Whenever my friends and I discuss movies (which is often), and we approach the subject of animated features, I passionately start to sing the praises of what I consider to be an enormously underrated movie, Beauty and the Beast from Disney. It's gotten to the point that this has become a running joke with my friends, and they tease me about it often. I figure it would make a good subject for my first Feministing-community blog-post.
(I should make it clear that it is actually not my favorite animated movie, that honor belongs to Grave of the Fireflies . It is, however, my favorite American animated movie, and my favorite animated movie that doesn't make me want to kill myself, which Grave of the Fireflies does)
(By the way, this essay is going to be somewhat lengthy. Apologies for that. As I said, I've argued this many times, so I tend to ramble on. And I do belive it's interesting, but I guess I'll let you be the judge of that.)
Why do I love this movie so much? Well, it has all the traditional elements that the classic Disney-features should have: the songs are great, the artwork stunning, the characters engaging and the jokes are funny. In my opinion, it does all those things better than pretty much any other Disney feature in existance. That alone would make it pretty fantastic.
However, the main reason I love it so much is because of the feminist message that's deeply embedded in the heart of the movie. As I'm sure many of the readers of this fine site would recognize, traditional fairy-tales (especially those Disney makes into movies) often have deeply rooted sexist messages in them. It's always the Damsel in Distress who leads a miserable life, only because she is unable to find her True Love. Look at Cinderella, just waiting for the Prince to discover her in her miserable situation, and Sleeping Beauty, cursed with sleep until her Prince comes and kisses her and wakes her up. I mean, just think about this: the woman is literally unconcious until she is found by a man! Her life is literally nothing if she is not the wife of some handsome man (who she presumably will spend her life waiting on).
I don't know about you, but to me the symbolism here isn't all that appealing. And it's not like any of these girls are praised for their wits, either. Snow White is, after all, "The Fairest of the Land", not "The Smartest of the Land".
This pattern recurs even in the modern, more "evolved" movies. Princess Jasmine in Aladdin is a kick-ass woman, but she is also "saved" from her dull life by a heroic "prince". Same with the Little Mermaid, it's all about Ariel finding True Love.
The natural question to ask is of course "Does it really have to be this way? Can't there be a kick-ass heroine, who's praised for her smarts, who don't just live for finding a husband, and in the end will become the hero and rescue the guy instead?" Turns out there can be such a movie! It's called Beauty and the Beast.
Not only does it turn the traditional Disney fairy-tale on it's head, it attempts at every turn to undermine the sexist underpinnings of the traditional fairy-tale.
Most obviously, there is the protagonist, Belle. In the very first song of the movie, we are introduced to her and her life. She reads book after book, dreaming of a life beyond her "provincial town". We get to hear all the towns-people give their opinions of her, and they are almost unanimous:
Look there she goes that girl is strange, no question
No denying she's a funny girl that Belle
Look there she goes that girl is so peculiar
What a puzzle to the rest of us is Belle
While she is described as having "looks without parallel", the prevailing opinion of her is that she's an odd-ball goof, a total outsider. She doesn't care about popularity or being the perfect girl, she'd much rather read a book.
In the same song, we are introduced to the movie's foremost antagonist, Gaston. Gaston in this movie is a total caricature of the traditional Prince Charming role. Like Prince Charming, he's handsome, he's popular, he's strong and brave and everyone loves him. But he's also a total dimwit egotistical asshole, and Belle wants nothing to do with him. When he courts her in the beginning of the movie, she's almost revolted. Already, not ten minutes into the movie, it has totally upended all the traditional gender roles of the fairy tale: she's the smart one, he's the one that courts her, and she is the one who turns him down. She doesn't need him, and he's not the Prince riding in on his white horse to be the hero, he's the villain!
Then, her father, a daffy inventor, goes missing in the dark woods. She tracks him down to a huge gothic castle where he is being held captive by the Beast. She bravely saves him by trading his life for hers (she's in the role of the savior). Thus begins the uncomfortable cohabitation of Beauty and the Beast.
(The character of the Beast is extremely fascinating, by the way. His curse is that he will remain a Beast if he is unable to find love by his twenty-first birthday, meaning that he is twenty for the bulk of the movie. In a throwaway line in one of the songs, we find out that the castle has been cursed for ten years, meaning he was cursed at the age of ten. Think about this, a boy of ten years old, completely abandoned by his parents in a huge castle, with only servants that are afraid of him and do his every bidding. One could easily interpret his being a Beast as his internal hatred of himself manifested, because he never had anyone to love him. You see him on several occasion tearing up pictures of his old, true self. His despair goes deep. The psychological realism of this character is far beyond that of any other Disney movie.)
