In Defense of Disney Princesses: Belle

This post probably should have been written a month or two (or three or four) ago, but it was not.  Why? you may ask.  Well, it's a long story (about twenty-two years in the making), but, in short, Belle and her story transformed my life.

Has there ever been something tangible you can point to and say, "This changed my life!"?  A song, an album, a movie, a book, a YouTube video?  Maybe even an essay?  Beauty and the Beast opened my eyes to reading when I was only three-years-old.  My parents will confirm that I learned to read because Belle loves to read and when I was little, there was nothing more important than being exactly like Belle (emulating?).  

Before church on Sunday mornings, my mom would let me pick out my clothes.  I pretended my closet spoke to me and picked out my church dress because the wardrobe picked out Belle's clothes.  I dressed up as Belle not only for several Halloweens, but also in my everyday life.  My grandmother made me a yellow Belle dress that I wore almost every day.

I will even post a picture of myself in my yellow Belle dress so that you can see first-hand the enabling my family performed towards me being Belle.

I could write a post about how Belle does not have Stockholm Syndrome, how hers and the Beast's relationship is not a case of beastiality.  I could (and have) argue(d) that their relationship is not abusive.  And maybe someday I will, but today I want to write about how Belle and her story transformed my life.  Belle is one of those characters that I connected with deeply, even though I was only three when Beauty and the Beast came out.  

My parents will tell you that we went every single weekend to see that movie.  Especially once it came to the dollar theater. I can remember that theater even though it has not been there for over ten years.  

It was on Alps Road in Athens, Georgia at the end of a shopping plaza.  The windows were all blacked out and you had to go down a short flight of stairs to get to the theater entrance and the concession stand.  The lobby smelled kind of funny, like stale popcorn.  Overall, it was a pretty sketchy theater. But I remember that nasty old theater with sentiment because it housed my first connection with Belle.  

And ever since Beauty and the Beast has been my favorite movie.  For almost twenty-two years I have never had to think about what my favorite movie is.  

My deep connection with Belle is still there and so strong because my life would be different without that movie, without her story.  I would not have had the urgent desire to learn to read from the age of three if I had not seen that movie. Would I have been reading chapter books on my own by the time I was in first grade?  Would I understand the effects that reading can have on my life and its ability to nurture and foster imagination?

I cannot answer these questions truthfully because I do not know anything about my childhood without Belle.  Something special happens when we realize the depths of our connection with a character, a book, a play, a song, a movie and we are never the same. 

Most of these connections for me are through books. The Poisonwood Bible, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, and the Harry Potter series come to mind immediately. But would those connections be so strong without that first connection to Belle?  

I may never truly know the answer to that question, but I do think I know the answer. Have you ever realized a deep connection you have with something or someone similar?  Let me know in the comments!!

In Defense of Disney Princesses: Ariel

Ariel from The Little Mermaid represents a new chapter for the Walt Disney Company.  It jumpstarted the animation studio's Golden Age, returning to the their roots of emotional storytelling that captured people's hearts.  With The Little Mermaid, we see a return to a style emotional storytelling that requires characters to burst into song (Broadway-style) in order to fully convey what they are feeling.

We also see some character development within Ariel.  While I adore Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora, they did not do much changing internally throughout their respective movies.  Their circumstances happen to them and they must be strong and brave enough to overcome them.  Ariel's circumstances happen because of her.  She chooses to disobey her father and explore the surface and even saves a human, something seen as absolutely reprehensible in her community.  Also unlike the other previous princesses, Ariel is headstrong, feisty, and stubborn (often to a fault).  She refuses to let something like losing her voice, and potentially her life, to keep her from doing what she wants and following her dreams.  

I have heard and read many comments that claim it is disturbing that Ariel has to be mute in order to find love with Eric, but technically he has already fallen in love with the beautiful woman with the angelic voice that saved his life.  If anything Eric is clinging as fiercely to his dreams as Ariel is--he is holding out for the girl that keeps eluding him, “the one.”  I have wondered if the animators were conscious that they were trying to persuade audiences that Eric falling in love with a mute girl that is actually not mute and if that is one of the reasons Ariel seems so animated and lively as a human even though she has no voice.  She takes Ursula’s advice and communicates with the other characters and the audience through her body language and emotive facial expressions.  

Throughout the movie, Ariel demonstrates how she is different from the other princesses.  She is truly gutsy and brave.  She gives up everything in order to become human because she feels that it is the right path for her.  She has total and complete faith in herself and the fact that she becomes human via a deal with Ursula shows that she is relatable, she is a flawed character.  Ariel definitely challenges the notion that Disney Princesses are perfect, proper ladies that do not make mistakes.  What is powerful about her is that even though she makes a few mistakes, Ariel is still easy for us to love and connect with; she shows us all how to be brave and confident and how to trust ourselves--really great attributes for us to admire and find within ourselves.

