Quote:
Originally Posted by thyra  That is AWESOME! Thanks for reminding me why I really dislike disney!
|
Remember, most older disney movies are just retellings of old old old fairy tales. The types of tales that might have been told in the times that someone else was mentioning might be good for a girl to think about princessy things (at ren faires).
At least no one's cutting off toes in the current Cinderella!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smokering It's amusing and all, but it's just not accurate. For one thing, it conveniently leaves out Pocahontas (who - in the movie version - saved a man using her position, not her sexuality, helped prevent a war and gave up the man she loved in order to better serve her people), Mulan (who, y'know, SAVED CHINA) and Tiana (a career gal who did the majority of the "saving" in the movie, by her wits, personality and talent rather than her sexuality).
For another thing, it just doesn't do justice to the films. Ariel wanted to "drastically change her appearance" long before she met Eric - you could just as easily describe her as a "woman who determined her own destiny over the objections of her traditionalist father", if you felt the need. Noting that Jasmine was saved by a "street rat" seems like an unnecessary bit of classism - would it have been OK if she'd been saved by an upper-class gentleman? Plus, she was never exactly "enslaved" by Jafar - captured, yes (as was Aladdin at one point). The statement that Belle "saved a prince's life by her only asset, her sexuality" is downright absurd. Her kindness, intelligence, tact and bravery were all factors in the Beast's falling in love with her, and her love of books is explicit in the film (unless that's not considered an "asset"?). Even Cinderella has more to her than the text implies - you don't see little woodland friends running to help the stepsisters fit into the shoe. She gets help from her friends because she's kind to them - so her character contributes to her fate. And calling Snow White's "only asset" beauty is rather uncharitable - she's a mean housekeeper and a kind human being (or again, is kindness not considered an asset these days?).
That's not to say Disney has no problems with gender portrayals. It does. But reducing characters to a few snarky soundbites isn't a particularly helpful critique, and sounds like the critic is more interested in proving a point than actually engaging with the text.
|
Woo!
Enchanted is actually really cute. Ends up being about people *choosing* (well, women, at least, the men don't really change much I assume b/c there were already solid in their decisions?) what they want. The career girl chooses something else...the fairy tale girl realizes she likes modern day stuff but retains her immensely romantic self. There's a bit at the end that the Susan Sarandon character kinda ruins with her "yes hello that's very obvious to us" dialog, but of course that's on the writers, not her. But the switch-up is fairly amusing.
DS watched Enchanted at 5 and LOVES it, and still loves it. He loves the other princess movies too...wanna know why? Because the princesses are nice and pretty. And until you actually get to KNOW someone, that's ALL we have to go by at the beginning. You look at someone and go "hmm, that person seems like someone I'd like to know, let's get to know them". So I don't see anything all that much wrong about a prince wanting to find someone because she's beautiful and he was entranced by her looks and whatever it was they spoke about while dancing at the ball (people always forget that they did spend that time together, and who knows what they said to each other)...and of course when you're very young and in that sort of timeframe, you do tend to just think about "happily ever after" instead of dating (like Amy Adams' character learns about in Enchanted).
I struggled with Disney through my 20s, until my mom died and I realized why most disney stories aka old fairy tales start with the death of a parent. And since then, I've realized I kinda like the movies and stories, and they are FAR better than reading the actual fairy tales (a friend of my son's gave him a REAL fairy tale book for his b'day, YUCKO)!
. It's not princess-specific, but a re-telling of the Cinderella story. Fanny is a farm girl who is convinced that her Fairy Godmother will take her to the Mayor's house for a ball, where she will meet a handsome, wealthy husband, etc. What happens is quite different and ultimately lovely.
:
I can't wait until DD is old enough to watch Into the Woods with me someday. The prince is like gagging from the blood in the shoe 
Follow Mothering