Bright Young Women Finally Ready To Stand: Moana

The views expressed below are exclusively my own and not those of the Walt Disney Company. 

More than 20 years ago a little mermaid sang of a world “of bright young woman ready to stand.” That same young woman then falls in love with a man and gives up everything for him making way for her far more fun sidekicks to steal the show. Or at least that is how I remember it (as if I didn’t just watch it again last week). The thing is though, that has long been the pattern with Disney princesses. They have great stories and great music but they themselves are kind of bleh. Bleh is a super academic term for either so virtuous they are boring or so fool hearty they are annoying. Say what you may about forced romantic narratives and body shapes, this has almost been the most destructive thing about Disney princesses. You just don’t really like them.

Now, we’ve made some improvements in more recent films. Mulan is amazing and Merida is fun, but these girls are stuck with the patriarchy to battle and to be quite honest it’s exhausting. Their gender takes priority over them. Also for a lot of modern women, that is not the type of sexism we are battling! I am lucky in that I can honestly say that no one has told me outright “You cannot do this because you are a girl.” Instead, it’s subtler. It’s being overly concerned with my wellbeing. It’s talking over me. It’s men in our life making it all about them. That is not the sexism of ancient China and Scotland. Mulan and Merida are not princesses for us. They are princesses battling battles from an older time.

Now two years ago we got Frozen. It was exciting. Young girls loved it. They mocked older romantic narratives. Clearly these are modern princesses! Except no. Anna is annoying! She makes really dumb decisions and it’s nice that she fights for her sister, but I did not watch the movie and go “Oh my God, that is so ME.” Elsa got pretty damn close. I know you have all heard “Let It Go” a thousand times, but hear me out. There you have a song of a girl busting free of ridiculous standards shoved upon her. She has been literally told all her life that if she loses control she will destroy everything. Now think of that from the context of modern young women who have been told all their lives to do their best and do well in school and go to college all well maintaining skinny bodies and maintaining the right balance of virtuous and slutty. Wasn’t that sentence even just exhausting to read? That’s why I’ve always been a defender of “Let It Go.” That grasp on control is a lot to maintain and I don’t blame the girl for tossing her gloves away. The problem is “Let It Go” is 3 minutes of the movie. Elsa then gets cast as a villain and pushed to the sidelines so that Anna and Kristoff can meet cute and fall in love. So now that all that is out of my system: MOANA.

Moana is “Let It Go” the movie. Moana is the gift to all the young women who have stuck with the studio. Moana is a gift to all the new young women who will watch it over their Thanksgiving school break. Moana is a modern princess in that she is not a princess she is a wayfinder. And I promise this is not hyperbole.

Ok, so you know the obvious things that make Moana more of a feminist princess: she is an explorer, she doesn’t have a love interest, she has THIGHS. But that is merely scratching the surface. First, let’s look at the big picture. Moana is presented with two options for her life: her safe option is literally staying home and becoming chief or option two is choosing to throw caution to the wind and adventuring into the ocean to save the world. What is important to note here is that she is being groomed for greatness regardless of her supernatural adventure. You don’t have to save the world to be a strong woman in Moana’s world.

Now let’s look at her sidekicks. If I asked what you remembered from Frozen beyond the melody to “Let It Go,” I’m like 95% certain you’d say the talking snowman. He dominated the marketing and the merchandizing. He stole the scenes he was in. Moana’s sidekicks are not like that. First of all, they are silent. Pua is adorable, but only in 10 minutes of the movie. Hei Hei is hilarious, but he is truly merely comic relief. The creators actually let Moana be the star of the show and it feels so good. Now, we get to Maui.

Maui, the demigod Moana travels with, is a little more complicated. He threatens the show a little bit seeing as he is being played by the effortlessly charming Dwane “The Rock” Johnson, but to The Rock’s credit, he never falls into Olaf territory. In fact, Maui is kept just obnoxious and unlikable enough to keep Moana as the hero. By doing so, he also becomes his own representation of a type of sexism. First, there is his song “You’re Welcome” where he literally demands that Moana thank him for all the amazing things he has done for the world. His ego is unstoppable and he literally underestimates Moana because she is not him. While he may literally demand that he be the star of the show, we the viewers and the creators never actually let him. We do get some lovely Maui backstory and he does get more friendly, but it is all in service to Moana. She helps him find himself. He helps her find her way to save the world. NOW SPOILERS: when given the chance for him to save the world, he fails. That is then followed by the climax of the movie. At one point earlier in the film, Maui makes Moana be “bait,” a role every sad token female has had to play at some point in her life. It proves only mildly effective and is portrayed as ridiculous the whole time. Moana should not be dressed in shells and incapacitated (is this a subtle dig at Ariel’s shell bra? A girl can dream…) It is therefore quite the amazing turnaround when Maui oh so quietly takes on the role of bait as he distracts Te Ka so Moana can return the heart of Te Fiti. Once again, Moana is the star of this film. END OF SPOILERS.

Lastly, and on the same note as Maui’s song, two of the major villains of this movie (Te Ka is a different story which would take time and spoilers to explain) are men exhibiting some of the traits of the modern patriarchy mentioned above. First is Moana’s father who is so concerned for Moana’s safety and tradition that he does not want her to venture out and explore. He is relatively benign, but backwards all the same. The second is the fabulous Tamatoa who like Maui, has an ego so large he cannot care about anything beyond himself and the objects he collects. These are the type of obstacles Moana has to fight and while it is not insignificant that they are both male, it is not shoved in our face either.

Compare these men now to the women of Moana. It is not just Moana, with her quick wit, charm, incredible climbing, jumping, oar wielding and wonderfully messy hair, but it is also her wacky and funny Grandma who knows exactly how to point Moana in the right direction. It is the women of this movie who hold the power, but they do so without bragging about it. This is best encompassed in the moment of the movie that got me hooked. That is when Moana’s mostly quiet mother catches Moana running away. Instead of stopping her, she quickly helps her pack. It is entirely unnecessary to the plot in that Moana was perfectly capable of running by herself. It is her mother’s blessing that makes this moment so powerful though. Not only is Moana striking out on her own as a modern woman, she is doing so with the encouragement and help of the women who have come before her.

I am going to be so proud to show this movie some day to the young women in my life. It is a movie I didn’t realize I really needed until I saw it. I love Disney princesses, but I needed Moana. Moana deals with the whole host of problems that come with being a young woman and a young person. I saw myself in her and it felt amazing. We’ve needed a Disney movie that has a healthy balance of fighting sexism without making it the point of the movie. We’ve final found it. Please, if you know any young women in your life who may be battling male egos every day or worrying more about their immediate safety than their bright futures or who worried about being called numbers instead of by their name, take them to a movie that shouts its heroine’s name loud and proud and lets her shine. It’s taken us awhile to get here, but I promise the journey is worth the wait.