**The Pocket Princess comics are drawn by Amy Mebberson.  You can find her tumblr here or you can copy and paste this link into your browser: amymebberson.tumblr.com.  

In Defense of Disney Princesses: Aurora

I love Sleeping Beauty so much!  But I will be the first to admit that I did not love it a whole lot until I was a little older.  I got the DVD for Christmas when I was sixteen or seventeen and it had an entire disc of special features and it was when I watched those special features that I began to appreciate the beauty of Sleeping Beauty (wordplay intended).  I did not realize that the music drew so heavily from Tchaikovsky's ballet from 1890.  I also was too young to appreciate the beautiful animation in Sleeping Beauty.  After watching the special features I re-watched the movie in complete awe of the animation.  Every frame in this movie is a work of art.  If you haven't seen it for a while (or ever), I would encourage you to watch it keeping in mind that so much money was spent on this movie's animation that Disney's animation studio has never been able to replicate the budget (taking into account inflation and the growth of the Walt Disney Company) or the artistry that is evident in this movie.  

That being said, this is a blog about Aurora and what makes her special, a role model, someone you should be okay with children (especially daughters) looking up to.  I will start with the obvious, if Walt Disney himself decided that Aurora and her story are so special that there needs to be a bank-breaking budget for her movie, he and the studio must have seen something very very special in her.  

 I will start with what makes Aurora different from her predecessors Snow White and Cinderella.  Snow White and Cinderella both are isolated and from broken, abusive families, whereas Aurora is from a loving family, but is forced into isolation from them because of outside evil forces (enter Maleficent, no worries we will get to her later).  So while we do still see this theme of the main character being separated from her biological family, Aurora's childhood is different in that she is raised in a very loving home by the three good fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather.  This may seem to make her a less "interesting" character, but we should not discount her just yet...

Her isolation is extremely important to remember for this next portion.  When she first encounters Prince Phillip, he has already fallen in love with her.  He does not fall in love with her beauty (though I'm sure he really appreciated it), he falls in love with her heart, signified by him falling in love with her singing, her voice.  We have to remember that this is a fairytale, it is not supposed to be realistic, we have to suspend disbelief and remind ourselves what it means that her beauty is not what the prince first falls in love with.  Aurora's kindness, like Cinderella and Snow White before her, is shown through her kindness to animals.  Because of her isolation, she has no peers, she only has the three fairies that have raised her, so her kindness must be shown to the audience through some other means, especially if we are to believe that Prince Phillip falls in love with her heart before he even sets eyes on her.  

Now we definitely see something special in Aurora, she is definitely a good person, worthy of being called a compassionate future ruler of her parents' kingdom, but is there anything that she teaches us that should be passed down to our children (read, daughters)?  I think so.  Even though she does not seem active, Aurora still decides to send caution to the wind and meet this man who has fallen in love with her because it feels right to her.  She has been taught her entire life to never speak to strangers, yet she speaks to him, she even allows herself to fall in love with him.  Aurora first appears to be a passive young lady that lets things happen to her, but we have to read her within her context.  This movie was made in the 1950s, a time when all women were to be content being housewives and mothers.  Aurora, though, is rebellious in the sense that she does decide not to follow the rules set out for her.  She speaks to a stranger and she is devastated when she discovers that she is actually a princess, destined to marry for family and kingdom politics instead of for love.  She also should not be declared a poor role-model for being a good person.  She is beautiful on the inside and the outside, and the fairies only took care of the outside and the singing voice.  Her inner-beauty, kindness, and compassion are all from her.  There is nothing wrong with being kind, and there is nothing wrong with trying to listen to what people have to say when they care about you.  She listens and obeys the fairies and goes to the castle because they raised her and they are the only people she has ever known.  It's nearly impossible for us to imagine her context because almost nobody is isolated from the world in the way that Aurora is; she has no knowledge outside of her life with the good fairies because of the huge need to protect her from the evil Maleficent.

Speaking of the fairies and Maleficent, this movie is also unique in that it displays many different facets of femininity, cool, right?  We have Aurora, the beautiful, shy, and compassionate teenager, the three good fairies, each complete with their own unique personalities, and Maleficent, the CRAZY-EVIL fairy.  (Full disclosure: Maleficent is my favorite disney villain EVER!!  She is SO EVIL!! I love her like I love Jezebel--> see 1 Kings 16-2 Kings 9!!)  Anyways, the cool thing about showing so many examples of what femininity looks like is that people (read girls) can see themselves somewhere in the story, in at least one, if not more characters and it doesn't have to be the princess.   In Cinderella and Snow White there are lots of male characters, which is awesome, boys need to see different forms of masculinity, but in Sleeping Beauty there are lots of lady characters.  I can remember when I was little, I may not have been obsessed with Aurora, but I ADORED Merryweather.  In fact, upon watching the movie again, my favorite part of the movie is still the same as when I was little, when Merryweather turns that awful raven to stone, super-cool.  

