Chapter I: Introduction
This dissertation will analyse four Disney/Pixar princesses by exploring these characters in relation to the construction of Third-Wave feminism, to understand how the princess story 'reflects, reinforce[s] or resists the cultures changing meanings of femininity' (Rothschild, 2013, p.3). The princesses that will be discussed are Merida, Elsa and Anna, and Moana from Brave (2012), Frozen (2013), and Moana (2016), three modern movies that lack scholarly analysis surrounding them, due to their recentness. These Third-Wave princesses are considered a 'fresh' take on their classic counterparts, offering a means for analysis in relation to Third-Wave Feminism. This exploration is imperative as it opens up discussion around not only the feminist direction that the modern princess stories are headed in, but also the direction, aims and values of Third-Wave feminism in relation to consumer culture.
Although the analysis will focus on the modern heroines in relation to the Third-Wave of feminism, which was prevalent during the time of production and consumption, it is important to include an introduction to feminism in order to associate the modern princesses with their classic counterparts. Feminism has been distinguished into three waves – first, second, and third. These waves took place in diverse periods and addressed different issues within the realm of social justice and women's rights. Feminism first came about in the late 19th century, when women focused on the inequality of politics, specifically women's suffrage. This has been since labelled the 'First-Wave' and was prevalent during production of classic movies Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1938), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959). The Second-Wave followed, beginning in the early 1960's. Women sustained the movement, focusing on issues that impacted women's lives, like mothering, domestic labour and sexual violence.
The wave of feminism that will be cross-referenced to enable a full analysis on the feminist values of the modern princesses is the Third-Wave of feminism, appearing in the 1990's. According to Stacy Gillis, a member of Feminist and Women's Studies Association at Newcastle University, Third-Wave feminism is based on three aspects; Firstly, the importance of the internet, offering women a platform to advertise, educate, and discuss feminism. The second aspect is speculated to be the inclusion of diversity. Gillis writes that 'there is no single way to 'be' a feminist' (Gillis, 2007, p. xvii). Feminism is more recently evolving to include different religions, ethnicities and backgrounds. Gillis writes that '[feminism] differs and moulds to as many identities as there are practitioners and thinkers' (Gillis, 2007, p. xviii). The final aspect that Gillis offers as a distinguishing factor of Third-Wave feminism is the mix of technological and domestic, with women making their statements in sowing sampler patterns and domestic magazines.
Chapter II: Literary Review
This chapter will focus on the main sources that have been explored in order to construct this dissertation. Firstly, the three Disney/Pixar movies will be highlighted, then the central literary source will be discussed.
Brave is an original story based around a Scottish princess named Merida, who is being forced by her mother, Elinor, to marry. However – Merida is content as a single woman, so she seeks the help of a witch to change Elinor's mind about the marriage. The witch does not understand the criteria of Merida's request, and Elinor is changed into a bear. Merida must find a way to return her mother to her human form. Brave, produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2012, is a 94-minute length 3D computer animated film directed by Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman and produced by Katherine Sarafian, with a story by Brenda Chapman.
Frozen is another film released by Walt Disney Pictures. The story consists of two sisters, Elsa and Anna, who are daughters to the king and queen of Arendelle. When the sisters' parents pass away, Elsa is forced to take over the throne. After being antagonised by Anna, Elsa cannot control her ice powers and reveals them to the kingdom. She flees, and Anna must find her sister. However, Anna starts to freeze, until she finds an act of true love to save her. She finally realises her true love is familial and belongs to her sister. Frozen, produced by Walt Disney Animation studios, written and directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, is an 102-minute-long 3D computer animated film released in 2013.
Moana is the most recent feature length film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It features a Polynesian family living on the island of Motenui, with Moana training to take over her father's position of chief. However, Motenui's resources become scarce and Moana must leave to restore the heart of Te Fiti (a small paunamu stone) that was stolen by demi-god, Maui. Moana and Maui, although rivals for most of the movie, travel the ocean to replace the heart. Moana, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, and released in 2016, is a 107-minute-long feature length 3D computer animated feature.
