Ever since my kid could say, "I wuv Sweeping Beauwty" she's been getting the strident friendly mom-with-a-women's-studies-background blather about how the Disney princesses should just save themselves and why are they so passive? I came down as pro-Mulan early on, which led to some discussions about how girls have historically been excluded and isn't that weird and that's why Mulan had to pretend she was a boy to fight in the army. As a result, my kid now claims sexual equality is measured by the fact that girls can fight in battles. Sigh.
But look, Disney has had a long legacy of being not-so-nice to chicks, and this letter from 1938 is an interesting example, via boing boing. Miss Ford got turned down for animator training school because she was female. I guess if we look at the stationary, it's clear a woman's purpose is to be leered at by seven creepy, dirty little guys, not for the tough man's work of drawing shit. Even the woodland creatures agree.
