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I still think Moana deserved an Oscar for this part

To me, the moral of Moana is that only women can help other women heal from male violence.

The movie starts with the idea that the male god who wronged Te Fiti must be the one to heal her. This seems to make a certain sort of intuitive sense in that I think we all believe that if you do something wrong you should try to make it right. But how does he try to right it? Through more violence. Of course that failed.

It was only when another woman, Moana, saw past the “demon of earth and fire” that the traumatized Te Fiti had become (what a good metaphor for trauma, right?) and met her with love instead of violence that she was able to heal. Note that they do the forehead press before Moana restores the heart, while Te Fiti is still Te Kā. Moana doesn’t wait for her beautiful island goddess to appear in all her green splendor before greeting and treating her as someone deserving of love.

Moana is only able to restore the heart because Te Kā reveals her vulnerability and allows Moana to touch her there. Maui and his male violence could only ever have resulted in more ruin.

visibilityofcolor

@i-want-cheese

This is a touching anaylisis but it’s extremely racist as not only have you completely ignored the whole point of Maui’s character, but have managed to incriminate a man of color on a tumblr wide scale.

First of all, Maui’s character does not represent male violence—it represent human greed. Maui did not take the heart because he is a man, and Te-Fiti is a woman. He took it because the humans asked him to. The humans asked Maui to do everything for them, not caring how greedy or selfish their requests were and in the end it was Maui who suffered for it. Maui is supposed to show the flaw of humanity.

This has nothing to do with sexism, it has everything to do with the fact that Maui gave and gave to the humans who could never stop being greedy. Moana giving the heart back wasn’t supposed to be her “making up” for the male violence that Maui represents. It was her making up for the greed she and her people represent. It was touching however because yes it was an important moment between two women, but you missed the point and you’ve come off racist and very disrespectful to a culture at that.

Yes, Moana is an empowering movie for women, especially women of color. But the last thing this is about is Maui being an abuser/rapist or whatever. That is not the point of Maui’s character.

And to assume so is racist. You are a white woman completely dehumanizing a man of color and ruining his image because of how you see him. And other white girls here on tumblr have happily picked up that image and interpretation and rolled with it. Maui’s character is now seen as an abuser or as someone who is violently because of white girls here on tumblr—which it doesn’t surprise me. (an in a historical context this is even MORE racist because white women would always make Maui’s people out to be savages and abusers etc., simply because of the color of their skin and their culture so yea, this is bad).

You can see the morality of the movie however you want, but do not be disrespectful toward a character and in this case a culture.

@i-want-cheese Please don’t write this off as another “butthurt comment” or “male guilt”, because this is really messed up. I see how you’re brushing off some other people’s comments and I honestly hope that you don’t see mine the same way because this is an issue I think you need to face/realize. You are being racist and brushing it off isn’t going to change that. the

kekepuaa

@visibilityofcolor THANK YOU FOR THIS. As a Polynesian woman, reading that post and other replies painting Maui and even Tui as aggressive and violent men had me feeling some type of way, especially since White people have always regarded Polynesian men in such a manner.

I’ve thought about replying because I’m tired of seeing these kind of “Moana is a feminist movie” posts collect hundreds of notes despite the fact that these posts always conveniently fail to mention Pasifika people, but it always stressed me out, so thank you.

As an aside, Maui taking Te Fiti’s heart and Moana restoring it was symbolic of environmental preservation. Because the people who inspired Moana–Pasifika people, not just Polynesian–are always affected first when the environment is threatened. Our way of life is greatly influenced by the ocean and we believe that if you take care of the ocean, she will take care of you.

visibilityofcolor

You’re very welcome.

This is insight for me as well (as I wasn’t aware that the movie also came fro the culture of the Pasifika people), and does give a very important perspective. I do agree with you, this movie is about environmental restoration, not some white fem bullshit.

I tried over and over again to explain to I-want-cheese about how she was being racist, but she responded by blocking me and other poc who called her out (even other polynesian people). People to this day are still trying to explain that she is being racist and culturally insensitive but she ignores us.

I’ve made a few posts about this, hoping that people realize how problematic it is to agree with i-want-cheese. Explaining to her racist white ass that this was problematic was like explaining to a bird. She wouldn’t listen and neither would have of her racist friends.

Sorry you’ve had to see this on your dash every so often, but I’m glad my portion of the post is starting to get around. (reblogged to the wrong blog at first lols)

nadine-usagichan

dang reblogging this as a correction for the very first reblog. this why feminist analysis always needs to be intersectional

xyinx

My heart just cried

brunhiddensmusings

the portrayal of Maui is super important here, the disney crew put a LOT of effort into getting him right because he IS a crucial figure to an entire culture- basically a cross between a central religious figure and superman so handling him poorly would be catastrophically disrespectful there are basically only two parts of Mauis legend that they flub- they only tell half of the story of when he was abandoned as a baby, and they skip over that stealing the heart of Te-Fiti so he could give it to humanity was the legend in which he dies yes, canonically Maui dies in his quest to give gifts to humanity, its an important element of why Maui is such a profound character, not just ‘man who hurt someone’ strawman it gets worse when you discover the OTHER legend they fudged, the story of his birth, reinforces this. Mauis mother had several (Hawaiians only say three, new zealand says five) sons, all named Maui, so when she had ANOTHER son she named him Maui as well, but then cast him into the sea for there was no way she could support another son. the gods did not save Maui, as Moana says, instead they return him to his mother and say she must give him a chance. to which his mother states that for her to take care of him this infant must remove the roof from her house by throwing spears at it. that is the story of Maui the skillful, abandoned as an infant and then immediately told that he must PROVE his worth, after which all he ever does is prove his worth

