hitzvl:

randomslasher:

brunhiddensmusings:

xtrillzx:

nadine-usagichan:

visibilityofcolor:

geek-baits:

visibilityofcolor:

i-want-cheese:

awkwardblacknerd:

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.

@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 

@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.

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)

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

My heart just cried

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

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 😦 )

@giuliaciulia89

Man this makes so much more sense with the counter-analysis. I’m sorry I ever doubted Maui. It also makes much more sense over the course of the entire movie, the more I think about it.

Im not Polynesian or pasifika but there were some examples throughout the movie that really support the counteranalyses. I just wanted to expand a bit on what @brunhiddensmusings said with more evidence from within the movie itself about the theme of proving oneself and defining oneself, cuz I’m a nerd and I wanna show even more how this intersectional analysis makes the most sense. Especially w/r to how Maui’s real stories about his interactions with humans and expectations/need for approval become a larger theme driving character development in the movie.

It starts with Moana loving the ocean despite her father’s scolding and concern. We have her grandmother who also loves the ocean and is seen as the crazy old lady of the village – yet she is also totally content and confident with that role given to her. She is assured in her own being so others’ expectations and judgements don’t affect her. In the middle of a song about Moana’s responsibilities and the role she is to take on, her grandmother sings to Moana about her own individual values and interests within the framework of being part of a community (rather than a rejection of community). She shows their island’s history to Moana to reveal another aspect of who they are collectively, and how that is a part of Moana individually, even if their current culture isn’t accepting of that.

Moana puts on a brave face and tries to prove herself as the next chief and one who will save her people just as @brunhiddensmusings said. Especially from the point of setting sail by herself, up until the near-climax song. At that point, the spirit of her grandmother comes and brings encouragment, and reminders of the lessons taught to her, and she sings about all the things that make her herself, and proclaims simply, with confidence and joy “I AM MOANA!” In other words “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”. This is in strong contrast to Maui who, when he introduced himself, defined himself nearly solely by the deeds he had done for humanity, and hoped for her gratitude/love/admiration in response. Yet even when Moana first introduces herself (script provided by her grandmother *hint hint*) she wasn’t sure of her being but she still introduced herself with her name, her island, her mission. Later, he took her to get his hook back, cuz he felt he was literally nothing without it. When it didn’t work as he expected at first, he nearly gave up. When it cracked he was devastated, convinced that the hook was what made him worth anything.

This same theme of self-definition is also applied to Te Ka (and Te Fiti), in the scene shown above. As they approach each other, Moana sings to her:

“… I know your name/ THEY have stolen the heart from inside you/ but THIS DOES NOT DEFINE YOU/ This is NOT WHO YOU ARE/ YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE/ who you TRULY ARE”

She tells Te Ka that she is not defined by having her heart or not. That Te Ka is the only one who can define who she truly is, regardless of what others do or say. It is at the point where Moana says “this is not who you are” that Te Ka’s lava starts to cool. It is at the point where she says “you know who you are… Who you truly are” that Te Ka gets down to eye level with her and greets her with honi/hongi. Now I’m not saying that Te Ka was putting on a front to prove herself. But she DID change her demeanor and a core aspect of her usual nature, based on the fact that she didn’t have her heart. Much like how Maui so clearly felt his hook defined who he was – that he couldn’t be himself or who he wanted to be without it – Te Ka doesn’t act/look like her true self without her heart (whether voluntary or not). These objects that they hold become how they define themselves, rather than their innate qualities or values or other aspects.

A huge part of the moral is still absolutely environmental conservation and respect of nature vs human greed and exploitation. I mean the whole movie is chock full of songs and scenes stressing respectful coexistence with nature and the ocean. That’s super important especially w/r to native islander ppl, as @geek-baits said. But in regards to characterizations and arcs, it’s a (racist) stretch to claim that it’s about male violence/rape when there’s a small amount of surface level circumstantial evidence. Especially in the face of the immense amount of evidence in the movie and in the living cultures of pasifika and polynesian people, that it’s not about that at all.