Beauty And The Beast Stereotypes

In my RIP Project, I wrote an unique version of the fairytale “Beauty and the Beast” by Jeanne-Marie Leprince De Beaumont. The overall arch of the tale is the same as it ends in a “happily ever after”; however, the plot, message, characterization, setting, and tone are different as I import aspects from other fairytales such as Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. Especially since my tale has a more mature message than just a simple moral, it is directed towards a different age group, adults who are interested in social issues. By having this underlying message, it not only addresses the societal concerns but also criticize the gender norms that are “set” in stone because change is scary. However, in reality, change is actually necessary

I want people to see past the differences and treat others with respect, as individuals, as equals. In my fairytale, I will put the story mainly in the Beast’s point of view to exemplify how the feminist perception can be applied on males as well as I will counter three gender stereotypes: dominance, animalistic behavior, and power. The concept of dominance is prominent in the story as both protagonists, the prince and the young maiden experience the sense of being in power. The characterization of the Beast is similar to the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. In the beginning of the tale, the Beast acted as the dominant and manipulative character, which is similar to the wolf. He ends up raping a woman, which demonstrates how he takes advantage of Beauty in order to satisfy his sexual desires. I purposefully set in the medieval era, particularly in 18th century France, in which the brutality that the characters face is emphasized upon, in order to address the extremes that people can take, especially when it comes to being dominant. It was one of the shared characteristic among French fairytales according to Robert Darnton in order to expose the cold, hard truth rather than

Another theme is class in which the class struggle is between the upper and lower class. The class represents the rank in society, which emphasizes on the idea of power struggle. In the tale, Beast was the prince while Beauty was the young maiden. I purposely placed Beast under higher ranking because he was male and his employment opportunities are better compared to Beauty. As the prince, he was treated with such royalty because of his status. In essence, he has the freedom to do whatever he likes. However, in Beauty’s situation, she couldn’t do the same because of her class background. Beauty’s character is similar to Cinderella in which she is under domestic servitude as she is a lower class woman. I gave Beauty the role as a maiden because it was one of the traditional gender role back in the days. It was also a role that demonstrates the concept of submission that I want to eliminate. The social injustice is clearly represented when Beast and Beauty were treated differently due to their social standings. The power struggle between Beast and Beauty also relates to Perrault’s “Donkeyskin” where the king abuses his power to have an arranged marriage with the princess. I was able to counter the stereotype by introducing that switch in role which shows how gender doesn’t influence status. After they realized their faults and learned how much they have in common, they were able to understand