Brave

If you have seen the movie 'Brave' then you will know that the heroine Merida is no typical Disney princess. She is fairly normal-looking (with wild red hair) and instead of marrying a nice boy like her parents were trying to force her to, she took charge of her life and won her freedom.

It's a good movie, especially for young girls who need to know that they don't need to be ultra-skinny, trendy or submissive. Also they don't need a boyfriend or husband to give their life purpose- they can just be themselves.

But it seems that Disney scored an own goal recently by changing her appearance into a tiny-waisted, prettier and sexier version. They also got rid of her bow and arrow (symbolic of her strong and free personality), to have her standing in the come-hither pose of hands on hips. Girls really don't need another reminder that to be happy they have to be sexy.

Anyway, a petition was started up to get Merida's original image back - https://www.change.org/petitions/disney-say-no-to-the-merida-makeover-keep-our-hero-brave
which you can still sign. 234000 people already have.

And it looks like it has worked already- Disney have removed the sexy version from their site and reverted to the original.

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/disney-pulls-new-version-of-brave-s-princess-merida-from-its-website-062618593.html

This is a little victory for people-power. It might seem like a storm in a teacup, but it is one small win against the increasing sexualisation of children.

Let's hope that there are more heroines like Merida in the future.