It had never occurred to me to see Brave as a collectivism vs. individualism story; to me it was obviously a woman-as-object vs. woman-as-subject story.
Collectivism vs. individualism seems very similar to person-as-object vs. person-as-subject. It’s magnified here because it’s specifically queen/princess instead of simply mother/daughter. The analogous story that drops the princess/queen dynamic is making the family the exact same people, except they’re all peasants. Merida’s betrothal has been bought by a neighboring peasant man through gifts to her family, but she doesn’t want to marry him. She runs away to Paisley, earns enough money working in a textile mill to pay the man back (obviating her social obligation to marry him), and then she’s free to live her life as an Independent Career Woman.
Collectivism vs. individualism seems very similar to person-as-object vs. person-as-subject. It’s magnified here because it’s specifically queen/princess instead of simply mother/daughter. The analogous story that drops the princess/queen dynamic is making the family the exact same people, except they’re all peasants. Merida’s betrothal has been bought by a neighboring peasant man through gifts to her family, but she doesn’t want to marry him. She runs away to Paisley, earns enough money working in a textile mill to pay the man back (obviating her social obligation to marry him), and then she’s free to live her life as an Independent Career Woman.