Anyway, their life together is difficult. The Beast has harsh rules and demands, and proceeds to order her around. She wont have any of it. When he orders her to come down to dinner, she refuses. He could kill her in an instant, but she refuses to be intimidated by him. She is allowed anywhere in the castle, except the dreaded West Wing. The Beast makes it clear that she is totally forbidden from entering there. Of course, she goes in there, and after a confrontation with the Beast, she flees the castle into the woods.
She is soon attacked by wolves, and things look very grim indeed, when the Beast steps in and chases away the wolves. He is heavily injured and lies unconcious in the snow. Belle makes the choice to save his life by hoisting him on her horse and takes him back to the castle. She easily could have decided to just ride home, but she didn't.
The next scene, with Belle tending to the Beasts wounds, is typical for the movie. He's angry and the servants are all terrified, but each time he growls, she growls back (saying "Don't be a baby!" when he complains that the wounds hurt). The more she challenges him, the more his armor breaks down, and soon enough, they're falling in love (in a completely believable way).
Meanwhile, back in town, Belle's father (Maurice) has come back ranting of a huge beast in a castle that's holding Belle captive. Gaston, still intent on marrying Belle, intends to blackmail her into agreeing to his proposal by throwing her beloved father into the insane-asylum. Through a magic mirror in the Beasts castle, she sees this, and panics. The Beast (by this point essentially completely redeemed and head over heels in love with Belle) lets her go, apparently losing his one chance at having the spell broken (his twenty-first birthday is just days away, if that).
When Belle gets back to town, she tries to stop her father being hauled off to the loony-bin. Using the magic mirror, she is able to prove her fathers sanity by showing the Beast on it. The townspeople panic, and under the guide of Gaston, they form a mob for the purpose of storming the castle and killing the Beast.
At the castle, the servants form a defensive line and is able to stop the bulk of the attackers, but Gaston gets through and proceeds into the West Wing, where the Beast is hiding. The Beast puts up no defense (having lost the will to live when Belle left) and Gaston proceeds to almost kill him, when the Beast suddenly sees Belle riding in on her horse. A savage fight ensues between Gaston and the Beast, with the Beast barely winning. In the final moments of the movie, the Beast lays dying while time is running out on his curse, and Belle declares her love for him, saving him in the nick of time.
At every point in this movie, Belle is in complete control over her destiny. Despite people constantly telling her what to do, she stubbornly refuses and always makes her own decisions. She refuses Gastons proposal, she decides to trade herself for her father, she stubbornly refuses to follow the Beasts order. When she's had enough, she flees the castle, and when the Beast is dying from being wounded by the wolves, she decides to save him. And on and on and on.
In traditional fairy tales, when the girl meets Prince Charming, she automatically falls for him. There's not even a second of doubt. He's good-looking, brave and rich, why wouldn't she? Not so in Beauty and the Beast. The Beast has to work hard to prove to her that he's worthy. He needs to earn Belle's love, and she is able to heal his fractured soul. That's the ultimate point, she's the one that saves him, not the other way around.
To me, this movie is a complete deconstruction of the traditional fairy-tale, and complete rebuilding of it from the ground up. Only, this time, it totally has a feminist message. Every kid should watch this, boy or girl. I've certainly seen it enough times as an adult :) It is the only animated movie ever to be given an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, and I think it is richly deserved. Many people dismiss Beauty and the Beast is an un-orignal tale derivative of the classic Disney-movies. They couldn't be more wrong. I think it's nothing short of a masterpiece.
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Interesting read. But it seems like a stretch. The few violations of gender norms does not make this a progressive film. It still reinforces heterosexuality, encourages young women to give up everything for love and romanticizes marriage in a way that is false.
The biggest problem I have with Beauty and the Beast is that the Beast is not just "harsh." He is abusive. He throws her to the ground, denies her relationship with her family and intimidates her in numerous ways. And the overall lesson for young girls who watch the movie is "forgive men/boys who are mean to you as long as they love you."
So it might be better than Cinderella but I don't see the usefulness of convincing people it is a feminist film. Lesser of the two evils perhaps.
kristen1: You make some very good points, and I might be colored by my affection for the movie, but I do still think that despite these things, Beauty and the Beast is a fundamentally different story, one with a deliberate feminist perspective.
It's true that it reinforces heterosexuality, but it is a kids-movie from Disney, after all. I would love for them to make a movie with a gay couple, but I doubt that's going to happen. It's a shame, but you can't really blame them.
