Disney is Inconsistent

I was looking for some outside material to blog about today so I searched Beauty and the Beast in google to see what might come up. Obviously, much of what came up were images from the Disney movie and also from the Disney theatre production of the story. However, I stumbled across images from a movie I had forgotten about which is the Beauty and the Beast II movie which I think Disney entitled Beauty and the Beast: An Enchanted Christmas. When I looked at the images I vaguelly remembered this movie coming out which was well after that of the first one and that it was billed as the second part to the tale. However, as you may notice in the image it is inconsistent with the first tale. The Beast is still a beast in part II but at the end of the first tale we saw him and all the animated objects (lumiere, mrs. pots..) turn back into human form. So why in this version have they been returned to objects and beasts? It seems inconsistent for Disney to do this and also detracts from their first story. Apparently being a good person only changes you for a little bit, then you change back. So what is the appeal of being open and loving if you are still destined to spend your life as a beast or a teacup? The whole Disney message of the first movie is undermined by their second attempt to make money off of Beauty and the Beast. This money making move undermined their original fountain of wealth and makes viewers question the story and magic of the original film. What was Disney thinking?

Twisted Beauty

I found the images of a twisted beauty and the beast very interesting especially in regards to the critics we have read recently. The critics describe hidden personalities and needs within our beloved characters. They also talk about Belle maybe not being such a sweet loving girl but a selfish materialistic one. This image shows the darker sides of our much loved fairy tale characters and makes us wonder what is beyond the picture perfect images Disney shows us.

Race and Disney

Today in class discussions we got on the topic of race and ethnicity both in societies perceptions and in the tale or Disney movies made from the tales we are discussing. I found the above image really interesting as throughout the years you can see the break down of cultural and ethnic boundaries as more and more princesses of different ethnicity's are added to Disney's collection of perfect princesses. Disney's integration of princesses really follows trend with our countries feelings about race and ethnicity. In the 1950's-1980's no other ethnicitys were portrayed in pop culture other than beautiful white people. In the late 80's and 90's that all started to change. I think it is almost ridiculous that it has taken this long to get a black princess added to the list. Racial tension in our country still goes on today and affects all of us in some way or another. I think it is a safe bet that the lack of a black Disney princess has greatly affected young black girls throughout their development because unlike white girl children there is not beautiful woman to look up to. Black girls are forced to look up to white women in thier childhoods which is very telling of what our "white society" is comfortable with. Is it threatening to give black girls a black princess role model or does that undermine the subliminal culture of inferiority they are being fed through Disney's movies?

Is everyone gay?

The critic articles for Beauty and The Beast were the most critic articles we have had all semester in my opinion. Especially, the Peter Steeves article that basically attested that all the characters in Disney's Beauty and the Beast are sexually driven and most of them are either gay or lesbian. Thinking about the story in this way really transforms the story being told as you watch the seemingly playfull cartoon flit across your tv screen. All of the phallic and homo-erotic images in the movie are lost to us as children but once you are looking the film twists and becomes a completely different story and each character takes on a different personality. Gaston becomes a hero who we sympathize with and wish we could help with his problems. Belle is a selfish conviving girl. Beast becomes a tortured and sad individual who is so desperate for human interactin he wil give up everything he is and stands for.

Disneys Real Message

Funny chart I stumbled across on the internet that describes the "lessons" women learn from Disney princess's tales. Many of them are crass and ironic but in the same way true.

