In addition, this film explores a new way to love, breaking the trope of Disney’s traditional and antiquated love stories. Beauty and the Beast is not about love at first sight, but rather a more realistic representation of love, when two equal people learn to know and appreciate one another. As Charles Solomon explains in his insightful article "Animated Heroines Finally Get in Step With the Times” in the Los Angeles Times: When Ariel kicked up her fins in The Little Mermaid (1989), she ushered in an era of spunky heroines. Like her, Belle in Beauty and the Beast (1991), Princess Jasmine in Aladdin (1992) and the title character in Pocahontas (1995) chaffed at the restrictions imposed on them. They sought to break the bonds of convention …show more content…
In fact, Belle is not actively seeking love, but rather stumbles onto it, as a consequence of her own bravery and sacrifice. The relationship that grows between the beauty and the Beast is often the target of criticism as it can be perceived as Stockholm’s syndrome on Belle’s part and is seen to advocate that women should remain with their loved ones even if they are abusive. This is aspect of the film is condemned as it suggest that, somehow and through love, the abusive husband or lover can better himself. And although one can read the film as such, another could see that Beauty and the Beast is the tale of a woman who enters a man’s life and initiates and reciprocally healing and growing bond: Belle learns to see beyond someone’s appearance, and the Beast learns to let other people in. This is literally reflected by his complete forbiddance to have any visitors in his castle as the castle symbolizes his soul. This relationship of equals demonstrates that, contrarily to Disney films such as Cinderella or even The Little Mermaid where all a man or a woman need to fall in love is to set eyes on one another, without having to know anything about each other, or even share a discussion. The Disney princess here is not a princess but a villager, and Prince Charming is not charming but rather temperamental. The unusual end of the animated feature also mirrors this unusual …show more content…
This film, contrarily to its predecessors, scratches the surface of the male protagonists, and introduces men who are humanly flawed and relatable, taking them down from the pedestal they used to be on, and making them equal to the female characters. No matter how much one may despise the Beast for being aggressively temperamental, Gaston for his stupidity and violence, or even Lumière for his objectification of women, these characters have a life and a role of their own, and do not remain two-dimensional like the previous Princes. For example, Belle’s father never suggests that she marries a man and only caringly mentions Gaston as a potential companion and friend for his lonely daughter. In the same manner, the Disney Corporation is more open to sexual innuendos and female sexuality in the film as it has ever been with Lumière and Plumette’s affair being explicitly showed. Finally, as Dawn Elizabeth England, Lara Descartes, and Melissa Collier-Meek further explain this in their journal "Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses:" The princess was more assertive and the prince was equally as sensitive as the princess. Belle was shown as independent more often than the prince, but she also was shown as very fearful. Similarly, the prince portrayed stereotypically feminine characteristics, such as showing emotion. This princess was the first to show very high
In Disney classics, if characters like the Beast can be misconstrued by Belle, everyday people could commit a similar crime. Beauty and the Beast was more than a story about love, it was a story about misjudgement. In a way, I have my own version, except mine did not end in a happily ever after.
Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairytale produced by Disney. The movie centers on two main characters, the Beast, a young prince who is cursed and transformed into an ugly creature because he is arrogant, and Belle a strong-willed young woman who he imprisons in his castle. In order for the Beast to return to his normal self, he must have someone look past his ugliness and fall in love with him. Another male character, Gaston, who is extremely self-centered, wants to marry Belle and tries to kill the Beast when he realizes there are signs of growing love between the Beast and Belle. At the conclusion of the story, the Beast/Prince is restored to his handsome form because Belle has in fact fallen in love with him.
...llier-Meek. "Gender Role Portrayal And The Disney Princesses." Sex Roles 64.7/8 (2011): 555-567. OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson). Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
This can give girls the impression that only skinny is beautiful and that anything outside of Ariel’s beauty is considered “ugly”. Other Disney films like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White are also movies where the princess finds love at first sight. The Princes fall in love with their beauty, and no other factors, such as personality, are referred too, instead their beauty is the main reason they love the princesses. All princesses also have similar body structure and facial features, while also being very symmetrical. These perfect ideals of beauty can cause girls to develop eating disorders, so that they can also be as thin and beautiful as the princesses they look up
Beauty and the Beast is one of the oldest fairytales known to man. A little bit of fantasy with a little bit of fiction. It provides life lessons that society, deems important to learn. Throughout the years one lesson has remained constant beauty is only skin deep. Generation to generation the story has been passed down, changing ever so slightly but still maintaining that fairytale edge. Differences are slim but still recognizable. In Beaumont's version that we had read in class Beauty and the Beast is told more for an older crowd because of the language and dialogue as well as the ability to understand it, but the message was the same as the Disney version just the Disney version isn’t as in depth.