The main text that has informed this study is Sarah Rothschild's book The Princess Story: Modeling the Feminine in Twentieth-century American Fiction and Film (2013). As a mother to two children, Rothschild was beginning to question the role that princess stories play in her daughter's lives; 'What was I allowing American culture (and Disney in particular) to teach [my daughters]? Would they outgrow this phase? Would their future life decisions be impacted by their princess play?' (Rothschild, 2013, p. 5) In order to explore the importance of princess stories, she wrote The Princess Story, which explores various types of princess stories, including those created by Disney. This text was chosen because Rothschild's close analysis between Disney's princess stories and feminism is suddenly extremely relevant in a period in which feminism is highly evolved and inclusive. Rothschild initially defines the princess story, then in chapter one, she begins by analysing Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1905 novel, A Little Princess in relation to First-Wave Feminism. In chapter two, she explores the 'First-Wave princesses' in relation to First-Wave Feminism. This section focuses on the stories of Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959). In chapter three, Rothschild introduces ideological princess stories. She goes on in chapter four to introduce the 'Second-Wave Princess stories' comprising of Beauty and the Beast (1987), The Little Mermaid (1990), Mulan (1998), and Pocahontas (1995), and how these stories relate to Second-Wave Feminism. She then includes a chapter on where the princess story is going and how this fits in with Third-Wave Feminism.
Rothschild is analysing select Disney Princess stories released from 1938 up until 1998, by using a structure comprising of questions applied to each movie. By answering these questions, Rothschild compiles an investigation on each movie, and then places this analysis against the notion of feminism at the point of production to see how they relate to each other. I have studied Rothschild's chapters on Disney princesses and extracted the core themes that she explores about each story and princess. These themes include; the original source material or stimuli for the piece, the princess' family, romantic relationships, male characters, ethnic origins and appearance, social class, motive, and personality. I extracted these themes and applied them to the Third-Wave princesses. My study may function as an extension of Rothschild's text, filling the gap that has been created since the publishing of her book and the release of new Disney princess stories, using her means for analysis and applying them to modern princesses, and relating them to current state of Feminism.
Chapter III: Analysing the relationship of Disney's Princess stories to the source material
Initially, I will be exploring the stories of Frozen, Moana and Brave and how they link to their source material. This is an important feature to consider as the characters in more recent Disney Princess stories have been labelled as 'free and independent agents of their own fate' (Tóth, 2017, p. 197) – and this may be a result of the detachment from traditional fairy-tales. The inclusion of a traditional fairy-tale as stimuli is important to consider when relating the stories to the Third-Wave of Feminism, as the origin of source material strongly influences the storyline and characters. This means that the relation to the Third-Wave of Feminism is directly impacted by the choice of source material used to produce the story. Rothschild comments recurrently around the lack of agency relating to the classic princesses inspired from traditional fairy-tales, a feature which we will later explore, and in her book, sums up the formula for these early stories;
'The princesses… are made submissive. Male characters will take primacy over the passive, pretty princesses. The films' endings are not merely happy; they are happy in specifically romantic ways.' (Rothschild, 2013, p. 60)
Davis notices this correlation between the formulaic storyline and stimuli also, noting that the three classic princess stories 'come from Western European fairy tales, all three spend their early lives in reduced circumstances… under threat from an evil older woman.' (Davis, 2006, p. 101)
The values of the characters in traditional fairy-tales reflect the creators and consumers of the stories at the time. For example, The Brothers Grimm's 1812 Snow White fairy-tale reflected the women of the 19th century – 'their sole purpose find[ing] a husband, reproduc[ing] and then spend[ing] the rest of their lives serving him.' (Smith, 2002. [online]) Taking these traditional stories and placing them before modern consumers is not only detrimental to the easily moulded attitude of young viewers, but offensive when placed comparatively to Third-Wave Feminism and the advancements that have been made. Scholars have also recognized this link with '[a] lesson plan called Racism/Sexism in Disney, [which was] targeted at 11 to 16-year-olds, [and] uploaded by an unknown teacher in England for lessons such as RE and Citizenship.' (The Telegraph, 2016. [online]) Fortunately, the Third-Wave princess stories have a much slacker link to traditional fairy-tale stories as a source of stimuli. Brave and Moana were original stories. Frozen is the only example of the three to have any association to fairy-tales as stimuli for the movie. Frozen is loosely based on the fairy-tale written by Hans Christian Anderson, called The Snow Queen, first published in 1845.
