Was the Minnie Mouse Makeover a Good Idea?
YES
Last month marked the 35th celebration of Women’s History Month in the United States since 1987. Every year, March was designated to commemorate and encourage the study and observance of pivotal women in American history.
On Jan. 25, 2022, Disneyland Paris promulgated the debut of Minnie Mouse's fashionista navy blue pantsuit with black polka dots, matching pumps, and signature bow as a tribute. However, by Jan. 26, the look generated uproar on media as some shared criticism and others shared admiration.
Some argued Minnie's change of clothing was a projection of society's misogynistic ideals of women needing to eliminate femininity to be perceived as powerful, while others commented how they think "it looks good on her,'' and how everyone should "just leave her be and let her be allowed, proud, and free to wear what she wants to wear.''
However, amidst all the varying opinions, I believe we all can agree that Minnie Mouse's pantsuit is a symbol of progression in women's rights and the breakage of gender norms. On Monday, May 28, 1923, the U.S Attorney General announced it was legal for women to wear pants. Before this crucial landmark was a time characterized by prominent women activists being arrested for wearing "male garments". Minnie's pants symbolize the arduous flight women in history had to go through to legally wear trousers. It also illustrates the further progression to make women and men equivalent in status.
Amelia Bloomer worked to change women’s clothing styles.
For instance, in 1849, Amelia Bloomer popularized bloomers, women's loose-fitting trousers, made to relieve women from the restrictive popular dress that was often harmful to one's health, as the bloomer offered an unconfining option. In the early 1850s, it became an emblem of women's rights as staple figures of the women's suffragist movement like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony wore them everywhere spreading, their progressive thoughts. Due to these renowned figures, bloomers eventually became known as freedom dresses. Therefore, it makes sense Disneyland Paris wants to pay homage to WHM for using trousers as it was a significant symbol in the women's suffrage movement. Even more shockingly, it was not until 2013 that Paris, France legalized women to wear pants, yielding yet another reason why stylist Stella McCartney chose the pantsuit over her red dress.
Stella McCartney has designed Minnie Mouse's very first pantsuit, and it's gorgeous 😍 #DisneylandParis30 pic.twitter.com/jKSckBji36
— Disneyland Paris EN (@DisneyParis_EN) January 25, 2022
Additionally, although Minnie's red and white polka-dotted dress is iconic, confining Minnie to only dresses, sends a restrictive message to young viewers that women must dress femininely to be accepted and heard by society. Just last year, Charter Day School, a K-8 public charter in Leland, North Carolina, claimed that their enforcement of girls wearing skirts promoted "chivalry" and "traditional values". However, students from the school say they felt the exact opposite of safe and cherished as girls commented how they were shamed if their skirt was too short, or uncomfortable when being corrected by teachers to sit in a ladylike position. Galen Sherwin, senior staff at the ACLU Women's Rights Project, even points out how these enforcements reinforce "binary sex categories, harming students who are transgender, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming." Thus, illustrating how Minnie's pantsuit breaks gender norms while acting as a symbol for women's rights.
However, some Twitter commenters criticized such breaking of gender norms as someone exclaimed, "Wait until Cinderella’s wish is to transition!" and "Will [Minnie] get a bobbed haircut and a handgun?"
“Women no longer need to wear the pants to wield power or dress like men to compete with them.”
Undoubtedly, Minnie's outfit honors WHM. Minnie wearing a pantsuit and being perceived as masculine may be hilarious, but it goes deeper, as the act of her wearing trousers symbolize the onerous fight women activists took to make women and men equate to each other politically and socially, while also breaking gender norms. As Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, a fashion historian and writer for the Washington Post said, “Women no longer need to wear the pants to wield power or dress like men to compete with them. Pants are an option, but they are not the only option. Maybe it’s not Minnie’s wardrobe that the conservative media is worried about, but the possibility that, if Minnie can wear pants, nothing is stopping Mickey from donning a dress.”
KAITLYN MURRAY
NO
When debating Minnie Mouse wearing a pantsuit, we need to get rid of the idea that femininity means you are not powerful. The artists replaced her iconic red and white dress with a blue and black pantsuit in the name of female empowerment. It is ugly, and... frankly, unneeded.
I am glad some people think it is a symbol of female empowerment and progression, but couldn’t they have at least kept the iconic red and white? I am a girl, and I think you can be a strong leader and wear a dress. I do not think we should keep upholding this idea that you cannot be feminine and powerful. It is implying that being female and traditionally feminine somehow makes you weak, which does the opposite of the message being sent.
“Empowering women with 2D pantsuits is fine and all, but no real progress is done if there are still deep-rooted misogynistic ideas that influenced that change in the first place.”
We have media that proves this idea already. Consider the movie “Legally Blonde”. In that movie, Elle, a traditionally feminine girl who loves pink and fashion gets broken up with because her boyfriend believes she is too girly and not serious enough. She then pursues becoming a lawyer and changing her values, before realizing in the end that she can be feminine and serious, that they are not interchangeable, and she does not need her ex’s opinion to prove that. That movie sends a clear message about female empowerment: you can be “girly” and still do remarkable things. The Minnie Mouse design attempts to uplift women, but it undoes the progress done by other media like “Legally Blonde”.
The Minnie Mouse design was unnecessary because you do not need to eliminate femininity to make women seem more powerful, but it was also a bad design choice. Minnie Mouse’s color palette is iconic, and the blue and black palette is just... jarring and unfamiliar. I understand some people want to be positive about it because it genuinely makes them feel better, which is great, but it indicates some bigger issues about how society views women and their traditional gender expression that we need to address and deconstruct.
Empowering women with 2D pantsuits is fine and all, but no real progress is done if there are still deep-rooted misogynistic ideas that influenced that change in the first place.
MAKAYLA BLANTON
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Minnie Mouse trades iconic dress for a pantsuit. Not everyone's a fan.