Skinny Minnie Mouse
/ Courtesy: Change.org
A Barneys New York window display featuring Minnie Mouse is stirring up controversy.
The holiday window display features Minnie and her new look as a bone-thin supermodel, and it's not sitting well with some body-image experts. "The issue of body image is always prevalent and should be considered," Ragen Chastain, a positive body image blogger and Los Angeles dance teacher, tells New York's Daily News.
Chastain launched a petition movement on change.org, calling on the department store to remove the image of Minnie from its holiday display. As of Tuesday night, the petition had more than 135,000 supporters. "The message is if your body doesn't fit into a designer dress, drastically change your body. Not, let's insist on a designer that's talented enough to make a dress that fits you," Chastain said. "That's a dangerous message to send girls, 'Minnie Mouse doesn't fit into a high-fashion dress so we changed Minnie Mouse, not the high-fashion dress.'"
In a joint statement to the newspaper, Disney and Barneys defend their skinny Minnie. "We are saddened that activists have repeatedly tried to distort a lighthearted holiday project in order to draw media attention to themselves," the statement reads. "They have deliberately ignored previously released information clearly stating this promotion is a three-minute 'moving art' video featuring traditional Minnie Mouse in a dreamlike sequence set in Paris where she briefly walks the runway as a model and then happily awakens as her normal self wearing the very same designer dress from the fashion show."
Here's what some people are saying about this online:
"This really is disgusting.. what a message they are sending out to the world. Can't believe that Disney went along with this. Amazing !!"
"These are people who have no lives if they're upset about the shape of a cartoon character."
"I had a discussion with my 5 yr old this morning while looking at this picture. We talked about why this picture made me sad. I talked about what we should value in women and girls. When I asked her what she thought about the "new" Minnie, she said that she looked sick and mean. I want my daughter, who will never be tall, to love herself and never feel inadequate because she can't photoshop herself."
Do you think the skinny Minnie is inappropriate? Does it send the wrong message to girls? Or is the situation being blown out of proportion? Leave your thoughts below.