Considering the storyline and characters are only mildly inspired by the Anderson characters, Frozen could be considered an original piece that lends itself to The Snow Queen for inspiration. Although The Snow Queen is from the 19th century, it does not seem to impact the apparent feminist stance of the movie. One of the reasons for this could be that the main protagonist is inspired by the villain of the original fairy-tale. This then places the villainess with 'a much higher proportion of agency' at the helm of the story, representing the strong feminist woman. (Davis, 2006, p. 107) A question around the creative choice to place this strong feminist character in the traditional princess structure arises when we analyse this story in relation to the diversity of Third-Wave feminism mentioned above. The continual placement of the heroine into the royal structure does not seem to diversify the princesses, but there are positive reasons as to why this decision was made, explored more in depth in the chapter discussing the princesses' social class.
Our second case study, Moana, can be referred to as an original story. In 2011, Director John Musker proposed the idea of a story based around the Polynesian myth of MÄui, a legend whose heroic stories were retold throughout Polynesia. While Western folklore usually follows a similar structure that reveals itself in the classic princess stories, and features a helpless princess being rescued from an evil woman by a handsome prince, Polynesian mythology includes a plethora of stories that include a diverse set of characters. The proposal prompted film producer, John Lasseter, to recommend that they set off on research trips. The two visited Fiji, Samoa and Tahiti in 2012 to meet the native people and experience their culture, and Robinson believes this trip 'mark[ed] the beginning of a process that makes Moana one of Disney's most culturally authentic endeavours yet.' (2017. [online]) The storyline initially proposed in 2011 was to centre around Maui as the movies protagonist, but after experiencing life on these islands, there were inspired
'by the "beautiful, powerful women in Polynesia" they met along the way, Clements pitched the idea that they centre the story around a young girl, instead-replacing the typical Disney "princess" with a chief's daughter.' (Robinson, 2017. [online])
The powerful women that the producers were inspired by assisted this story in offering a feminist heroine. Basing the character of Moana on not only modern women, but also culturally diverse women, explores a realm of Third-Wave feminism. Moana's ethnicity is important in this sense, as she represents feminist women that may have not been represented in this way by a Disney Princess movie, and this is expanded upon in the later chapter focusing on the ethnicity of the princesses.
The story for Brave was written exclusively for Pixar by Brenda Chapman. In an interview held by Adiba Jaigidar in 2016, Chapman discusses her inspiration while writing the story for Brave. She mentions her daughter and their boisterous relationship. Chapman also notes her interest in fairy-tales; 'I love the old dark Grimm's fairy tales and of course, Scotland. So Brave was inspired by my 3 loves: my daughter, fairy-tales and Scotland.' (Chapman, 2016. [online]) This inspiration from The Brother Grimms' fairy-tales stimulated a traditional style story, era and characters. Merida, who can be argued to be influenced by a modern woman, possibly Chapman's daughter, disrupts this traditional fairy-tale formula, turning the story into a modern fairy-tale. Not only is Merida one of the most feminist characters, disregarding a romantic relationship and therefore patriarchy, discussed later, and indulging in conventionally masculine activities, she represents the modern feminist woman.
The loose ties to fairy-tales and inclusion of original stories could suggest the trajectory for the next Disney movie, proposing the disregard of traditional fairy-tales. We can begin to see a reflection of more modern values in the stories of the Third-Wave princesses, and a more accurate reflection of the values of Third-Wave Feminism in our modern heroines, and this may directly reflect the use of original stories and minimally including traditional fairy-tale stimulus.
