Fabulously Wicked

During our trip to Disney World, I found it interesting that we saw not one, but two shows that pitted Mickey Mouse against Maleficent. A decidedly unbalanced match, which in any realistic scenario would have Maleficent easily emerging as the victor - but of course Mickey always wins. The reason for this, other than the obvious need for a kid-friendly happy ending, is that the actual conflict represented is the power of imagination versus the power of - well, I guess evil imagination, nightmares, cynicism, whatever you want to call it. In one show Mickey and his buddies, including a recently converted Donald Duck, fended off Maleficent with a repeated chant of "Dreams come true." Sheesh. I think I preferred the cynic Donald, with his hearty response of "Phooey!" to all nonsensical talk of dreams. Maybe I just like the word phooey.

But that saccharine coating is simply part of the Disney atmosphere, and I don't mind it so much as long as my kids are aware that dreams coming true includes more than just princesses finding their handsome princes. What Maleficent's role sparked, instead, was an exploration of the predominance of female villains in Disney movies. This isn't something Disney invented, of course. Fairy tales are rife with evil mothers, stepmothers and queens. Why? And perhaps more importantly, is this a problem? After all, having strong female characters doesn't mean having only good female characters, and in fact having only angelic, uncomplicated females is as much a problem as having only monstrous, uncomplicated females. Of course there's the issue that these females are often defeated by strong manly heroes, rescuing their various damsels in distress. I'd definitely like to see more females pitted against females.

All that aside, though - the real question is, what sort of female villains are these? Multi-dimensional, or flat cliches that only further promote gender stereotypes?

( A panoramic view of female villainy )