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So a recent YouTube craze involves “Advice From a Cartoon Princess,” which takes themes from “princess” films and plays them up in a way that makes the movies themselves—and the heroines portrayed therein—utterly ridiculous.
A few months ago, we ran a piece on the arguably misogynistic message sent by Disney princesses, which are not exactly empowering to women. Through the wonders of YouTube, this is being brought to the next level.
I should probably start out here by saying that Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie. First, Belle has brown hair, not the more traditional blonde or raven locks usually idealized by the stereotypical damsel in distress. Also, she’s a bookworm—totally love Belle.
That said, though, the “Advice From a Cartoon Princess” spoof actually brings up some valid points in terms of messages that might be a little sad to be sending to young girls.
• If you stick with a guy with a big house and lots of possessions, you can change him eventually.
Yeah, Belle does change the Beast over a long period of time. Through constant gentleness and a warm and caring manner, she models the kind of behavior that she wants the big hairy guy to emulate. I mean, he stops slurping out of a bowl for her! Doesn’t change the fact that he was horrible to her at first.
(Oh, and to be fair, it’s not like Belle was there in the first place for his riches and possessions—she was sacrificing herself to save her father, although I guess that’s something the Ladies Against Feminism would probably love).
• If you don’t eat with the guy, you don’t get to eat at all.
You know, this notion got me thinking in kind of an interesting direction. Yeah, the Beast growls this angry message to Belle, but she got all passive aggressive on him (saying, “I’m not hungry” and turning her back on him) as well. Kind of funny how perfectly modeled gender stereotypes are here.
• A guy can imprison you with his love and you’ll get used to it eventually.
I LOLed at the “Stockholm” quip, but this is really kind of scary when you think about it. Patterns of abuse are set early, and mental domination in the name of love often has devastating consequences. How many of us have been ready to walk out the door (as Eminem would say, “Now you get to watch her leave out the window, guess that’s why they call it window pane”) only to capitulate when we hear apologies interspersed with, “I love you! I would die without you! I need you! I love you!”?
Now, I realize that this may be overanalyzing a Disney movie (and it’s not just Beauty and the Beast, by the way … there’s one for The Little Mermaid as well), but I think the points are certainly noteworthy.
And does it make me a “bad” feminist to think that this was hysterically funny?
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Nope, this is definitely funny. I don’t think too much thought should be put into Disney movies because most kids don’t take as much away from it was adults do. It’s still fun to laugh at the weird shit that you can find in the movies, though. Yay bestiality!
Hah – that was very funny. I had a look at the The Little Mermaid One as well, and her face when she says “it is impossible to get rid of crabs” actually made me snort out loud.
Sometimes the internet is full of things made of win.
I’m a million times sick of people bagging on these disney movies.
Did anyone who watched them as a kid think about any of the “bad” messages they apparently have?
They are movies based on childrens stories most of which are hundreds of years old, perhaps it’s time to just let it go..
I think it’s great. Sure, kids don’t read these messages out of it.
but isn’t it great to go back when they get older and have a good talk about it? A great way to start the process of considering media messages.