Minnie Mouse Pre-Makeover
Barneys NY has decided to partner with Disney and tell us an old-fashioned fashion centric cartoon makeover. And where better to go than Disney Land! Executives jumped a plane and headed to Happily Ever After Land to do some research for turning Minnie into a high fashion model worthy of high end designers this holiday season. At no point, and this is where I must pause to exhale and wipe a flabberasted look off my face, did anyone with enough conviction surround it to risk losing a job say“We are out of our minds giving much beloved, Minnie the Supermodel Makeover. This is rah-dick-ulous.”
For my purposes, it’s awesome. Never before has it been so clearly laid out the extremes models and especially women are currently expected to achieve in order to be validated as beautiful and worthy in our society. Just take a look at the “after” results:
The “New and Improved” Minnie Mouse
It’s all so confusing. We’re told fashion should be accessible and affordable yet most of it is kept on the highest shelf just out of reach. It takes teams of people to research and produce these images. It takes hoards of tall beautiful women to sift through and find the one that’s able to stretch and little higher and suck it in a little longer than the rest. And then we label her as ‘Super’ and hope she’s able to find a team to support and keep her there if only for a season or two.
I keep sharing on this topic abecause I know, I was not alone in my modeling experience and there are those currently having a similar one that need to know they are not alone. It is hurtful to place such expectations on vulnerable psyches. Not to mention that most women look at these images every day. It’s important to reminded all of us that even the models portrayed in the images are struggling to fit the mold. Us women are not alone.
The “New and Improved” Daisy Duck
The mold for beauty will eventually change. It is already showing cracks as people continue to voice their frustrations with the current unattainable image. And one day, someone will come up with a plan to turn the entire thing on it’s head. I wonder who that person is. Could it be you?
What do you think of Minnie’s makeover?