Chapter IV: Inclusion of romantic relationships and the centrality of the male character
Analysing the inclusion of heterosexual romantic relationships
Features that are notably tied to the portrayal of feminism is the inclusion of a heterosexual relationship, and the representation of male characters within the story. In her book, Rothschild closely analyses the inclusion of heterosexual relationships in Disney's princess stories. This factor is highly important in analysing the feminist outlook in these stories as, in recent years, feminist values are increasingly involving rejecting the patriarchal system, a system that includes heterosexual romantic relationships. Zielinski believes the reason for this overthrow of the system is because marriage is essentially an undesirable situation – a result of 'institutionalised inequality between genders that saw women as the property of their husbands – and before that, the property of their fathers.' (Zielinski, 2015. [online])
We can link the significance of heterosexual relationships and the wave of feminism that was prevalent when production of the movie was underway and discover correlations. For example, Murphy comments on Snow White, released in 1938 and the presentation of the woman; 'In viewing Snow White, young boys may be assured that… women… remain ready to serve them, no matter how messy they may be, since women are a domesticating and civilizing presence' (Murphy, 1995, p. 128). To compare, Crawford writes in the Bath Chronicle in 1930 that 'nothing destroys the happiness of married life more than the lazy, slovenly wife' (Crawford in Alleyne, 2012. [online]). We can see direct comparisons between the ideal woman of the time and the woman presented in the idealized Disney movies. Rothschild comments in her book about the abundance of heterosexual relationships in Disney's classic princess stories and how the films are 'stories of American middle-class heterosexual courtship' (Rothschild, 2013, p. 61). All of the classic princess stories involve a marriage or partnership between the princess and the prince, who is usually her saviour in terms of entrapment by evil forces. Many studies have highlighted this, commenting on the reciprocations on the impressionable viewers, enforcing the apparent importance of being involved in a heterosexual relationship. Jack Zipes recognises in his essay Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairytales – he comments that 'the classical fairy tale for children and adults reinforced the patriarchal symbolic order based on rigid notions of sexuality and gender.' (Zipes, 2006, p. 21) In the second era of Disney Princess films there is a looser link to marriage, but heterosexual romances pop up throughout. Rothschild realizes that Disney were attempting to promote feminism with this
'new batch of princess stories. [They] touted their new heroines as spunkier, more independent and feminist than the traditional Disney princesses. Upon examination, this second group of Disney princess stories is anti-feminist in some disturbing ways.' (Rothschild, 2013, p. 135-6)
It is useful to look at Third-Wave Princess stories and examine the inclusion of heterosexual relationships and how vital they are to the heroine's success, to determine correlations between the princesses' standpoint on marriage and courtship in comparison to the modern woman.
In Frozen, the two protagonists in this story are very diverse in their position concerning marriage. From the beginning of the story, we uncover that Anna longs for a romantic relationship. Anna meets Prince Hans, a reference and prototype of Prince Charming from the prior movies, and falls in love with him, accepting his abrupt offer of marriage. This rash engagement is noteworthy as it is comparable behaviour to our classic princesses, and at first glance, could question the feminist value of Frozen. However, character development takes place, and although Anna ends up in a romantic heterosexual relationship, she displays a modern relationship with a lower-class man that she did not expect to fall in love with.
On the other hand, Elsa does not propose any hint of a heterosexual relationship throughout the story. Her first agenda is taking over the throne, and just like in Moana, and Brave, we see the female protagonist being employed in a position of power. This position is a sizable responsibility and could rule out romance as a matter of urgencies. This feature of engaging the heroine in a position of power will be discussed and analysed in chapter six. At the end of the movie, Elsa dances independently signalling that she is favourably single, reflecting modern, feminist women that are single as a liberating choice, and also educating young viewers that marriage does not always equal success.
Elsa is portrayed as a feminist woman, rejecting patriarchal values, and not becoming involved in a romantic relationship throughout the movie. Some critics have even labelled Elsa as 'lesbian' because of her singleness. Colman disagrees with Elsa's labelling, commenting that 'if not ending the film with a heterosexual romantic interest is supposed to automatically out Elsa as a lesbian, then frankly Disney's just doing it wrong' (Colman, 2014. [online]). Next to Elsa, Anna looks even more like a love-driven, naïve princess character like the ones that preceded her. This difference accentuates the characteristics of the girls and offers spectators two of numerous views of the modern woman.