In the beginning of the movie, Gaston is introduced as the perfect guy in the village. Girls sing, “Look there he goes, isn’t he dreamy? Monsieur Gaston, oh he’s so cute.” Gaston has his heart set on Belle and does all he can to convince her to marry him. Gaston believes that Belle would be a great wife based purely on her beauty, but Belle is not as shallow as Gaston and she follows her intuition and doesn’t marry him because she doesn’t care about appearances, but more about their inner beauty. “One tendency unites them all..”(Emerson 77), says Emerson. Every other girl in the village would have done anything to to be with him, wh...
Oh, how one as mighty as me be bewildered by a simple-minded beast. I am Gaston the best looking, strongest, and easily admired man in the whole town. My love Belle who is a little out of her mind if she thinks she could love a beast like him. I will show them. I force my whole enormous body at the beast making him slide off the edge of his balcony. As his large paw-like hands slip he catches himself by scrapping the shingles of the dark and gloomy castle. Weak. his claw grasps my shirt and my heart trembles. No, it can't be. Him a beast. For I am gaston the bravest of them all. But if belle could love him then. What does that make me? For who could ever love a hideous beast like me.
Additionally, the sisters in the story only wanted jewels, blamed Beauty for their dilemma, and acted as if Beauty did not exist when she came back whereas the brothers, “begged her to stay,” “declared that nothing should make them let her go,” and even offered to fight the beast when it were to come to take Beauty. Therefore making the women seem catty, weak, materialistic, but making the men appear as brave, strong, and caring. Again, the story presents misogynist views that are unhealthy to society. Lastly, the beast projects anti-feminist views. Although the beast speaks politely after Beauty refuses his marriage proposal, he repeatedly asks her and completely disrespects her answer. As mentioned before, women were treated horrible the era the story was written in making this story acceptable at the time, but presently this story should not be read to children. For many years, people viewed Beauty and the Beast as an uprising from misogyny, but when analyzing from a feminist perspective it is clear that the story is the complete
Unlike the relatively small, gender-balanced casts of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, these new films marked a shift towards larger, more theatrical casts and productions. With the increased characters, however, came an increase in gender-inequality as none of the added members were female unless they were a mother, wife, or lover (Guo). Beauty and the Beast stars Belle as a strong, intelligent female lead, but Mrs. Potts, the village wives and the young girls who dote on Gaston are the only other female characters, while men have a wide range of roles as bakers, servants, bookkeepers, etc. Every female character, including Belle and Mrs. Potts, is defined in terms of her relation to a man, as a wife in the village, mother, in the case of Mrs. Potts, or as a future wife for the teenage girls in society. Men are accurately portrayed in the wide range of jobs they actually work, but village women in the film are solely seen doing housework or primping which indicates, despite the changing social reality, that women should not be
The film stars Belle, who as described in the title of the movie is beautiful, a bookworm, young, and is very close with her father. You notice right away that she is more beautiful than the rest of the town, and the town notices this as well. They all swoon over her and comment on her attractiveness and how she is a bit weird for being interested in reading and not interested in Gaston. Gaston is a big, tall, macho, muscular fellow who shows interest in Belle. The first interaction we see with Belle and Gaston is a casual conversation between the two of them with Gaston flirting with Belle. Gaston literally says to Belle “It's not right for a woman to read. Soon she starts getting ideas and thinking.” Belle dismisses Gaston and expresses to her father that she is not interested in Gaston, even though her father encouraged her to try to talk to Gaston. In scenes following, Gaston expresses lines that show him feeling entitled to Belle as a wife no matter if she shows interest or not (and she clearly does not). Right away, we have a clear set up of a very thin, white, conventionally beautiful, feminine woman who is quirky because she reads books. A big strong manly masculine man is interested in her and does whatever it takes to win over the beautiful Belle. This portrayal of masculinity and femininity in the form of a male/female relationship clearly outlines the confidence and ego there is in masculinity and the dainty femininity and how masculinity is dominant to submissive femininity. In the past semester of Gender and Society, we have discussed the relationship between masculinity and femininity and how they are described socially as polar opposites. Masculinity is tough, strong, emotionless, athletic, big, and powerful. Femininity is fragile, weak, soft, and slim. We especially see this play out when Belle meets the Beast and becomes his prisoner and lives with him at his castle.
