Let’s face it. Tales of princes and princesses have needed a facelift for some time now. Of course, some popular Disney films of recent memory have begun to buck the usual trends. Audiences have seen Mulan slice down hordes of Mongol barbarians, Tiana brave an amphibious transformation and eventually open her own restaurant, and Rapunzel buck her tower to go on an epic adventure, hair in tow.
Fortunately, live-action medieval films have begun to get the same idea. Women are no longer relegated to the role of simply being playthings for knights and kings. Take, for example, films like the recently released The Princess, which stars Joey King (The Dark Knight Rises, Independence Day: Resurgence) as the titular Princess, who, throughout the film, is never named, which is likely a reference to how historical female figures can be oft-overlooked.
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Though the gender roles inherent to the period in which the film is set are still pervasive, Joey King’s Princess spends the entire run time of the film fighting back against the patriarchy, a concept that, in this universe, is not defined by wage discrepancies and microaggressions, but rather sword-carrying mercenaries and ruthless royals. Though reviews of 2022’s The Princess have been somewhat mixed, there has been almost unanimous praise across critical outlets for the performance of Joey King and her portrayal of a headstrong and mighty royal.
Here are just a few of the reasons why The Princess is the perfect feminist flick.
Medieval Gender Roles
It goes without saying that any medieval period piece will be rife with discussions of gender politics. 2022’s The Princess is no exception to this rule. At the film’s beginning, the Princess is set to be married off to Julius, played by Dominic Cooper (Captain America: The First Avenger, Agent Carter), the son of a royal diplomat whose philosophy regarding royalty is utterly ruthless.
Obviously, Joey King’s character is uninterested in this prearranged marriage. When she leaves Cooper’s Julius standing at the altar, his team of mercenaries, which includes Olga Kurylenko’s (Quantum of Solace, Black Widow) Moira, a callous killer armed with a whip, are none too pleased.
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They forcibly take control of the castle and lock the Princess in a tower. Locking a woman away so that she can be married off at a later date is a common trope in medieval films, and The Princess shows its feminist streak when King’s character escapes her confinement and brings about the raucous violence that characterizes the climax of the film.
While other films might have featured a brave knight slicing down hordes of enemy combatants as he climbs a spiral staircase to the top of a castle, where he finds a weeping damsel in distress, throws her over his shoulder, and wields his blade in one hand as he makes a daring escape, The Princess allows Joey King’s titular character to do her own rescuing.
A Trio of Warrior Women
At the end of The Princess, audiences are privy to a new crew of warrior women when Joey King’s Princess, fresh off of a terrifying plummet into the castle lake, which caused many audience members to fear for the character’s life, teams up with Veronica Ngo’s (Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Da 5 Bloods) Linh, the Princess’ combat instructor, and young Irish step dancer Katelyn Rose Downey’s Violet, the sister of King’s character. The trio gathers weapons from a hidden storeroom and takes the castle back by force, killing countless men many times their size and turning the film’s climax into an epic feminist bloodbath.
Of course, the struggle for gender equality is timeless, and at times, it seems as if there has been little progress since the days of kings and queens. Fortunately, Hollywood creatives have begun to tell stories centered around powerful women. The Princess might be a perfect example of this fact. Joey King’s character is subject to all the trappings of a sexist medieval society. She is forced into an arranged marriage and locked away in the tallest tower.
However, her character never gives in to her fate, choosing instead to rely upon her illicitly gained combat skills and the help of her powerful female friends to fight tooth and nail against her oppressors. For those reasons, The Princess is a celebration of feminism.