his brothers mocked him for being a poor fisherman, he crafts a fishook from a jawbone and proceeds to raise new islands from the sea the sky is so low the trees bend, maui raises it for everyone, then fills the new sky with wind

the sun flies so quickly there is not enough time in the day to do the labors for everyone, maui has to lay traps for each of the suns many feet, chase after it as it was slowed, and then threaten to chop its legs off if it would not slow down

he then due to the complaints of the now longer dark night creates the moon and is upset his creation will not please humanity for it does not make sufficient light, then shows it to the sun so that it may learn how to be bright maui was credited with having invented as gifts for humanity the outrigger canoe, stone tools, and seaworthy boats that had no mast or sails. he was credited with inventing tattoos as a gift to dogs, however humanity is still not content so maui descends to the land of the dead to ask the secret of creating fire from the grandmother, who kept it hidden in her fingernails. he dropped the fingernail in the water as he tried to return to the land of the living, came back for another, dropped it as well, and went through all ten fingers and toenails untill he had to then interrogate birds the grandmother had shared the secret with to tell him how

a monstrous eel tried to put the moves on his wife, and again maui had to prove his worth to reclaim her by breaking the monster eel’s spine, shoving him into the ground to create the first coconut tree, the single most useful thing for polynesian life, as a gift to humanity yet again Maui, as a mythological figure, did nothing but give from the day he was born. he gave humans tools, land, fire, boats, light, the wind, everything except life itself and he even tried to give them that- and it killed him, he was bitten in two a crucial part of Maui as a legend is that he failed, its literally part of the point, also that he was driven to prove himself endlessly to the (during his life) ungrateful. do not try and drag Maui, its disrespectful on a level i cant express thank the man, you asshole Moana succeeded where he failed, for she saw that she did not have to prove herself. the whole movie up untill then she was trying to put on a brave face (there was literally a cut song ‘warrior face’ where maui teaches her Haka), shout her courage, announce to the world at large that she WILL do the thing and fix the world and be the hero, just like Maui

its easy to miss, she stopped trying to prove who she was to anyone, there was nobody she needed to prove herself TO she just WAS herself, and that brought her peace

randomslasher

Oh man…this is why it’s so important to hear the perspectives of the peoples actually represented. When I was reading through this, the first part seemed to make a lot of sense on the surface, but I could *never* have imagined how racist that perspective was. It makes so much more sense now. Thank you to the folks in this thread who were willing to take the time to share their perspective so that oblivious folks like me could do a little more to chip away at our own internalized racism.

(Also the story of Maui is heckin’ sad, gosh :( )

shadowkat678

What Slasher said. I was ready to reblog right at the first part. I never considered this. Thanks to everyone else on this post for sharing.

feminismandmedia

For anyone not aware, @/i-want-cheese is a hardcore TERF, so that gives another perspective to their language used above.

sockatine

YALL THANK YOU FOR ALL THESE ADDITIONS

hilarioushumorfromouterspace

catchymemes

One of the fake heads used as a decoy during the 1962 escape from Alcatraz. Made with soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, and concrete dust

ruinedchildhood

screwyouandrew

hes fat cause he’s full of love and he is running to give everybody a hug

bitterness-with-bliss

In reality, frogs that are “full of love” are actually full of poison.

screwyouandrew

Love arrives in many forms

dankmemeuniversity

reapercollection

by Heather Theurer

lovethemfiercely

Woah.

emeraldsiren19

Stunning! 💜💜

empressdarkren

This is such a breathtakingly stunning collection. I’m in awe…

jus-tea

id forgotten how dumbo started and this legitimately had me in tears that poor mother excuse me while i go cuddle my baby

blackqueerblog

That’s not justice

youngscrappyandhungry33

reblog until ur fingers bleed

fiveumbrella

Signal boost. This is a really important issue.

catchymemes

If Brand Names Were Anime Characters

Credit: @sillvi_illustrations

viostormcaller

This went from normal to oddly dark to normal again, gave me whiplash

hermionegranger

The new Hunger Games novel is set 64 years before the 75th Hunger Games… So the 11th Games.. you know who was in the 11th Hunger Games?

beatlemaniacinthetardis

waronidiocy

If Dr. Seuss Books Were Titled According to Their Subtexts

my theatre teacher has all of these on a wall in his classroom.

unicornlordart-deactivated20190

Dude, I just realized, in Pokemon, they probably use Phantump sightings to local searches for missing people. But it’s like a double edge sword, because you know you’re looking for a body at that point.

Like imagine officer jenny having to report to the family “… I’m sorry… but there’s been a Phantump reported in the area.”

fini-mun

How many kids have died in the damn forest?!

seventeendeer

okay but

what if the search team caught the Phantump

and they have to report to the family that their child may never come back as themself, but … perhaps you should have a look at this Pokémon. you might recognize it, or maybe it will recognize you

and okay, it may be a little bit harder to communicate with their little one now, and the future they imagined for the kid may not be a possibility anymore, but they found their baby, it’s right here, it’s safe, not to mention capable of pulling some sick magic tricks so nothing will ever be able to hurt it again

how many Phantump do you think live with their human families still, either because a rescue team caught them and sent them home, or because they found their way back eventually

how many children have kid siblings who just so happen to be Phantump, or big siblings who act like kid siblings because Phantump don’t grow up the same way human kids do

is there a network for people whose children have turned into Phantump so they can trade back and forth and let their little ones grow up into big strong Trevenant and move out into forests of their own

how many family reunions involve a Trevenant lumbering out of a nearby forest like [EARSPLITTING INHUMAN SCREECH] “oh hey, Brenda’s here you guys, welcome home Brenda”

just

think about this for a moment ok

consider it