VID - ***Flawless - Disney Princesses

[kiki_miserychic]

vid title: ***Flawless
music: Beyoncé featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's We should all be feminists
source: Disney Princesses movies (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Brave, and Frozen)
duration: 4:11
Disney Princesses Featured: Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, Anna, Elsa...
notes: I could write notes to fill a novel, but I can't, so ask anything you'd like.
summary: We woke up like this.

download: streaming video
100mb avi via mediafire
tumblr
ao3

Your challengers are a young group from Houston
Welcome Beyoncé, Lativia, Nina, Nicky, Kelly, and Ashley
The Hip-Hop Rappin'
'Girls TYME'

I'm out that H-town coming coming down
I'm coming down, drippin' candy on the ground
H, H-Town, Town, I'm coming down
Coming, coming down, dripping candy on the ground

I know when you were little girls
You dreamt of being in my world
Don't forget it, don't forget it
Respect that, bow down bitches (Crown!)
I took some time to live my life
But don't think I'm just his little wife
Don't get it twisted, get it twisted
This my shit, bow down bitches
Bow down bitches, bow bow down bitches (Crown)
Bow down bitches, bow bow down bitches (Crown)
H-Town vicious
H, H-Town vicious
I'm so crown crown, bow down bitches

I'm out that H, town, coming coming down
I'm coming down, drippin' candy on the ground

H, H-town town
I'm coming down
Coming, coming down
Drippin' candy on the ground

We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, 'You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise you will threaten the man.' Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support. But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors – not for jobs or for accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are. Feminist: the person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.

You wake up, flawless
Post up, flawless
Ridin' round in it, flawless
Flossin' on that, flawless
This diamond, flawless
My diamond, flawless
This rock, flawless
My rock, flawless
I woke up like this
I woke up like this
We flawless, ladies tell 'em
I woke up like this
I woke up like this
We flawless, ladies tell 'em
Say I look so good tonight
Goddamn, goddamn
Say I look so good tonight
Goddamn, goddamn, goddamn

Momma taught me good home training
My daddy taught me how to love my haters
My sister told me I should speak my mind
My man made me feel so goddamn fine, I'm flawless!

You wake up, flawless
Post up, flawless
Riding round in it, flawless
Flossing on that, flawless
This diamond, flawless
My diamond, flawless
This rock, flawless
My rock, flawless
I woke up like this
I woke up like this
We flawless, ladies tell 'em
I woke up like this
I woke up like this
We flawless, ladies tell 'em
Say I look so good tonight
Goddamn, goddamn
Say I look so good tonight
Goddamn, goddamn, goddamn

The Judges give champion Skeleton Crew 4 Stars
A perfect score
And the challenger Girls TYME receives, 3 stars
Skeleton Crew, champions once again
Congratulations, we'll see you next week

Comments

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

OMG, you just posted, and it's already blocked for me (US) on YT. I'''m d'loading as we speak, so I'll be back once I've enjoyed it :)

Thanks for posting!!!! (I already heard so much about it :)

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

Wow, I have goosebumps! This is everything I was promised and MORE!!!

(I have a strong feeling I'll be emailing you soon to ask to use it :)

<3

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I'm trying to get it back up on youtube... :)

[obsessive24.livejournal.com]

Blocked in the UK too. Fuck you, YouTube. Thank boobies for downloads and the VVC livestream! I was grinning all the way watching it because it is put together so incredibly well, the parallels and carried motion are a joy to behold.

Very glad to read that it was chosen for in-depth. Need to come back to ask you questions after I've watched it some more times. The thing that struck me off the cuff, though, was that I got quite a cynical tone from the RL girls at the end. As in, Disney has started to push the empowering narrative and a new generation of girls is absorbing that party line as readily as the previous generation absorbed the party line of that time. The product on the shelf may have changed its spots, but the method of selling remains the same. I'm not sure if it's just me reading my own cynicism into it.

[elipie.livejournal.com]

Hi! I just wanted to respond and say that's not how I originally read the ending, but I find your interpretation to be fascinating. Definitely want to rewatch the vid with this in mind.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

Another one really liking your reading. And maybe sharing your cynicism? I think I'm too old to see princess outfits and rooms all in pink as empowering, So, in a way, I feel like it's both a step back (in terms of reintroducing the extreme girliness) and a pointing out of limitations where even the new freedom is carefully curtailed?

I can't evaluate the technical aspects like you (or kiki) can, but the cuts from one film to the other with the exact same movements were amazing. It did make me think of some of the stuff recently about limited faces for girls/women in animation? Like, how much of the parallels are ideological and how much are technical?

This is such a rich text, and I love the way the visuals and music/vocals are both parallel and in countermovement. I'll have to watch it a few more times, and I can't wait to hear what in depth vid review discussed.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Thank you and ask away. I'm all for viewer readings being valid, just as valid as what the vidder intended. I certainly intended the ending to be cynical in the sense of no matter what females do, there will always be Ed McMahon there to tell them they're not good enough just like with Girls TYME. They can put a woman on the dollar bill, but then it'd only be worth 77 cents.

I think Disney tries. And fails most of the time, but something is better than nothing and I had to pick and choose what parts to love and what parts to shove into a dark corner. That's with Disney and the viewers.

[ghost_lingering]

Oh gosh, I need to rewatch this quite a few more times until I've got coherence again, but I want to make this comment as a placeholder until I've sorted out my thoughts: this is fabulous. For me it's also timely, because I've recently watched or rewatched a few Disney films that have left me both frustrated and charmed, not always in equal measure. More later after a few rounds of watching and thinking.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

I'm so right there with you. I watched every Disney Princess movie during that freak snow storm in December/January and had much the same feeling.

