I hate “girls” movies. Why? Because they are usually condescending towards the gender, with emphasis on fashion or boys or whatever. The better stories geared towards girls are much more universal in appeal. Look at Buffy The Vampire Slayer, a strong central female character that appealed to both men and women. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a television series based on the My Little Pony toy line that is primarily geared towards girls. Yet my sons will watch the series. Why? Because even though most of the characters are girls the stories and themes are much more universal in subject matter. No, the protagonists are not simply gender-swapped girls for boys to make it appealing, but simply the stories are not dumbed down or meant to appeal to girls, they are stories with female (pony) protagonists.
I bring this up because this morning we “fell back” with Daylight Savings Time. Which I hate. I’d love to get rid of it. But that’s a different topic. I bring this up because of the time change kids got up earlier than usual. Well, two of them.
Xavier woke up at 5:Something in the morning and I was barely awake and coherent. Tevye had woken as well and Laura with him. She wanted to go back to sleep so I agreed to take Tevye. Xavier had asked to watch Frozen and Laura had agreed. She gave me Tevye and went back to bed. A moment later Ciaran came up and started watching the film with Xavier. That’s two boys, ages 4 and 7, choosing to watch Frozen.
Why? Because it’s a good story.
I like the story of Frozen, and many boys do as well. Sure, the story of two sisters may be limited in appeal to many boys, but generally the gender isn’t necessarily relevant to the story – and yes, while it is here with regards to some of the details, it is not dependent on those to tell the overall story. Frozen uses the characters not the genders to tell its story.
Heck, Ciaran even paused the film a couple of times to get my attention to see a portion of the film that was particularly engaging.
Look at Brave. It’s a great story with a female protagonist. It could just as easily have been about a boy as the central character. It’s made stronger, however, because she is a girl.
I’m not saying we need to gender swap more roles. Placing female leads in stories just to fill a quota or doing it poorly negates any good. There does need to be more parity with storytelling, and this morning was an example of having a story done right, regardless of the gender of the protagonist, will be engaging.
My sons will watch My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic because the emphasis is on the story and characters, not superficial “girl” things. They will not watch the Barbie movies (except for A Mermaid’s Tail) because they have superficial stories and the characters lack any depth.
I’m not sure what all I want to say on this subject. Maybe if we as parents can just be a bit more aware of this and pass that awareness on to our children, the demand will get to a point where the supply will match what it should be.