In the story of Moana, there is no insinuation of any romantic relationship for the female protagonist. Moana's main motive is the safety of her people, not to marry – a very different motivation from the 'First-Wave' princesses. Leslie also recognizes this;
'Normally in Disney's work from the 1930s-1990s, the princess films included a strong romance plotline with their young princesses in dresses… The later Disney princess films feature the debate of fate versus freedom. Moana demonstrates an alliance with many of these characteristics, but what makes this film unique is its ability to play with those formulaic expectations and thereby undermine them and re-imagine the genre.' (Leslie, 2017. [online])
Entitled as the chief's daughter, Moana's main responsibility is to inherit this role after her father passes. Moana could represent the feminist woman of today, driven by her career with no time to focus on a partnership. Even when Moana meets Maui, a muscular, handsome Demigod, there is no hint of a romantic or sexual relationship developing. Disney avoids the notion of this partnership by imagining Moana as a much younger woman than Maui. Their 'relationship never even touches the possibility of romance. Instead, their bond is one first of adversaries, then one of comrades working together on a team.' (Cipriani, 2016. [online])
In terms of Brave, Merida wants to remain a single woman. The entire plot forms around this convention – her mother wants Merida to marry one of three lords. However, as Stephens observes, 'Merida proclaims numerous times in the film that she is not ready to be married. This is a central difference between third generation Disney princess films and the original Disney works.' Stephens goes on to praise this choice, commenting that 'the lack of romance in Brave is a statement that a female can be a strong lead and save herself or other characters (which she does sixteen times in the film) without the assistance of a male character.' (Stephens, 2014, p. 102)
At first glance, Merida may look like our first homosexual heroine, turning down not one lord, but three, but this does not seem the case as she is not interested in any kind of romantic relationship. This storyline of a rejected marriage is essentially feminist, and is educational for young viewers, exploring the realm of rejecting romantic relationships, rather than searching for them. This offers one alternative option that the modern woman can choose in terms of courtship.
Analysing the centrality of the male counterpart
In order to consider how much agency the female protagonist has increasingly gained, we must look at her male counterpart and explore how central he is to the princess's success. This section will discuss the amount of agency that the prince, or male character, has lost throughout the years, and how this reflects the active women of the Third-Wave of feminism. Classic Disney films have been bashed by critics because of how little the female protagonist actually does to achieve her happily ever after. Rothschild comments on this; 'men are given primacy in these princess stories. Men, real as well as animated, frame the story, serve as primary agents of activity, and are the princesses' rescuers and rewards.' (Rothschild, 2013, p. 61) Sleeping Beauty is a worthy example – Aurora spends the utmost of the story in a coma, while Prince Phillip does everything he can to rescue her – and yet Aurora is still the character that appears on merchandise and the DVD cover. This is problematic as Disney's princesses are idolized, however, in the early movies they did little to achieve their goals. However, this imitates the First-Wave of Feminism that was prevalent during production of the classic stories, offering viewers a woman who is ever only present, with men having the agency to make things happen around her.
In Frozen, it is impartial that we analyse both male characters. Primarily, Prince Hans, a handsome prince who is a winking reference at the princes before. His name is an indication – 'Prince Hans' sounds similar to 'Prince Handsome' which directly leads us back to the 'Prince Charmings' that appeared in the Fist-Wave princess movies. He arrives on his noble steed and proposes to Anna. This situation is reminiscent of the stories in the First-Wave princess movies. However, we see this structure fractured when Prince Hans locks frozen Anna in a freezing room and puts out the fire. He makes it known that his only motivation was to take over the throne. This makes Hans one of the villains and catalysts for the story. Hans is not fundamental for the development of the story, but is a catalyst, causing Elsa to understand and fully comprehend her feelings. It is also important to note that Prince Hans is one of the only male villains in a Disney princess story. This is imperative as it switches the 'Disney structure' on its head and presents an evil male. If this represents nothing else, at least it is a lead to balancing the evil female/evil male count. Third-Wave feminism strives for equality, and so it is only reasonable that men can be evil similarly.
In terms of wholesome male characters, Kristof is presented. Not a prince, or royalty, he is an iceman who primarily helps Anna find her sister. He and Anna don't hit it off initially but by the conclusion of the story they discover themselves in a romantic relationship. This is the first Disney Princess movie that showcases a woman of power agreeing to be in a relationship with a man of a lower social class. This is an successful reflection of the Third-Wave of feminism and the power that the modern woman holds. Kristof helps Anna to find her sister, and supplies a reindeer as a means of transport, but Anna does not rely on him to achieve her goals.