Beauty and the Beast is one of Disney's beloved modern classics, which is the first animated feature film in the history of the Oscars nominated for Best Picture (Disney Movies). This movie was about a prince who was selfish, spoiled, and unkind. The prince was offered a single rose by a beggar in trade of shelter, but he was taken aback by the woman’s appearance. The woman told the prince not to be deceived, and that beauty was found on the inside. After the prince had dismissed the beggar a second time, he realized the beggar was not ugly; but a beautiful enchantress. The enchantress had then found out the prince had no love in his heart, and he was then put under a spell and turned
As one is growing up, childhood is solely based on things like obtaining the latest toys, learning how to riding a bike, but most importantly watching Disney movies on Saturday mornings. “Beauty and the Beast” focuses on building traits like kindness, selfness, and love. In the original story, by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont, the moral is that one should not be quick to judge others by their appearance, but instead learn who they are as a person. In 1991, Walt Disney altered Beaumont’s story and produced a touching, animated movie also titled Beauty and the Beast. Disney’s main alterations to the plot can be seen in the significance of the rose, the Beast’s emotions, and they ending. Although the original story and movie are different in some ways, the moral of the story remained the same being that one should not judge book by its cover without reading the pages first.
Instead males are fulfilling the ambitious roles. These fairy tales teach women to be submissive in this male dominated world. Belle of “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) is described as a “strange” “funny girl” by the townspeople as she is seen reading and enthusiastically making her way to the library. She shows interest in pursuing knowledge and intellect by learning from her reading. However the people around here are disgraced because“ it’s not right for a woman to read” and Gaston negatively exclaims that “soon she starts getting ideas, thinking.” Giving us the viewers the idea that women should not read, they do not need to learn or be capable to think for themselves. Males are the leaders whilst women the followers whom should be passive in this man’s world. Beauty and the Beast furthermore shows males taking on all the successful/intellect roles such as the store owner, baker or hunter as we see in the opening scene. Females show no pursued intellect and carry out jobs such as washing or taking orders. With the exception of Belle. She is the only female we see with a dream of ‘adventure and far off places’ nevertheless this dream is taken away as result of the love for a male character. In order to save her father's life she must live with the Beast. Reinforcing males are the dominant gender. In the Little Mermaid Ariel depends on a man to reach her goal of having human legs. Ursula the evil sea witch gives her permanent legs in the deal that she will win Eric’s heart. Ariel does not show any wise talents however reaches her goal by claiming this man's love. Wachutka (2006) declares that “the most a female can hope for is to fall in love and she must rely on a male's assistance in life” The message is that females do not need to learn as they will not be successful anyway. Some girls may as a result fear being teased or known as unusual if they do show
Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959) were the first Disney princesses in the era. All three princess were portrayed as helpless or a damsel in distress, who were saved by a prince's sword or kiss. Cinderella, in particular, was a prime example of this stereotype. Living with her neglectful stepmother and sisters, she was repressed from all of the daily activities her step family would partake in. She was regularly tormented and made to slave around; cleaning and cooking for her spoiled family members. She didn't have the self esteem to stick up for herself. All three of these princesses had secondary characters to care for them, to have a happy ending and "marry the prince". The godmother in Cinderella magically giving her a dress, carriage and glass slippers, and the house mice helping her as well. Snow White has the seven dwarfs, and Sleeping Beauty had her three fairy godmothers.
One of the most loved Disney movies of all time, the 1991 animated movie Beauty and the Beast directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale features talking teacups, enchanted castles, gorgeous animation, catchy songs, and large helping of traditional gender roles. The countless favorite of many children and adults, many people know the story well. Belle, the bookish, dreamy, and beautiful daughter of an inventor is the talk of the town and the fixation of the most handsome guy around, the pushy and egotistical Gaston. After sacrificing herself for her father, Belle becomes imprisoned in an enchanted castle. Everyone in the castle is under a spell due to the selfish prince who lived there due to his failure to see what was inside of people. As a result, he is turned into a hideous beast and all of his servants are turned into household objects. To break this spell, he must fall in love with a girl and have her love him in return, despite his hideous exterior. But unfortunately for the Beast it’s not only his exterior that’s hideous. He treats Belle with no respect, even going so far as to threaten and yell at her. He eventually changes her heart with the help of his enchanted friends and she changes his through her kindness. Gaston tries his utmost to make Belle his own, entrapping her and fighting the Beast, but eventually he is unsuccessful, the good guys win, and the whole castle and its inhabitants are transformed by love and everybody lives happily ever after.