Bratz: the Movie — A Young Girl’s Guide to Feminism
I’ve been a feminist for as long as remember. I have always known I can achieve anything I work hard for, and nothing regardless of gender, race, religion, etc. should stand in my way. With that in mind, I wanted to have someone to look up to that believed in themselves as much as I believed in me. A person who had faith in their intelligence, wit, and resilience regardless of what others say about her; I faced a lot of backlash as I was growing up for being bold in my assertion especially when I was wildly incorrect. So, I tried to find myself represented through the characters in the media I consumed, as other girls seemed to, to no avail. I’m a black latina girl who has wanted to be an engineer since fourth grade. That storyline barely existed in real life, let alone in the cartoons and Disney Originals I caught on friday nights.
My mom was precocious in the media I consumed when I was younger anyway, specifically because of the lack of feminist narratives (to this day I still haven’t seen Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, or Aladdin to name a few). I guess I can’t speak to the films I haven’t seen, but I haven’t heard great things. I presume it was an intelligent choice to bar me from these movies whilst my mind was utmost impressionable — due to their high concentration of women who “must be saved by a man” in order to live.
I was more often than not steered from not-so feminist friendly content throughout my childhood. This even spilled into the toys I played with. My parents generally didn’t buy me dolls. Even with the pro working female theme of Barbie, I really didn’t have much Matel merchandise aside from the Barbie fashion books I begged for on my birthday. My parents were just not big fans of the outlandish body standards and outward alignment with eurocentric features. Opting for the historically oriented American Girl Dolls in their more childlike form and a few customized dolls who looked just like me. In retrospect, I do thank my parents for not surrounding me with white dolls with perky plastic boobs. I think that's confusing for any seven year old, especially a black one.
So as you can correctly assume, there was not a Bratz doll in sight during my early childhood. They are traditional feminist disasters. For starters, the dolls are targeted towards young girls yet they have unrealistically large lips adorned with a full face of make-up (brows snatched to the Gods I must admit), hourglass figures, and a ridiculous amount of sex appeal for a child’s toy. My mom was not a fan.
As you can imagine my mom was not thrilled when I showed up to my house after a summer day of fun at our local library with a copy of Bratz: The Movie. I had no idea what Bratz was at the time, I simply saw a black girl on the cover of a film at my very caucasian library, and checked it out.
Although the film was met with skepticism from the Williams family, I don’t think I have ever seen such an empowering yet engaging children's movie since that day. These four best friends are female warriors that the film follows as they navigate the absolute destruction that is high school.
Jade, Sasha, Cloe, and Yasmin make my list of feminist icons for a number of reasons. Jade is a fashionista; she loves style and wearing the chicest clothes to school, but she’s also a chemistry genius. Although her parents do not approve of her style choices and pressure her to excel in school, she recognizes the importance of finding a balance between the two. Jade smashes the oh-so typical female stereotype (in media and in real life) that women can only prioritize beauty or brains, not both. Sasha like the rest of them has a, “passion for fashion” and uses it to uplift the self-confidence of her BFFs. So often women are plastered with the narrative that we dress up for others, especially men. It was heartwarming to see Sasha do what she loves simply because it makes her and her best friends happy.
Cloe brought in diversity to the film with a single mom and a lower socioeconomic status. Movies of this target audience don’t usually represent a group of people that is so prominent within our society. Those of us who don’t have two parents, or don’t make as much money in comparison to those around us. These girls need to be represented in accessible film too. Beyond that, they need to be represented in a way that doesn’t demean them and doesn’t allow their experience to define them. Yasmin, the final member of the group, brings her hispanic roots into the film. Yet, it was refreshing to see a movie about a latina girl that isn’t solely about the latina experience. At the same time, she is outwardly quirky and unapologetically herself despite how much she doesn’t fit in.
Beyond the characters themselves, the film as a whole does a better job at accurately portraying women, and their stories, than many current adult blockbusters. Bratz: The Movie doesn’t have a single male-character arc in the entire film. The men in the story are fleeting and don’t have much impact on the leading ladies’ pivotal decisions. The women also take up a wide range of roles from athletics, to sciences, music, and more. All of the girls really stress the need for versatility despite the presence of cliques within their school.
The entire film is a celebration of female identity. Recognizing that all women are different with our own interests, talents, and ideas, and that a perfect world lies where we are actively appreciating all of them instead of rejecting people that are different from you.
There are so many films where the women barely have personalities of their own. La La Land, for example, did a horrendous job allowing the female lead to exist in a presence of importance on her own. I understand it’s intentions in being a grandiose musical love story, but the film missed a few marks. I won’t go off on a tangent and take away from the center of this piece, which is the fabulousness of Bratz: The Movie. But what I will add is that Mia, the female lead, is a hard working girl. Acting seems to be her raison d’etre… Until she decides to bag it all to follow her man on tour? Even when she decides to hop back to it when Sebastian, the male lead, extends his tour she doesn’t find success until he comes back and pushes her to become her “best self”. I had trouble resonating with this film because it really pushed the female dependency agenda. I could name ten films on the spot that follow this same arc. Could you name a single film where the roles are reversed?
Sadly it’s not incredibly common to find complex female characters in movies. So it’s extremely important to celebrate the ones that do. Bratz puts itself on the map for celebrating diversity, confidence, self-esteem, intelligence, overcoming adversity, and dealing with anxiety.
Though we were all skeptical of the movie before viewing, I couldn’t name a single title from my childhood that screams ‘I LOVE MYSELF!!’ more than the theme song “Bratitude” (talk about reclaiming a slur) from my favorite childhood movie!
