Growing up Disney; Growing up Different: Cripping the Cartoons; Glitching the Games

So I recently watched Wreck-it-Ralph for the first time. And I loved it! I'm not gonna lie I actually cried! Finally a character that looks like me! She's artsy, she likes powerful cars, she doesn't wear dresses comfortably, she knows what she wants, and she's glitchy. She has "pixlexia" (Does mean dyslexia or seizures?)

Some of you have heard me say that comparing mermaids to little cripple girls, who trade their voice for painful working legs is all kinds of wrong. It's still wrong but deciding to keep your glitch and still be a winner and leader is a little bit better.

But it got me thinking, which according to both Vanellope and Lefou from Beauty and the Beast is "dangerous". What's with these sexist ablest game characters? Disney can make a movie about a glitchy five-year-old video game character, which is a big step up from The Little Mermaid or Finding Nemo, but seriously, a princess?! Where is the character who doesn't walk? That isn't sexy? Who has no control over her abs?

Dear Sims, why is it that I can be  queer in your game, (albeit gender binary and  patriarchal) but I can't have my chair? Why is it that I get more points for hiring a nanny and working, than I do for making it work? Why can't I practice making it work more like it would in my real life?

And why is okay for Dr. Xavier to be disabled because he was disabled in battle? Is it also more okay because he has a superpower to overcome it? Why can't we have any girls who are supercrips?

I want a power chair in a game. I want a joystick with an onboard computer. I want heatseeking missiles. I went damage resistant rubber tires, and a seat that doubles as a flotation device. I want 007 theme music. I want the whole 9 yards, and I want to look like me while doing it.


And I want a lot of little lost boys and girls trailing behind me when I do it. After we've freed them from the pirates (the mean and bad ones who aren't like us SU kids who learned from Alison Kafer). But these kids should look a lot more like Hook than Pan, having had their own battles with crocodiles, or perhaps even been cast off in their prams by nursery maids who weren't ready to deal with the fact that they were just a little bit different.

Luckily, I've reconnected with a friend who is a blogger and a gamer. She's much more talented than I am. Punchdrunk Games is awesome because they have female lead characters. But after you finish Regicide, I want a game,  Featuring us, and our awesomeness! In all our glorious colors. The Glitchy Gamer Girls.

Cinema & Theology Response #1 (Pan’s Labyrinth): “What makes you so sure the baby is a male?”

Pan’s Labyrinth is a beautiful film. It’s cinematically gorgeous and has a lot of imagination. As a fan of Rick Riordan, I especially like the references to the Greek pantheon and that regular kids might have a connection to superordinate powers. The revolutionaries often have rather poignant quotes about their condition and their perspective on life.

For example, “Capitán Vidal: You could have obeyed me!

Doctor: But captain, to obey - just like that - for obedience's sake... without questioning... That's something only people like you do. “

Also,

“Carmen: You're getting older, and you'll see that life isn't like your fairy tales. The world is a cruel place. And you'll learn of that, even if it hurts.”

But what are we actually saying in the majority of this movie? What are we saying about the value of lesser people? About who has power, and why? Yes Ofelia has power, and so does Carmen, but not the kind I want. I don’t want the Captain’s violence either Ofelia only has power in fairy tales. In magical adventures where she gets to use her intelligence and strong moral spirit. And then she gets punished for it, in the real world, even by her own mother. It would have been very sad if in her maturity, she would be jaded like Mercedes: “No. But when I was a little girl, I did. I believed in a lot of things I don't believe anymore”.

Her mother has the power to create children, but only at the expense of her own life. Indeed, she is only valued as long as the child can be saved. Ofelia believes she has the power to make her brother a prince in exchange for saving their mother. Even if their mother had survived, does Ofelia have that authority? In any case, she is giving up some of her authority to him. What we saying when we only give women generative or sacrificial power? Even worse, when it’s a 10-year-old girl, who is not allowed to believe in fairy tales. She gets the beautiful palace, but only when she dies first. Is this real, is this her imagination, or is this some definition of the afterlife? Why is this somehow a darker impression for me than the end of the Chronicles of Narnia series? Is it because it only happens to a girl, and the boy is spared? Or is it because this story collapses the coronation at the end of the first book with the end of the last book where we found out the main characters twist of fate? At what point will we be able to say to our brokenness:

 “No. He won't even know your name”.

When will we actually mean it as truth and not as a cover up?

 

 

Discussion question: In Pan’s Labyrinth, What are we saying about the value of lesser people? About who has power, and why?