As for encouraging women to give up everything for love, that's a good argument. However, I'd like to point out that the Belle's primary drive in life was knowledge; she read books by the truckload (she'd already devoured an entire library), and the one thing that the Beast does that impresses her the most is when he gives his (ridiculously large) library to her. And I'm convinced that she doesn't have to give up a thing when marrying him. She probably schleps him all around the world, visiting exotic locales and cultural landmarks. And do you expect him to administer their extensive land-holdings (or whatever it is that made his family rich)? They're almost certainly the most equal marriage in Disney history. In my mind, anyway :)
As for your main objection, about the Beast being abusive, that's... a very good point. And one I hadn't fully considered, and am honestly a little perturbed by :) As a counter-argument, I would say that at the times when he is abusive, she never takes it lying down. The angrier he gets, the angrier she gets. And when he crosses the line, she leaves. Every time he growls, she growls back.
As I'm writing this, I realize that this can be interpreted in a bad way, about how she leaves when he's abusive and then comes back when he's sweet. However, I don't really think this is what's going on. I don't see the Beast as a spousal abuser, I don't think that's what he is. I think that he's a profoundly unloved creature that is drowning in his own self-loathing. When Belle comes along, I do believe that he truly heals and becomes a better person (much of it because Belle refuses to be intimidated by him). And in the end, he doesn't try to assert control over Belle. When she says that she's leaving to save her father, he doesn't object, even though it means that his curse can never be lifted.
As I said, there's a very strong possibility that I'm hugely biased here, and can't think rationally. But I really think that the writers and directors made a very conscious attempt to de-construct the traditional sexist fairy-tale, and rebuild it as a feminist narrative. Almost every trope in the fairy-tale book is extracted and turned on its head (Gaston and Belle being the obvious examples). Some other Disney movies (like Aladdin) has included strong female figures, while still essentially maintaining the sexist framework. Beauty and the Beast goes far beyond that.
I'm going to use some points that were brought up in a documentary I watched recently about Disney Movies. I wholeheartedly disagree with you that Beauty and the Beast is a feminist movie. Perhaps on the surface it seems that way, but a little scratching will reveal the ugly and destructive message of the film. 1. The only reason that Belle is "different" and "strange" is because she (gasp!) reads. She doesn't even read intelligent books, she reads fairy tales. 2. Throughout the movie, the Beast imprisons her, yells at her, tortures and torments her, yet she ends up falling in love with him. The underlying message of the movie is that if you act sweet enough and stay with an abuser, you can change him. Young girls pick up on messages like that very easily and I find it dangerous and deeply troubling.
I agree that in quite a few places in children’s entertainment woman characters are given really stereotypical personalities and roles but I am a fan of Disney. In many of their stories women are the main characters. These women are often active in changing their situation. Of course there is a love story (that is true of almost all movies). In the early nineties Disney really began to put the intelligence and strength of their female leads front and center. Jasmine had a tiger. Mulan was a warrior. Neither gave up anything for the men in their life. If anything they required their men to step up or shut up.
Personally, I love the Baddies. I wanted to be Maleficent. I never really understood why she hated Aurora so much (if I could turn into a dragon I wouldn't envy anyone). I know they kill all the villains at the end but still they are some cool ladies. I can still sing Ursula song about poor unfortunate souls.
In the early nineties Disney really began to put the intelligence and strength of their female leads front and center. Jasmine had a tiger.
I'm not sure how having a tiger is feminist or female-positive. Cool, yes, but feminist, no. They may have presented Jasmine as intelligent and strong, but in the end, all that did was get her into trouble that she needed a Aladdin and the genie to rescue her from. Jasmine was nothing more than a princess-character who needed to be rescued by and then marry Aladdin to move his story along.
I have to concur with most of the other comments, Beauty and the Beast is the decidedly not feminist.
On the whole, Disney tends to sexualize, objectify, feminize, titivate, and princess-ify their female characters (not to mention belittle and abuse them, as in Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella). Disney’s female characters are consistently referred to and treated as “girls” even though every single one of them are women whom are old enough to marry (we know this because that’s the ultimate plot of most of these characters’ stories - to marry their one, true love and live happily ever after). If you want good female-positive animated movies, Disney does not have a good track-record in that area.
Actually, do they have a track-record at all? Any real, honest-to-goodness, from start-to-finish, woman-positive animated movie Disney has made? What about live action?
ShelbyWoo commented at July 14, 2008 6:37 PM: "Actually, do they have a track-record at all? Any real, honest-to-goodness, from start-to-finish, woman-positive animated movie Disney has made? What about live action?"