[kuwdora.livejournal.com]

Bow down bitches.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

YYYYAAAASSSSSS

[grammarwoman]

I think I blathered at you enough during the in-depth review, so consider this a shorter version: That was fucking amazing. :D

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

LOL, thanks.

[chaila.livejournal.com]

Ahhh this is amazing! Excuse the obvious joke, but goddamn this really is fucking flawlessly edited. As always with your vids, it's so densely edited and put together, that I'm sure I'm missing a ton. But to me, while there are critical elements (particularly in the way Disney retells the stories with the same elements and the limitations of those narrative roles, and the shaming of sex, which gah the way you edited all those parallels is amazing), the vid is more about how girls see more in these stories than perhaps is always intended. Or that there's more to those roles than the label "princess" allows for. They aren't happily ever after romances, but stories of girls going after what they want, busting down doors and picking up arms, saving each other and their lovers and themselves. I love the lines and parallels you draw, visually and thematically, as the diversity in the stories increases, racial diversity and also diversity in the types of stories these women are in, diversity in the kinds of things they want. You can put these characters in a romance, but girl fans know better, or will bust them out. <3

Which, I suppose, is also a little cynical; Disney will widen the tent, just a little, to keep inculcating young girls with princess culture. But princesses have kind of bows that have arrows now, so I think we're winning.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[cyborganize.livejournal.com]

I just left a comment and then I saw your comment and I would just like to say that I love it! You're a smarty.

[darlulu.livejournal.com]

So fucking brilliant!

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[deej.livejournal.com]

WHOAWHOAWHOA. Whooooaaa. This vid smacked me over the head. It's an outrageously powerful piece of work. So much to love here!! Pocahontas at the first round of "Bow down bitches"—WOW. The entirety of the We Should All Be Feminists speech... damn, this transformative work should be added to the curriculum. Especially the way you cut girls aspiring towards marriage; girls as competitors for men; girls not encouraged to be sexual beings. It's amazing how much of the same themes you drew from all these Disney flicks. All over the imagery at 2:25 when the beat kicks in, and the female silhouettes at 3:15. Yasss. Very much wish I could have heard the in-depth discussion for this.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

OMG, POCAHONTAS. YAS.

Thank you. :)

[spankulert.livejournal.com]

Enjoyed this muchly in the livestream. Now dl so I can snuggle it forever and ever ♥

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

YAY, :)

[tehlime.livejournal.com]

This vid is unbelievable. The amount of work that must have gone into it really, really shows because it is completely flawless. The quick cuts and parallels, the use of female villains over the "We should all be feminists" verse? To say nothing of the ending, which is gorgeous! I can not get over how amazing this vid is. ♥

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[jehnt.livejournal.com]

1. THIS IS FLAWLESS

2. okay, it could have used more Mulan. Sue me, I think ALMOST EVERYTHING should use more Mulan. There is one thing on this earth that doesn't need more Mulan, and that is Mulan.

3. I may have a Mulan problem. Sorry my comment is more about my Mulan problem than your excellent vid.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

There's actually some Mulan vids that have come out of Festivids. You should check them out. I think there's 2.

Real Intention of your vid

[(Anonymous)]

I really like your Vid and so I decided to make it as apart of my school project. Now it would be very interesting to hear what the real intention of you was to make this Vid and if you do criticize Disney movies or not. I would be very happz about an answer >(

Re: Real Intention of your vid

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

LJ stopped sending me notifications, so there's almost no chance you'll see this, anon. But I both criticize and celebrate Disney movies. I can love something and see the flaws at the same time. With Disney, and all media really, I pick and choose.

[bananainpyjamas.livejournal.com]

*flails* So glad I saw your vid roundup because I managed to miss this. This is awesome and so densely-packed that I know it's going to take me a bunch of rewatches to get it all. And the end took me by surprise but still made total sense.

Also, shallow note, but the shots of Ariel's transformation over "This diamond" near the end are among the most visually-arresting I've ever seen in a vid. O_O <-- my face

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I wasn't sure about the ending the way it's only at the end and not anywhere else, but I tried to pull out of the Disney movies by having them on screens, bringing in the people more with each clip.

ARIEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can have a voice or a vagina. Not both.

[cyborganize.livejournal.com]

Celebrating VVC with some extremely late comments! :P

The first time I watched this I got CHILLS as it ramped up to the recitation/climax – and I have watched it so many times. First, visually: it's stunning (no surprise). The paralleling is virtuosic – it reminds me of Disney's Copy Paste (https://youtu.be/vh84g8rC2oA) – but of course your version is also a conceptual remark/critique about how formulaic these girls' stories are. You did such beautiful matching with the song, which is already mesmerizing to me.

But it's politically that it really hits me – I know that angle isn't your #1 investment in vidding so I'm not sure how focused on it you were with this one? To me, wow, it's A++++ political remix. There's a particular challenge in feminist criticism of pop culture around calling out sexism without simultaneously dismissing girls' pleasures. And you NAILED IT (see also: chaila's Bella from Twilight vid). There are all these condemnations of princess culture as if it's the princesses that are the problem and not Disney. But you were all: don't hate the princess, hate the game! Commodification and heteronormativity suck but PRINCESSES ARE AWESOME. This felt very true to the spirit of Beyoncé :D. I guess I disagree with some people who could only read it cynically? I do think there's a lot of complexity to the vid's message. But I actually found the ending really heartwarming, because it seemed like the visuals answered back to the voiceover (much like Be's song does) to say: girls love princesses AND GIRLS RULE!