One problem that could lead to civil unrest in women is the stereotypes in women in society. Two works that can portray this is the Disney film “Brave” (2012) and the instagram poem (2014) by Rupi Kaur. The film “Brave” portrays on this idea when the main character, Princess Merida, refutes against her womanly status against men. She protests against the tradition of needing a husband in order to inherit the throne. She believes that she does not need a man in order for her to rule the kingdom. In instagram poem by Rupi Kaur, it describes the stereotype of how women’s opinions are of less importance than the men’s opinions in the poem. The men’s opinion is superior compared to that of the women. However, the author protests against the idea that women’s opinions are not relevant and that they are so much more than their beauty. She also wants society to know women are not as weak as they are portrayed to be. Both of these contemporary works strongly emphasizes the inequality in which women face in society today. In addition, civil unrest plays a major part in both of these works. They both show disobedience towards the stereotypes that cater to women. They are signs of disobedience because women don’t want to live up to stereotypes anymore and want to be treated as an men’s equal.
In the Disney film “Brave”, the main character Princess Merida is forced into an betrothal by her mother, Queen Elinor. Merida feels extremely enraged by this because her mother had done this without her knowledge. Since she is the first born descendant, she will become her kingdom’s next ruler. When Merida protests against the betrothal, her mother tells her, “This is what you have been preparing for your whole life”. Merida’s mother believes that a woman’s most important goal is to get married. Getting married is very important to Elinor only because she believes that Merida needs a husband to rule the kingdom with her. The reason why she wants to find Merida a husband is because she believes that Merida will not be successful in ruling without one. Queen Elinor also wants Merida to have perfect and proper actions because she is a royal princess. She tries to force Merida into being the stereotypical princess character. In the scene where the royal family is dining at the dinner table, Merida protests against the betrothal by yelling. Queen Elinor replies to Merida by saying, “ A princess does not raise her voice”. Merida has little freedom to do what she wants because she cannot yell even if she wanted to. The stereotypical princess character that Elinor has in mind is someone who is quiet, elegant, and fragile. However, Merida is the complete opposite of what she has wants. She is strong-willed, independent, and can protect herself from harm. Furthermore, Merida prefers practicing archery, and riding horses in her spare time, instead of staying inside learning how to be pretty and proper like how a princess should be. When the clans arrive with the suitors to compete for her hand in marriage, she picks the competition game to be archery so she can secretly be in the game herself. In the archery competition, Merida defies her mother by trying to shoot for her own hand in marriage. Her mother gets angry when she succeeds in shooting all 3 arrows on the target because Merida had “embarrassed her” and had embarrassed the clan and their suitors. Merida and her mother get into an heated argument, ending in Merida slashing her mother’s tapestries and her mother throwing her beloved bow into the fireplace. This can be portrayed as another way of Merida expressing her feelings/protests against her mother and how she and her mother have different values. Since Merida didn’t want to obey her mother, her mother punishes her for disobeying her, and Merida shows her frustration by rebelling and slashing her mother’s tapestries which she worked hard to make. This resembles civil unrest because it is a custom to have the princess marry so she can have a husband. She rebels against traditional ways to make it clear that she can rule alone and that she does not need a man to rule the kingdom. Merida defies her mother by telling her she will not marry. She is determined to have her own path in life and expresses this to her mother. When her mother tells her about the betrothal, she protests against the idea of getting married, and yells “I just suppose a princess does what she is told!!”. She doesn’t want to get married and just wants her freedom. She wants to be independent and do the things she loves instead of getting married. However, her mother has other plans for her and wants Merida to be just like her. She thinks that getting married isn’t a big deal and there’s nothing to whine about. Marriage was considered just a minor thing because every women gets married eventually. But Merida refuses to do what she is told and breaks the tradition of getting married and goes with her own path through her own way. She defies the tradition and is successful in doing so. She is successful in the end as when she becomes the heroine in the end of the film for saving her mother, everybody including her mother accepts what Merida wants for herself, and it wasn’t deemed important if Merida wanted to get married or not.
In instagram poem “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur, protests the insignificance of a woman’s thought. It explains the differences between the speeches of men and women. In line 1 & 2 she says, “You tell me to quiet down cause, my opinions make me less beautiful”. This indicates that a women’s appearance is more attractive than what she has to say. When a woman expresses her thoughts, she is immediately considered less enticing as she was before she expressed herself. People also don’t want to hear what a women has to say because they believe that women aren’t as smart and as intelligent as men. However, Kaur says in lines 2&3 “ But I was not made with a fire in my belly, so I can be put out”. In these lines, she reveals that she is not fragile and she will not be shut down so easily. She will speak her opinion and will not be taken down for it. It also symbolizes her stubbornness and resistance to the gender stereotypes society has made. She expresses how she isn’t a weak women who cannot do it by using the idiom “ fire in my belly”, which means to be determined to achieve something. In this case, she is very determined to break the silence of women who were told to be quiet because their looks matter more than their opinion. In lines 4&5, Kaur also reveals, “I was not made with a lightness in my tongue, so I can be easy to swallow”. These lines represented how strong she stands by her opinion and how daring she is because she defies the gender stereotypes in women. Normally, women don’t get a say in our current society. It is mostly men who make the laws and rules. She is very determined on wanting to change this by saying “ I was not made with a lightness in my tongue”. When she says this, it means she is very determined to go against those stereotypes and try to change how society perceive women. It also proves her willingness and perseverance of wanting to change the rules and gender norms of society. In line 5&6 she says is, “ I was made heavy, half blade and half silk”. Which can indicate that she wants people to know that she isn’t weak. By saying she is “half blade”, she is comparing herself to a sharp object which was made for intentions of harm. She is portraying herself as a blade to express the fact that she is a powerful women and not a weakling. She wants people to know that women can be beautiful and strong at the same time. She wants people to know that women aren’t like the stereotypes that portray women as weak and fragile.These works are similar because both of these express a stereotype that women face in society today. For instance, “Brave” shows the pressure of needing to get married and needing a husband at a certain age. The poem proves that while women are told to be silent, the women will not stay silent because they are strong, and intelligent as men. The author expresses how much she would love if women could be taken serious for what they say one day. The author wants women to have the same equal opportunity as men. She also wants women to not be judged for their opinions because their opinions are relevant and they do matter.
There are still many stereotypes that society has of women today. Many of them are very sexist and are based on old traditional rules that were set for women back then. Many people in society still believe and follow these stereotypes now. In fact some of them are still in use now for ex: the need to get married once you hit a certain age, and the fact that they believe women aren’t as smart as men so they can’t really have a say in this society. Like in the movie, “Brave” Merida was forced into a betrothal against her own will. However, she was successful in proving to her mother that marriage isn’t a necessity. In the instagram poem, Kaur talks about how women’s opinions aren’t valued. In today’s time women also don’t have a voice or say in the making of these decisions even when they are the ones affected by it. It is unfair to them because men can make decisions on things that relate to women but they don’t suffer the aftermath of the consequences of their decisions. The women are the ones who are left to suffer from this could lead to disobedience from women because they don’t want to be perceive with these stereotypes. They are want to prove that they are as smart as the men and have a voice in society. They want to be able to make their own decisions. In the present society, we still have a lot of these issues. Although these stereotypes are still believed to be true about women, many women are the breaking barriers and perceiving the stereotypes as untrue. They are fighting against these stereotypes and making their opinions be heard, so they can break down the wall of the stereotypes society has on women.