Site: http://www.madatoms.com/site/blog/everything-i-know-about-love-i-learned-from-disney

Twisted Tales

I recently stumbled across a webpage showing images of fairy tale princesses in dark and twisted poses and expressions. This concept interested me, the changing of the normally pretty innocent into something dark and devious. I think this relates alot to the story of Bluebeard which we are working on currently. I think a lot of Bluebeard is not about what one can see on the outside but what is on the inside of someones soul. Which as I have mentioned before in discussions about the tale is something many people don't want to see. Most people just want the happy perky persona not the devious murderous personality beneath it, or the coniving and disobediant one in the case of the wife. Therefore, I find the concept that maybe there is a second layer to our traditional princesses an interesting one. Maybe their perfect personas are just a cover up for some deep and dark secrets just like those of Bluebeard and his wife. Maybe the princesses have dark thoughts too just like Bluebeard and his room full of dead bodies. Do even the picture perfect princesses like Cinderella have skeletons in their closet? Maybe Bluebeard is not an outrageous and brutal tale but in fact the only really honest tale where no one is cast in perfection and everyone lets their true colors show.

URL for all images: http://www.gunaxin.com/twisted-disney-princesses/16011

Politically Correct Tales

My mom recently sent me a book through the mail because she knew about this English class. The book she sent me was Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner. The introduction alone is relatable to this class and our discussions throughout it:

"When they were first written, the stories on which the following tales are based certainly served their purpose-to entrench the patriarchy, to estrange people from their own natural impulses, to demonize "evil" and to "reward" an "objective" "good." However much we might like to, we cannot blame the Brothers Grimm for their insensitivity to womyn's issues, minority cultures, and the environment. Likewise, in the self-righteous Copenhagen of Hans Christian Andersen, the inalienable rights of mermaids were hardly given a second thought. Today we have to opportunity-and the obligation-to rethink these "classic" stories so they reflect more enlightened times. To that effort I submit this humble book. While its original title, Fairy Stories For The Modern World, was abandoned for obvious reasons (kudos to my editor for pointing out my heterosexualist bias), I think the collection stands on its own. This howver, is just a start. Certain stories such as "The Duckling That Was Judged On Its Personal Merits and Not on Physical Appearance," were deleted for space reasons. I expect I have volumes left in me, and I hope this book sparks righteos imaginations of other writers, and of course, leace and indelible mark on out children, If, through omission or comission, I have inadvertenly displated any sexist, racist, culturallist, nationalist, religionalist, ageist, lookist, abliest, sizeist, speciesist, intellectualist, socioeconomicist, ethnocentrist, phallocentrist, heteropatriarchalist, or other type of bias as yet unamed, I apologize and encourage you suggestions for rectification. In the quest to develop meanigful literature that is totally free from bias and purged from the influences of its flawed cultural past, I doubtless have made some mistakes."

I think this relates to our discussions in many ways as we often spend a lot of time discussing the bias of the authors and how the cultural norms of the times change the stories. This is certainly true of the stories in this book as they reflect a culture afraid of being seen as politically incorect. We are a culture tiptoeing around each other so why should our fairy tales not reflect this idea? Just like Perrault and the Grimm Brothers inserted their beliefs and morals into the tales within context of culture so does this author remove them for the same reasons. Modernity changes the tales, what will they be like years from now?

Wiki On Bluebeard

I decided to use wikipedia to see what it knows or says about the tale of Bluebeard. Here is what it says:

"Bluebeard" (French: "La Barbe bleue") is a French literary fairy tale written by Charles Perrault and is one of eight tales by the author first published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697 in Histoires ou Contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a violent nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of one wife to avoid the fate of her predecessors. Gilles de Rais, a 15th-century artistocrat and prolific serial killer, has been suggested as the source for the character of Bluebeard as has Conomor the Accursed, an early Breton king. "The White Dove" and "Fitcher's Bird" are tales similar to "Bluebeard".

I thought it was really interesting that Wikipedia cites Charles Perrault as the author of the tale when we know he just transcribed in from the oral tale. This is sort of what Perrault and the Grimm Brothers wanted though when writing the tales I think; for people to think they were theirs. I find it interesting how hard it is sometimes to remember the tales originated orally with peasants in countries rather then sprung forth from the mind of the author. I notice in class sometimes we have trouble remembering and considering the tales actual origin. It is important to remember this to better analyze the tale and it's meanings.