Seriously, we JUST NOW got a black Disney Princess....
Now we wait for a M2F trans Disney princess?
That one is actually a serious question to Truean, by the by. Where does "accurate representation of the entire populace" end, and would you argue that a M2F princess should be included? And/or that two princesses actually marry each other and live happily ever after?
I've got a princess-addict at home, btw, and would not mind if they did and she was exposed to that, but am more wary of how much you can force companies to be PC.
Come to think of it, I'd welcome a trans princess. As long as she's a bit androgynous and pretty, don't want it to set a negative stereotype. It'd blur the whole gender thing and confuse the shit out of my toddler, who is now in some kind of hyper-polarisation phase, where she's aware of gender and very different in approach to boys and men versus girls and women, but I just like confusing people I guess.
We almost do have one now: Mulan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulan Except she goes from a girl to a boy and back again.
Sure, why the hell not? This boils down to including certain types of people in stories and trans don't have any widespread ones in modern times really. GLBT don't really either for the most part.
Ancient Greece had all kinds of characters, many of whom were gay as hell. Didn't his mom try to hide Achilles by disguising him as a girl among the temple maidens before Troy
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21257028/Discussion-Questions-on-Edith-Hamilton%E2%80%99s-Mythology-Directions-Answer-Each-Question "Achilles’ mother had been told that if her son went to Troy, he would die. Therefore she
dressed Achilles in girl’s clothing and hid him among the maidens at the court of King
Lycomedes. Odysseus dressed as a peddler and went to find him. Odysseus hid some
weapons among the jewels he was peddling, and Achilles immediately gave himself away
by showing interest in the weapons. He was easily persuaded to accompany the Greeks to
Troy."
Also Achilles didn't mind wearing dresses. Sure, they try to say his mom was behind this but he never tried to run away. He liked it and she was accepting him.... He got along VERY well as bestest friends with the girls and despite being a boy he never tried to make any advances on any of the maidens, not a one. Gee it's almost like a gay fitting right in with the girls....
He's basically in the girl's locker room at an all girl's school and NOT A DAMN THING HAPPENS! GAAAAY! He just kept putting on his pretty clothes day after day.... It's been argued he was good at fighting because his competition was too focused on being "macho" and Achillies didn't care about that as much as he cared about where his sword was. Sure, he wanted fame and the only kind of fame in his day was from fighting....
Then there is the fact the Achilles was totally gay with Patroclus ("sanitized" in the western translations) and that's why he went apeshit murdering Hector, desecrated his body and basically went nuts. He wouldn't fight for Agamemnon for women, for money, for anything because he didn't like him and showed it by being catty, but once his boyfriend got killed, shit totally hit the fan and he started killing people left and right....
Let's see, wants fame/attention, in drag, catty, and motivated to fight when his best friend/lover gets killed but not for money or women, doesn't ever try to get with a girl despite being more or less in the girl's locker room at the all girl school and being best friends with all those girls = not just gay, but GAAAAAAAY!
You don't even want me to touch Alexander the Great....
The point, you can totally have gay heroes in literature. Greece did it and it didn't hurt them one bit. I imagine you could have a transperson as well if people would kindly take the stick out of their ass. Disney characters get turned into all sorts of things, the little mermaid grew legs, etc etc, it's almost easier to come up with an example that nothing magical happens. Furthermore, directly on Point: Mulan happened and the world didn't explode. Is it really so hard to imagine the same thing happening with a switch in that world?
I just don't know. Kids need someone to admire and look up to. That's sort of the real deal behind the whole "hero" stitck. Its a method for teaching kids values. Spiderman was "with great power comes great responsibility." I think we need heroes who also happen to be girls
Considering the likes of Catwoman and the X-men chicks (I refuse to call them women until their bodies are brought back in proportion), I don't think that's such a great idea.
Adds: realistically written and portrayed women heroes with good writing.... For this you have to actually think, which most writers today are far too lazy to do, and explore beyond, "Herp Derp, is really strong or has cool powers, yaaaaaaaay!" [sigh]
It isn't hard to do. Check out my sig, I'm doing it from the hip in my spare time.... I give you Capt. Irua, who has a main role and far more parts coming up.... And that's just the damn prologue.