In Moana, the female protagonist holds more agency than her male counterpart, Maui. However, a familiar device can be observed at the beginning of the movie, in the form of a story being told by a narrator. This is prevalent in Beauty and the Beast, when an ancient book opens and reveals the story of the Beast, before he was cursed. 'It is the Beast whose story begins with "once upon a time," and thus it is the Beast's story which is given predominance over all of the action to come in Belle's village.' (Rothschild, 2013, p. 143) There is a similar moment in Moana, when the movie opens with Grandma Tala telling the story of a trickster named Maui. She concludes with; 'someone will journey beyond our reef, find Maui and deliver him across the great ocean to restore Te-Fiti's Heart' (Moana, 2016). This introduction concentrates the story around Maui rather than Moana, which is slightly problematic in terms of placing the female's agency above the male's, however, Moana is a crucial asset to transporting Maui across the sea to restore The Heart. She is the one to leave the reef, collect Maui, and persuade him to go on this expedition with her. Moana becoming Maui's guide gives her a chance to be resilient, independent and smart, characteristics of the modern woman, but also maternal, a conventionally appreciated feminine trait.
Brave does not feature a main male character, because this story is focused around Merida's anti-marriage stance. There are male characters featured within this movie, but they are portrayed as dim, laughable, and with an excess of masculinity that is released through brawls. The most apparent example is Merida's father – he is portrayed as buffoonish with a guffawing laugh and terrible public speaking skills. He is kept in line by his wife, acting as a stern maternal figure, and this makes for an interesting contradiction to classic Disney princess story, Sleeping Beauty, in which the queen is always referred to as a possession of the king. We are then presented with the three lords, that are competing for Merida's hand – one appears so arrogant that he has a tantrum when things don't go his way, one is physically strong but too timid to speak, and one has little knowledge about courting women. There is a representation issue in terms of men in Disney Princess films, with classic men being portrayed as handsome and brave with no personality, and with modern men being portrayed as a comedic caricature. There is a need for men to be portrayed as something other than ''hollow crowns' of masculine power and authority' (Bell, et al., 1995, p. 10), but Brave over-exaggerates to a point where male characters are not taken seriously. This problematic portrayal of men in this movie makes the women appear as the superior sex. It is apparent that the producers of this movie either acknowledge and understand this dramatic feminist stance, or they are trying to project the idea that men are inferior to women. In relation to Third-Wave feminism, Disney has missed the mark in this situation, offering a world where men and woman are no longer equal.
The Bechdel Test as a means of analysis
This section will bring forth the 'Bechdel Test' as a means of examination in terms of the Third-Wave princess stories. The Bechdel Test was constructed by and named after cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who created comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For in 1985, which highlighted the rules for the Bechdel Test as we currently know it. The test was certainly not patented to be a serious means for analysis, until Swedish theatres began to rate films depending on whether they passed the test. (O'Meara, 2016. [online]) The test inquires if a fictional work contains two or more named female characters that converse at least once around the subject of something other than a man. It is apparent that Rothschild does not mention this throughout her book, but after studying the test, this appears to be a concise method of evaluating the feminist outlook of works, so it will be briefly included in order to construct another contrast to classic Disney princess stories in terms of their relationship to the representation of the woman. If the Bechdel Test was applied to Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, it is apparent that there are always two named women – the princess and the evil stepmother/evil queen – but their scarce exchanges are continually based around the prince.
To offer a direct comparison to this, we can apply the test to Brave, Frozen, and Moana. Brave passes the test, with the two named females being Merida and Elinor, and although they have numerous conversations around marriage and the lords, they also have exchanges around other topics. Frozen is the equivalent РElsa and Anna's infrequent conversations centre around Anna's fianc̩ at the beginning of the movie, but the pair begin to converse about their familial love. Moana passes with the highest credit Рthere are four named females, who have multiple conversations that do not focus on men.
Although Caird understands in her article in The Stage called Does your show pass the Bechdel Test that 'passing it says nothing about the quality of the play, nor is it a commentary on its content or message' and that the work could pass the test even if 'the female characters are adrift in a sea of testosterone' she notes it as 'a simple means of articulating cinema's women problem' (Caird, 2015. [online]). This test proposes a set of rules that offers viewers another means for analysis, and although the test has flaws, especially as a potentially feminist one-woman show would not pass, it presents proof of the change in the representation of women compared to that of the classic princess stories.
This chapter has explored the lack of heterosexual relationships in the Third-Wave films, and how this reflects the options the modern woman may take. Male characters within the Third-Wave stories have also been highlighted, and whether their representation is in aid to the construction of Third-Wave Feminism in terms of presenting the male as a realistic equal to the female. The chapter has also brought forth the Bechdel Test as another means for analysis in terms of the representation of women compared to that of the male.