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You may remember Beauty and The Beast as a staple of your childhood romantic fantasies. Girl meets beast. Girl discovers inner beauty. Girl has awesome candlestick friends. She lives happily ever after. Um, maybe not. Belle is seriously dishing on her affair with Beast and all this advice she is giving . . . sounds pretty bad. I mean, because when you really think about it, Belle was sort of trapped. Belle sort of was emotionally abused. Um, I think she says it best, “The longer you’re trapped with the same person the more it will start to feel like home … Stockholm!”
Maybe we just want to remember our childhood fantasies as just that–fantasies. Although now that I am a bit older I am starting to think long and hard about the messages some Disney movies tried to send. Why did Ariel give up her voice for some guy she barely new? Her voice. Think about what that means. Your voice is the tool you use to express yourself, communicate your ideas, to speak out against harm and injustice. She gave that up for a dude? Belle wasn’t much different. She hung around this mean guy in hopes that he may change and because he may “really” love her. Sounds like abuse to me.
Watch this video and see if you’ve changed your position on Disney movie couples.
Do you think Disney can send the wrong message sometimes? Let us know in the comments!
I think it’s good to point out too that the majority of Disney movies are based off of fairy tales that reflect principles and thoughts about how women should act that were held during that time period. However, I still really love Disney movies and think that girls can learn things from them.
Um… in regards to Beauty and the Beast… are you forgetting that she DID leave after he lost his temper? She only went back after he saved her from the wolves and was injured in the process (she even almost left him there, but then decided, “Hey, he just saved my life, I should help him”). After that incident, the way he treated her totally changed, and she stuck around because A) She was honoring the agreement she made to save her father, and B) The Beast had already changed and was treating her better.
I think some girls can actually learn something from this.
This is why Disney’s Esmeralda is the best. No prince-related pining, no becoming who I was destined to beeee… Civil rights for ethnic minorities. And she earned her own living and chose execution over betraying her principles.
haha. now that i think about it all Disney movies have that sexist twisted vibe… but they’re the best!!