I didn't see Mulan (I tend to dislike musicals), but how was that one?
I liked Pocahontas. (I am aware the Disney feature did not reflect history.) She was always the wise one, called John Smith on his white superiority on their very first meeting, and in the end (of the film, that is), chose her own people and culture. The lyrics of the song, "Colors of the Wind" begin:
You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know ...
You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name
You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew
I'd say mainstream Americans can still learn this lesson today when assuming the rest of the world should be like them, or at least something they can understand; and looking down upon other nations and cultures - yes, like Muslim cultures.
Mulan is Awesome. She doesn't get rescued. She SAVES china. She doesn't get married or even engaged at the end. I recommend it. Also for a different view on the legend see Maxine Hong Kingston's book Warrior Woman.
I think you offer a really interesting analysis of Beauty and the Beast, and I tend to agree with you that this movie is better than earlier Disney films, albeit only slightly.
That being said, I think it is damaging to ignore what the commenters before me have said, specifically what kristenl and opera_ating have brought up about domestic violence.
The idea that is presented here is that the Beast cannot control himself, it is just in his nature (I'm sure there could be some interesting analysis on the role of masculinity here, but I'm no expert) and that through perseverance and love, by just trying hard enough, Belle changes him into the adoring "Prince Charming" figure of legend. "Hey girls, he only beats you/berates you/intimidates you because he loves you, and he's too damaged to express it. He may seem mean and ornery now, but you can CHANGE him, you can FIX him."
Doesn't seem very healthy, does it?
For those asking about Mulan, Mulan is byfar the most female positive and feminist film Disney has ever created. Mulan is a girl who is imperfect for a bride, mainly because she is uninterested in being scene but not heard, and after completely blundering her chance with her matchmaker, her injured father is drafted. She steals his armor and sword and heads to the army in his place. At first she is weak and constantly messes up (as does the rest of the male army, so it's not JUST her) but she consistently keeps trying, doesn't give up, and ultimately conquers one of the challenges her superior set that none of her peers had conquered. Her quick thinking then saves them in battle when she utilizes their weaponry for the best, and even after she is injured and the whole army finds out she is a woman (and abandons her), she spots the enemy heading toward China and ends up going to save China. My favorite part of the movie is how, although when Mulan is training in the army they are singing "Be a man", at the end the same song plays when some of her friends from the army dress up as females. It says to me that all of the characters in the film once thought to be strong and heroic you had to be a man, but now they've learnt that a woman has just as much potentional to be those things; it's almost as if they are poking fun at themselves. At the end, she goes home to her father and her father and her whole family is incredibly proud of her, and a man does come back to see her, but she doesn't get married or swept off her feet. If anything, the man is shy and nervous about being in her presence.
ANYWAY, sorry for the gigantic movie synopsis, but I would vote Mulan over Beauty and the Beast any day. You make a convincing argument, but the abuse really kills it. The beast is not simply aloof, but he is angry and forceful. In Mulan, there is a subtle romance, but the basic lack exploration of romantic relationships in the film really makes it much greater, because Mulan is happy just doing something for herself, being happy with her reflection in the mirror.
Edgy1004 commented at July 14, 2008 11:45 PM: "Also for a different view on the legend see Maxine Hong Kingston's book Warrior Woman."
...and read the original poem first! It's up at http://chinapage.com/mulan.html (both in Chinese and in English translation). I'm glad I read the poem first, because them I could appreciate what Kingston did with it more. :)
Thanks for the link to the original poem.
I will have to revisit Mulan. Disney…come on, we know you can do better. Let’s have more movies with strong, intelligent girls or women that don’t need saving!
And, completely OT:
The lyrics of the song, "Colors of the Wind"
That song was released before the movie. I took a friend’s daughter to see it and the theatre was packed (we had to be escorted down the aisles just to find two seats). And, when the scene with “Colors of the Wind” came on, all of these quiet, little voices started singing along, swaying their little heads back and forth. It was quite possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever witnessed.
Speaking of fairy tales, has anyone looked into the older version of Sleeping Beauty? It scares the living daylights out of me. In the older tale, she's reeeally young (by the way, Snow White is only 8 in some versions) - maybe 14. She's rendered unconscious by a piece of flax stuck under her fingernail - this is important for later. The prince finds her and doesn't really kiss her... he rapes her. More than once. Necrophilia and pedophilia, good times. She gets pregnant, and gives birth to twins, still out of it. She is awoken after one of the babies tries to find milk and sucks the flax from under her fingernail. I'd have some pretty serious questions if I was her.