So for the last week I have been watching Beauty and the beast to analyse the gender representations and I have to say that I was pretty impressed with it. I think overall the representations and messages in this movie were predominantly very positive. There is really only two main things I dislike about the messages and gender representations in this film.
The first being that before Belle met the beast she had so much ambition. She wanted to leave her provincial life in the tiny French village and go and explore the world. It's pretty much all she thinks about. There is literally a whole song about it. But then after meeting and marrying the beast it is as if all her ambitions for adventure just slip away. Now I know they are in love and 'love changes people' but come on! It was her dream and it seems she is abandoning it for love.
All thee servants in the house have been turned into household utensils and one thing I notices was all the female servants in the house were cooking or cleaning utensils (or wardrobes/makeup utensils) while the males were other items like candle sticks or clocks or hat/coat racks. hmm this is sending a bit of a not so subtle message about gender roles.
I like a lot of things about the movie though in fact those two things were the main things I dislike the thing I really like about this movie is the biggest challenge of stereotype for Disney, that real beauty comes from within. This is shown in many different occurrences, the first lesson in the film is the bigger woman telling the beast that beauty is from within, where Belle will not marry Gaston (despite his good looks) Because she doesn't like who he is as a person and when Belle falls for the beast despite the fact he is a beast.
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