Disneyism vs. Feminism?

Gretchen and I are of a somewhat different mind regarding the amount of media that Claire consumes. Gretchen believes that we should severely limit the number of movies and cartoons that Claire watches. I think that the judicious use of cartoons and DVDs is a great way to keep Claire occupied during those times when Gretchen and I can't give her our undivided attention.

However, something we both agree on is that the current offering of mainstream Kid's movies (Robots, Finding Nemo, Shrek) is much more preferable to the old movies. I find myself making excuses for the presentations of femininity in movies like Snow White because of the "My-prince-will-come" aspects of the main characters. Snow White shows the dwarfs how to clean their house for sh**ts sake! Not exactly a role model that I should encourage my daughter to emulate.

Movies like Monsters Inc and/or Finding Nemo still adhere to the tried-and-true Disney model of the missing mother or father figure. Nemo is definitely more guilty of this offense, but makes up in kid empowerment. However, these more modern movies show female characters in a much more powerful role, regardless of the actions of off-screen male characters.

To make a long story short, I have found that I would rather show Claire movies like Robots. I would rather mitigate an occasional fart joke instead of trying to explain away major plot points such as why Snow White is pining away for some dude who is in the movie for a total of 30 seconds.