Alex Mouse from Fantasyland

I understand the criticisms and I agree with every one of them: A woman’s worth shouldn’t be judged by how powerful and strong she is, and just because a woman achieved a position of power it doesn’t mean all other societal issues are fixed. Class is still a big issue at the end of the day. 

But I came to the realization that every story or trope about womanhood is attacked viciously by all sides in popular conversations and this can’t be good. Stories about women are always labeled as “cliche”, “weird”, “pandering”, “not needed”, sometimes even by left-leaning people. 

Coming of age stories about women are viciously attacked as being cliche and cringy, while coming of age stories of men are natural, no matter how much more cliche and widespread they are. Plenty of female-led stories are as weakly written as many male-led stories. 

If a woman is strong and competent it’s “not realistic”, “girlboss”, “pandering”. When she’s funny and quirky she’s “ridiculous”, “unfunny”, or “too annoying”. 

Stories about women are always subject to an insane level of scrutiny, while stories about men are just allowed to exist. We are reaching a point where in every single fandom space a single message is being spread, “Stories about women are inherently bad”. This is not good.

The Brosphere and the incel movement are growing exponentially, and everyday tons of teenage boys, and more worryingly, teenage girls are being taught that a woman should always be dependent on a man, and that any woman who deviates from gender roles is bad or “just a girlboss”.

I feel like the backlash against Girlboss feminism is being used by Right wingers to brainwash more girls into thinking that their whole worth should be based on having a man by their side. Maybe this hypercriticism of girl power feminism is doing more harm than good.

And there’s the issue of representation. If every story about women creates insane amounts of backlash online, both from the Left and the Right, executives will eventually learn that maybe they should stop doing stories about women to avoid creating unnecessary culture war fights. Creators and studios do respond to incentives, including audience reactions and perceived controversy. That’s not good. 

I think that’s the problem with Feminism nowadays. Too many people want it to be too many opposite things, and to fix all other society ills. But we can’t allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Maybe feminism should be that women should have agency in their lives, either to be stay at home moms or girlbosses if they so wish.

Believe me, Girlboss Feminism can be extremely fake and pandering, but believe me, Corporate Misogyny is worse, and I fear with all this infight about women stories, and the amount of power the incel movement and the manosphere are getting, maybe that’s a possibility.

We have become so eager to deconstruct every portrayal of female power that we're forgetting that it's okay for stories to simply celebrate women being capable, independent, or heroic. Not every female protagonist has to carry the burden of perfectly representing feminist theory. So, yeah, I think girl power stories are still needed, no matter how pandering they can be.

There this quote often attributed to G. K. Chesterton that says

And I feel that the Disney version is the antithesis of this quote.

In the Disney version, the Beast starts as a very monstrous character who earned the curse due to his selfishness and pride. He's clearly broken, angry, and depressed after the curse forces him into almost complete isolation. He's so desperate that as soon as Belle appears he tries using his power to force her into loving him, almost forcing her into having a "romantic dinner" with him.

But it's only when he starts improving as a character, being more considered and kind, allowing Belle to have more freedom and autonomy, and in the end, allowing her to have back her freedom even if knowing that it would doom him to stay cursed forever, is that he truly becomes worthy of Belle's love.

Belle only starts loving the Beast when the Beast stops acting like he owns Belle's affection, when he starts respecting her as a equal, when he starts caring about her wellbeing.

I feel like this message is truly important in today's world, especially in Incel spaces, that are filled with men broken by the world but that think they deserve a woman's love based solely on that.

A thing must become lovable first before it can be loved.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland started as just an improvised fairy tale that Lewis Carroll told little Alice Liddel and her two sisters, Edith and Lorina, during a boat trip on the river Tames near Oxford, during a warm summer day.

This boat trip took place on July 4th, 1862, with some fans considering this date Alice in Wonderland Day.

However, this date is often outshined by the flashier traditional Fourth of July celebrations in America.

What if during this year, we all celebrate Alice in Wonderland Day.

So if you like me aren't from the US, and want to escape the stupid Fourth of July of the Americans, know that there's something whimsical and magical that you could be celebrating instead.

If you ARE American, but you are not feeling like celebrating Fourth of July this year due to President Trump actions and all the rise of fascism and jingoistic propaganda, know you could be celebrating this

Instead of this

Think of all the epic stories we could have of the kings of Pride Rock, to the sound of beautiful African-inspired music, and with touches of African folklore and shamanism.

In a better timeline this could have been the African Furry Version of Tolkien.

It's just a shame that Lion King 2: Simba's Pride is the only instalment of the franchise that even tries to be as epic and grandiose as the first film, even if the lower budget hinders it considerably.