So, in conclusion, this movie and Aurora are totally awesome, if difficult, and it is perfectly fine to wrestle with them like we do with everything else in life.  Now for the most important question/struggle/point of controversy: What color should Aurora's dress have been?!  Pink or Blue?!?!

**The Pocket Princesses are drawn by Amy Mebberson.  You can visit her tumblr here.  Or you can copy and paste this link into your browser: www.amymebberson.tumblr.com.  

In Defense of Disney Princesses: Cinderella

The problem with this series about the Disney princesses is that it is difficult to differentiate defending the princess herself and defending the actual movie.  I was especially intimidated by Cinderella because I love the movie, but I sometimes go back and forth about Cinderella herself.  So when I found this quote from Walt Disney himself about Cinderella, I began to feel much better about writing this post.  He said: “She believed in dreams all right, but she also believed in doing something about them...When Prince Charming didn’t come along, she went over to the palace and got him.”  For Disney, Cinderella is not a passive girl, she does not believe in letting others control her life and her happiness.  

Time and time again, I wonder if I actually even like Cinderella, but every time I watch the movie, something about her draws me in.  Is it because her story is one that is a completely archetypal rags to riches story, or is it something else?  I think it is because she has the ability to look at the situation around her and not only continue to dream and hope, but to dream and hope bigger than before.  The reason the fairy godmother says she has come to Cinderella’s aid is because even after her stepsisters have ripped her dress to shreds, she still believes in her chance to be a princess for a night.

Something else that draws me in towards Cinderella is her ability to hold onto something so precious to her and refuses to let anyone take it from her.  For Cinderella, “A dream is a wish your heart makes when you’re fast asleep.”  It is not something to be shared, but something you keep close to your heart, something sacred for your very self.  No matter what happens to her, she holds onto those dreams and wishes.  They are what keeps her going, she knows that if she dreams something big enough and seizes her opportunities as they come along, that something great is going to happen for her.  And when she keeps her faith in the most difficult time, her fairy godmother comes and helps to push her along the way.  The fairy godmother represents that person or that force in everyone’s life that seems to come through in just the right moment with just the right prescription for whatever ails someone.

I do not know if I will ever figure out whether I love Cinderella or Cinderella more, but what I do know is that Cinderella exemplifies what faith means.  There are times in all of our lives when our anxiety threatens to blind us to all the opportunities around us and the amazing-ness of the world we live in.  Cinderella reminds us that even as we feel we are backed into the deepest and darkest corners, somewhere in the distance, there is a light.

This is totally an aside, but this is my absolute favorite quote about feminism and it definitely connects to Cinderella, so I am going to put it in here :)  

“Feminism is the fairy godmother.  ‘Do you remember the story of Cinderella?  She is sitting at home rather pissed off, wanting to go to the ball, and not having a thing to wear, when the fairy godmother whizzes in and p all right.  One of the most important things about the fairy godmother is that she transforms all the old stuff around Cinderella into new and useful equipment: the rags, the pumpkin, the rats, and so forth.  This little girl’s fairy godmother turned out to be called Feminism.  As well as cheering the little girl up no end, Feminism also transformed all the old things around her.’” --Sara Maitland

**The Pocket Princesses are drawn by Amy Mebberson.  You can view her Tumblr by clicking here or by copying and pasting this link into your browser: www.amymebberson.tumblr.com.  

Our Bodies, Ourselves Campaign

Recently, I have found myself fairly infuriated by all the rhetoric coming from old white men in political power telling me about my own body.  Like they have a clue what it's like to have your rights infringed upon because of your sex.  But what really makes me angry is that they are using bad science and bad theology to do it.  Rape is a deplorable, heinous crime and I listened to a politician today telling me that if I am ever impregnated by a rape that it is a blessing from God.  That is really bad theology, friend and it is a really patronizing way for you to tell me that everything is going to be fine because you are going to make my decisions for me.  Just so all the people out there know, that is not okay.  It is not okay for you as an older white man to tell me with tears in your eyes that you are convinced that should I ever get raped AND pregnant that that is God's intention.  I'm sure that soon I will be hearing that children all over the world dying from preventable diseases while Americans struggle with obesity is also God's divine will and intention.  Give me a break.  Right now I feel like if I hear another politician tell me something horrendously stupid about rape, abortion, sex education, or birth control, I may run for office myself on the most crazy-liberal platform.  Maybe I'll ask Dennis Kucinich if I can be his running mate in the next election.  

