With that in mind, here are five ways of looking at Pixar's motivations for being so coy: No, this is a deliberate sort of ambiguity. Pixar is notoriously meticulous-the Easter eggs and subtle references in each of its works are legion-and it's unlikely that the filmmakers simply didn't think to give Merida any sort of love interest.

Is this ambiguity intentional? Almost definitely. Over the course of the film, she shows romantic interest in neither boys nor girls it's only by assumption that her parents-and, presumably, most viewers-think she's heterosexual. While Markovitz's appeal to lesbian stereotypes is outrageous, his underlying question isn't.

But it's quite possible that while watching Brave's tomboyish heroine shoot arrows, fight like one of the boys, and squirm when her mother puts her in girly clothes, a thought might pop into the head of some viewers: Is Merida gay? The two events don't seem to have much in common at first glance. At the same time, legions of kids will swarm into theaters to watch Pixar's Brave, the animated story of a young Scottish princess named Merida who goes to extreme lengths to avoid having to marry one of the three noblemen that her parents have chosen for her. Today, crowds will line the streets of cities like New York and San Francisco for parades that mark the high point of LGBT Pride Month.

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