Geeks & Princesses

"Disney Heroes" -- If Disney Princesses were superheroines. Art by kreugan, AKA Melissa Erickson

This week on Big Bang Theory, Bernadette, Amy and Penny played hooky to go to Disneyland. Bernadette convinced the other two to get princess makeovers. Amy was willing right away, but Penny needed a little nudge to go along. Bernadette ferociously informed them they they could not all be Cinderella, and that she was calling dibs on Cindy. Ooookay...

The end of the episode shows Howard getting home and calling out to Bernadette, who's off camera, then muttering "Please be Cinderella, please be Cinderella," while he awaits her appearance. He rips his shirt off and pantomimes riding a horse over to her when she does appear. "M'lady." *roll eyes*

Leonard greets Penny in her apartment, with her made up as Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), and she starts telling him about the day. The camera pans back to him, and he is furiously shedding his clothes, apparently overcome by her princessness. Oooookaaayyy...

Meanwhile, poor Amy (as Snow White) is lying on the couch in Leonard and Sheldon's apartment, trying to convince Sheldon to awaken her with a kiss. He seems to be the only one unmoved by all this Disney nonsense, but being Sheldon, I would expect no less.

So I'm a little confused. The girls are clearly sucked into the whole Disney Princess thing, which is not really surprising in general. But Amy especially, with her knowledge of neurobiology and human behavior, surprised me when she was taken in by it. Bernadette, too, seems level-headed and savvy enough not to be brainwashed. Penny is the sole "girly-girl" of the trio, and so I wasn't surprised when she was willing to be in on it, "I guess it would be fun to be Cinderella..." (Sorry, Penny.) What really surprised me was the guys' reactions. Well, 2/3rds of them, anyway. Howard and Leonard were clearly pleased to play the Prince to Bernadette and Penny's Princess. Have guys also been so brainwashed by Disney that women as princesses are irresistible?

But then I watched Anita Sarkeesian's first installment of her Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games: Damsels in Distress (Part 1), where she discusses the use of a damsel in distress as a common and pervasive theme in video games. Mario must rescue his Princess Peach, Link must rescue Princess Zelda, etc., etc., ad nauseum. So considering that these boys almost certainly grew up on Mario and Link, is it any surprise that, as men, they would still find the princess concept appealing? Granted, merely being dressed up as the princesses gave no indication of distress, a damsel in need of rescuing, but in each of those movies, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, the princesses were in fact "damsels in distress" who required a male protagonist to rescue them, just like in the video games that came later. As Sarkeesian points out, this plot device is ancient, with examples going back to Greek mythology, so it was definitely not invented by Walt Disney, or even the Brothers Grimm, and certainly not Shigeru Miyamoto. The princesses (or damsels) are acted upon, passive, while the heroes are actors, the ones making things happen.

Hypothesis: It seems that Disney imprints the idea of the damsel in distress on children when they are very small, then video games reinforce the idea in the young men (and women) who play them, recreating the stereotype of the weak female in each generation.

Remedy: Self-rescuing princesses, damsels in distress who are active in their own rescue, heroes who require rescuing by damsels, more leadership roles for women, and/or partnership between genders in both children's movies, video games, and in comic books, mainstream movies and television.

Bots with Boobs

Why does it have boobs? No, really -- why?

The purpose of the human breast is to provide nourishment for infant offspring. (And if you believe my husband or my dog, to act as a comfy pillow -- so nice to be useful.) A robot, being inorganic, incapable of sexual reproduction, and gender-neutral, has no need of them.

OK, so you're uncomfortable with a robot that has no gender. We like our binary gender pronouns, don't we? "It" seems impolite, so we must use "he" or "she," and if the 'bot is female, it must have breasts to visually identify its artificial gender. Right? I can follow along with that logic, I suppose.

But this thing, Femisapien (yours for a mere $100), has more than just breasts to make this less of a robot, and more of a gynoid. Oh yes! This expensive toy is feminine in other ways:

Intelligent and interactive, RS Femisapien™ speaks her own language called "emotish" which consists of gentle sounds and gestures. There is no remote required; interact with her directly and she responds to your hand gestures, touch, and sound.

"EMOTISH"??? "Gentle sounds and gestures"??? Are you [&%$@] kidding me? "She will slow pose, be your back-up singer, introduce herself, dance with you, and even blow kisses."

I found her over in the boys section of my local Toys R Us. Mostly what caught my attention was the bustiness of the robot. Then I looked it up when I got home, and found that. *sigh* The Robosapien has "Fluent international 'caveman' speech."

I have to admit, this sounds like it would be an entertaining toy. She has three different modes: Attentive, Learning and Responsive, and might be interesting for kids to play with, since she can respond to you. Read RobotsRule review of her. I think it would be funny to see what the dog thinks of her, but not $100 curious...

All this is certainly cool, but I still don't know why she's so busty! She's about 14 inches tall, and the most entertaining thing I read about her was in the PC Magazine review:

In the end, my 10-year-old daughter offered the best description and summation of this unusual and somewhat endearing entertainment bot, "I bet 90 percent of the people who will buy this will be men—very, very lonely men." 

Ten years old, people! And she gets it!!

UPDATE: Anita Saarkesian of the Feminist Frequency has also covered the fembot. You should absolutely watch that video. I remember the Heineken ad, and was horrified by it all over again.