Men should be "Brave:" An Alternate Perspective of Media's, I mean Merida's, Redesign

This is deeply disturbing.

A considerable amount of ire has erupted over the redesign of Merida, the central protagonist of Disney's and Pixar's “Brave” to mark her official induction in the Disney family as the eleventh Disney princess. While her original image is a plainly dressed, realistically proportioned teenage medieval Scottish girl, as opposed to an anorexic Cinderella doll, “[f]unctionality has given way to chic belts, sequins, and gold lace. Much more worrying, however, are the physical alterations. The waist has certainly been taken in an inch or two, and I suspect those cheeks are no longer rouged by the bracing Scottish wind” (Krupa IGN.com).

Let us flip this situation on its head for a moment.

Instead of Merida being a girl trying to break free from the social norms of masculinity, let us say that Merida is a prince, who wanted to bend traditional norms of masculinity, by wearing brightly colored clothes (perhaps a dress?), attending wine tastings, and growing out his long, flowing hair. If he were redesigned as wearing a gray suit, clipped, combed hair, and having a six-pack of abs, there wouldn't be outrage: there would be approval.

This demonstrates a significant double standard for men when it comes to bending gender norms. Women are applauded for taking on higher roles in the work place and getting their hands dirty, but if a man were to smell flowers or be cooking in the kitchen, he would be identified as being far too feminine. We're still seeing this in popular culture. Actor Kunal Nayyar's character, Raj, from CBS's TV show “The Big Bang Theory,” is the butt of many jokes that mock his apparent lack of manliness, by having him suggest to his three male colleagues that they attend a wine tasting in the coming weekend, since “the flowers will be in bloom.” One of the guys then drives in the punch line, “We go from talking about women to becoming women.” What makes wine tasting and appreciating nature such a taboo? I attended a wine tasting at my college, and the two faculty members who hosted the event were both men. Also, Earth is the only planet we have, so why not appreciate every aspect of it?

To put this situation in a nutshell, it’s like Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, in which God is reaching out with his hand and giving life to Adam (Vatican.va). Adam is reaching out to God as well. Women reach across borders of femininity, so we can’t expect social change for women unless men are willing to enjoy a glass of chardonnay every once in a while.

"The Long Road Home: One Step at a Time" A Review

Can a comic strip make you cry? Absolutely.

G.B. Trudeau's compilation of Doonesbury comic strips, entitled The Long Road Home: One Step at a Time is proof of this.

It  is all at once hilarious, heart-warming, and gut-wrenching.

The overarching story chronicles the struggle of soldier B.D., his wife, Boopsie, their daughter, Sam, and family friend Ray Hightower, a.k.a. Zonker, as they struggle to adjust to the loss of B.D.'s left leg, in an explosion while overseas in Fallujah, Iraq.

The narrative doesn't bother easing you in. It starts from the first person perspective of B.D., as he is laying down on the ground, drifting in and out of consciousness. The panels on the first two pages alternate between solid black, with only a dialogue bubble filling the void, and quick glimpses of B.D.'s fellow soldiers, calling for medical assistance, and telling B.D. “You're not dying here, man! Not today!”

From there, much of the narrative takes place at Walter Reed Medical Center, where B.D goes through much of his recovery, and at Fischer House—“the facility that has served as a 'home away from home' for more than 65,000 military families across the country,” according to U.S. Senator John McCain in his foreword. “Fischer Houses,” continues Sen. McCain, “located on the grounds of every major military medical center, enable family members to be close to the wounded during their hospitalization.”

G.B. Trudeau does an excellent job at balancing the human drama with upbeat humor. The reader goes from B.D struggling with moments of depression, to Zonker shouting in the hospital hallway, “Nurse! Self-pity in 5732!” One moment that will make you both smile and cry is Sam's reaction to her mother breaking the news of her father's injury. It might actually make you pause for a moment, to digest what just happened.                                                                                                                                                  
For anyone who thinks that comic books, comic strips, and graphic novels do nothing to probe the depths of the human experience, I dare you to read a copy of this work, and not feel something for the characters.

Final score: 9.9 out of 10