First thing’s first, if you haven’t listened to Cara Delevingne’s hilarious conversation with RuPaul on his rip roaringly entertaining podcast, What’s the Tee? With Michelle Visage, then discreetly put in your ear buds now. From dating – “I’d rather have sex than go out now” – to orgasms – “I find it quite difficult to receive pleasure and love and things like that, so I love to give” – it’s a no holds barred romp through sexual fluidity and love. And it all leads back to her childhood.
Films were “the thing that brought [her] up”, but also part of the reason why she “never really wanted to accept [her] sexuality”, according to the model-turned-actor. “I was like, ‘Disney princesses all love men. That’s the way it is, and I’m not going to be a princess if I don’t, you know what I mean?’” When Visage opined that Disney “could make a big difference in this world” by breaking out of the heteronormative character box, Delevingne wholeheartedly agreed and shared that she has been teaching her young cousins about gender fluidity.
“Disney is in the business of fantasies, and fantasies have to do with unattainable things,” noted RuPaul. The princess-as-role-model is a point of contention that women are starting to try and change from within the film sphere, however. Before taking on the role of Jasmin in Guy Richie’s retelling of Aladdin, Vogue cover star Naomi Scott was adamant she had to bring the 1992 character into 2019 on her on her terms. “I saw her as a young woman, not a teenager, with a mature strength that can cut you down,” says Scott in the April issue. “So, I said to them, ‘Just to let you know, I want to play her strong, and if that’s not what you’re looking for, that’s OK, but it’s not for me.’”
The “woke” makeover the creators of Toy Story 4 – which is part of the Pixar franchise, not Disney – have given Bo Peep shows that there is a long way to go to bring the lands far, far away into modern day society. Bo might have gone “badass” – in the sense that she’s wearing a (still corseted) blue jumpsuit instead of a (tightly corseted) ballgown, and has her shepherdess’s crook slung across her back instead of in hand to ensnare passing men – but she remains slim, blond and blue-eyed and plays a love interest. When Bo tells Woody, “Sometimes change can be good” in response to her worldly adventures outside the playroom, it doesn’t resonate as it should.
As the superhero film franchises sit up, take note and implement change – with female-led blockbusters such as Wonder Woman and Black Panther breaking box office records – cartoons are lagging behind. And as Delevingne shows, fantasy films aren’t just disposable entertainment. Children remember.
