“girls girls girls” — Merida, 2022 ⚢

I know I sound like a broken record, but I don’t really care:

Merida is a canon lesbian, whether Disney and Pixar intended it or not.

The playlist Disney made explicitly for Merida’s internal character contains multiple love songs exclusively towards women and female-aligned people, and those are the only love songs on her entire playlist, the ones that refer exclusively to women and female-aligned people. This quite literally makes her a canon lesbian, as it is canon material made by Disney regarding her and her character.

If it weren’t for Disney Records making that playlist that contained those songs for her, it wouldn’t even be important. However, this is the company that owns her that made this playlist for her. They read those lyrics from multiple songs about expressing romantic love and attraction towards women and female-aligned people and they agreed that those lyrics accurately portrayed Merida and her character overall. As a lesbian whom has loved and cherished Merida for over 2 years straight, I have a right to be this happy and ecstatic about it.

With the addition of the May 2022 Disney and Pixar-approved sequel to Brave in the form of a YA novel written by Maggie Stiefvater titled “Bravely” showcasing Merida’s explicit non-attraction to men throughout the entirety of the book, implying Merida’s physical attraction to her best friend named Leezie, Merida finding comfort amongst the company of women, and finally confirming Merida as canonically nblw by giving her a nonbinary shapeshifting love interest and having her state that she does not care for his male appearance and that all she really cares about is whom he is outside of his physical forms: an entity barely made of air, no body, no mouth, no eyes, and no gender.

All of this, by definition, makes Merida a canon lesbian. She is canonically nblw with absolutely no attraction towards men whatsoever whilst pertaining romantic and physical attraction towards women.

Granted, this doesn’t excuse Disney’s history and continuation of blatant homophobia nor their general disregard for their lgbtq+ fanbase and lgbtq+ children who desperately need representation and validation, but it does give lesbian and ace lesbian children, teens, young adults, and adults still coming to terms with their acespec, lesbian sexuality and identities representation and someone to see themselves in. 

I just wish I had Merida whilst I was growing up, but either way she’s here with me now and I’m forever grateful that I am represented by Merida’s existence. Not saying she’s the only ace lesbian rep I have, but she’s the most personal for me. I love her with all my heart, and I am beyond proud and so happy she got the respect she deserves in Bravely, which came out this year and is a very good read. Her sexuality wasn’t erased by the author, and if anything it was all the more solidified by adding a nonbinary love interest to Merida’s already canon lesbianism. I’m proud to say the lesbian community has their princess, that Merida is a character for us.

I know about 90% of the content on my blog is really shouting it to the mountains, but I don’t care. I’m elated! I love Merida so much. Ever since I resonated with and connected with her on screen I had the headcanon of her being a lesbian, but now that I know it’s real and solidified, this is the most freeing feeling in the world!

and NO i don't mean a scrapped alternative scenario where she actually picks a suitor from her movie (which would in turn defeat the whole purpose of her character). NO i don't mean her being aesthetically attracted to the body and build of a young boy her age and then realizing she didn't like him whatsoever shortly after (and ever since then NEVER entertaining the idea of “finding the right man” for herself because she knew they'd all bore her, anger her, and fail to give her what she wanted and needed) in Bravely. NO i don't mean Feradach from Bravely because Feradach is a genderless entity only inhabiting the bodies of multiple genders, including hermaphroditic forms, aka he's a nonbinary shapeshifter. NO i don't mean that literal millisecond of Merida smiling at Macintosh in Once Upon A Time, when with context she was thankful he finally stopped treating her with gross misogyny for once.

I mean an ACTUAL, GENUINE MOMENT WHERE SHE SHOWED ATTRACTION TOWARDS A MALE. That's right, you can't. Because she's never had one and she was created for that specific reason: to NOT have her identity nor her sexuality centered around men nor romance in relation to men. Yet she's canonically nblw with absolutely no attraction towards men sexually nor romantically whilst pertaining romantic and physical attraction towards women, which is the literal definition of a lesbian. 🤨🤨

You have no idea how many “has Disney said anything about this?” and “If Disney hasn't outright said anything then I can't take this as the truth” responses I've gotten towards my posts (especially my pinned) when there's so much canon proof of Merida being a lesbian in all of the properties and pieces of media that Disney themselves owns that they don't have to say anything.

Not to mention y'all use her comphet as a means to say she's straight in Bravely when her love interest is literally canonically non-binary???

Us: Merida is a canon lesbian

Them: “But you failed to consider where there is a brief mentioning of Merida’s childhood in Bravely where she was attracted to a BOY. 🤓”

Meanwhile, what Merida actually said and meant: “For a short period of time during my childhood I was attracted to the body and build of a boy but the more he spoke the more I realized I wasn't really attracted to HIM at all. Ever since then, I haven't gone out of my way to find the right man for myself someday because I knew they'd all anger me, bore me, and fail to give me what I really want. It is for this exact reason why I do not care for Feradach’s male appearances whatsoever, and I really only care for who he is internally: a genderless, bodiless being made of air whom is kind, curious, and loving. That is who I love, no matter what physical form he takes. I love Feradach internally, not externally. His physical forms don't matter to me, only his truest and happiest form made of air because that is his true self. Which is exactly why I am aiming to free him from his curse of having to wear the human faces and bodies of those he unwillingly brings ruin to. I am aiming to restore him back to his original, happiest form: a feeling, an internal bliss made of air, the one I love.”

Her creator left the implications of love for Merida in the future ambiguous, explicitly never specifying the male gender when talking about how she wanted Merida to find love of her own choosing and to not be forced into something she didn't want to do; Merida explicitly didn't specify the male gender either when she said “My mother believes that we should be free to write our own stories, follow our hearts, and find love in our own time” in Brave.

With the addition of Merida having a canon nonbinary love interest in her canon sequel to Brave, Bravely, confirming her to be nblw, and with the addition of her homoromantic and homoerotic undertones throughout the book towards her best friend Leezie and her playlist created by Disney containing songs where she sings from her heart including love songs exclusively towards women and female-aligned people, it's really hard to believe that Merida is a “subtextual” lesbian.

Is Merida explicitly saying outright that she's a lesbian? No, but she's explicitly opposing and defying heterosexuality and heterosexual practices such as marriage in her universe, explicitly disinterested in romantic and/or physical attraction towards men altogether. She explicitly showcases heavy sapphic undertones towards her gal pal Leezie. She explicitly expresses her love for her nonbinary lover, explicitly disregarding the male human body in which he is inhabiting altogether, stating that she doesn't care about what physical form he takes because she cares for who he is internally: the genderless, air-like being merely inhabiting human bodies. She is showing her lesbianism, not telling it.

Merida isn't lesbian-coded, she's just a closeted lesbian character (+ this isn't meant to hate on anyone calling her lesbian-coded, because yes Disney has never outright stated her sexuality [because they're raging homophobes] BUT they still very much own every piece of media that has all of the canon confirmation of her being a lesbian so it is still canon regardless of whether or not they state anything.)

“Merida is such a pick-me girl”

“Merida would be a radfem”