindy West asks, “You could have built any world you wanted to—why choose one ruled by the same regressive, white-washed mid-century morality as every other 'modern' fairy tale? Aren't thou bored?”

West goes on to note the glaring acceptance of gender normativity by the female characters who exist as “moldy feminine tropes—the sullied innocent, the abandoned lover lost without her man, the evil ex-girlfriend, the overreacting harpy, the broken woman redeemed by motherhood.”

It’s true. West’s analyses evoke Audre Lorde’s assertion that the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. But focusing on the ways Maleficent reinforces stereotypical images of women distracts from the vital moments when it does not, most notably the conscious choice by the writer and executive producer to create a national dialogue about rape and sexual assault, in a country where it largely goes unspoken. Fairy tale or not, Maleficent is reflective of the experiences of #YesAllWomen.

“The Longest War” is what writer Rebecca Solnit calls America’s cultural relationship between sexual violence and gender:

At the heart of the struggle of feminism to give rape, date rape, marital rape, domestic violence, and workplace sexual harassment legal standing as crimes has been the necessity of making women credible and audible.

The feminist lessons in Maleficent may not have the same magnitude as those taught in college classrooms or published in scholarly journals, but they are reflective of a common experience among American women and girls. These women, though they may not live in a categorical warzone, live in a country where 1 in 4 experience teen dating violence, 1 in 4 are abused by a partner in their lifetime, and 1 in 6 are survivors of rape or attempted rape.

These are the women who cheered when Aurora saves Maleficent by rescuing her wings, the same way that a generation of women before erupted in bursts of support when Louise shoots Thelma’s rapist. It more than just a climactic plot twist, more than just character redemption, and way more than revenge. This is a chance for real women to access and feel their right to a self-determined life. Through these characters, a silenced majority is given a voice that is resonating beyond the silver screen.

After all, the Global Summit to End Violence During Conflict didn’t take place in Fairy Tale Land.

Alicia Swiz is an educator and performer committed to inspiring dialogue about gender, feminism and the media. Find her @popgoesalicia.