Anyways, all that to say that the amazing people at Our Bodies, Ourselves have created a campaign that will send copies of the iconic book Our Bodies, Ourselves to every congressional office so that they no longer have the excuse of being uninformed politicians.  (Did they really have that right anyway, to be uninformed politicians talking about my fallopian tubes and how they will legislate what I can and cannot do and what medication I can and cannot have?  Grrr...) It's a great cause and even if you don't contribute, make sure that you VOTE on November 6th.  

This is a great PSA that you should watch if you can find a few free minutes in your day: "You Don't Own Me" PSA.

I know that this is a little angrier than I usually am, and I know I am coming off pretty crass, but this is a really important issue for me and I think it should be a really important issue for all women and all men.  The equality of women and the legislation crackdown on abortion, birth control, sex education, and rape and the rhetoric surrounding all of them are extremely important for all of us.  If you have any questions as to why feminism is still an issue, please watch this video.

In Defense of Disney Princesses: Snow White

Snow White (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) was, as many of you know, the first full-length animated feature film ever.  Not just from Disney, but ever.  I am going to be really honest with you, I am not sure that this post is going to convince all you non-believers that Snow White has qualities that we as human-beings should possess, but try I will.  

Snow White is a very passive young lady with a very abusive stepmother.  The viewers are not shown any direct violence, but it does not require very much observation power to notice that the young princess scrubbing the castle in rags is probably not living the life she or her father had planned.  It is probably not her choice to be cleaning, indicating that the evil queen has exerted a certain amount of control over her.  She seems docile and congenial, but not really in a good way. It is this part of the movie where the viewer wonders why anyone would put up with that abuse and questions her character and her strength.

I think, though, that where we see the real strength of Snow White is a little later on in the film when she has escaped the huntsman and is sitting in the forest with all her forest animal friends.  She sings a song called “With a Smile and a Song” found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQZ6zzLpoNQ.  This is a woman who has lost both her parents, has an evil, abuse stepmother, but no real friends, and she still has so much joy inside her.  What we see in Snow White is that we are responsible for our own happiness, no one else has the power to take joy away from us, we are the ones who “fill the world with sunshine.”  She is happy being in the forest alone, she is happy cleaning a filthy cottage, and she is happy even knowing that her stepmother is still after her.  This is a woman we could all learn from, how many times a day do we complain about something happening in our lives that is keeping us from joy?  Maybe Snow White is a little unrealistic, but the fact remains that she has learned to find her happiness and joy inside herself, excluding every single external factor.


Snow White is also very adaptable.  Not only does she go from an assumed high social position as the princess of her kingdom to a servant for her evil stepmother, she also is run out of her home after her stepmother attempts to murder her.  She survives each transition and even thrives while she is living with the dwarves; she becomes genuinely happy.  

She also exemplifies altruism, a fine virtue that anyone would be lucky to possess.  After her encounter with the huntsman and the very scary forest, the little animals lead her to the Dwarf Cottage and Snow White immediately begins to think of the “children” even after all that she had just been through!  She cleans the cottage, cooks dinner and, once she learns that the inhabitants of the cottage are dwarves and not children, she even offers to cook and clean for them everyday so that she can stay hidden from the evil queen.  Now I know what you are thinking, “Sure it’s great that she is still happy throughout all these trials and that she is able to keep going, but why on earth does it have to be ‘domestic, womanly’ things that make her happy?”  And I am here to tell you that I wish she had been able to be happy slugging it out in the woods, killing bears and toppling trees instead of cleaning and cooking for seven men, but that is not the narrative Walt Disney gave us.  (This is not to say that there is anything wrong with finding joy in cooking and cleaning, because it is perfectly fine to be happy doing those things.  I am trying to say that I enjoy when women (princesses) are portrayed as active outside the private sphere as well.)  We have to learn how to tease the good things out and keep wrestling with the parts that are difficult.  Whether we like it or not, this is how we have to deal with just about every aspect of life.  I am in Theology School right now and I was quick to learn that there are many parts of the Bible and Christian history that I love, but there are just as many that I do not love and I must keep wrestling with them (just like Jacob wrestled with a stranger at Peniel in Genesis 32: crazy connections between Snow White and Jacob for the win?)

Well, that was a little bit of a tangent, but I do think it was fairly important to say those things so that you know that even as I write about defending Snow White, I still have some struggles with her and her narrative.  To some extent, we have to accept that Snow White was created by white men in the 1930s and was based on a fairy tale that is hundreds of years old.  That does not make it okay that she only portrays “womanly, domestic” interests along with several other feminine stereotypes, but she is a product of the culture(s) that created her and we have to figure out what that means for us.  I personally choose to view her as a strong young woman who must overcome several obstacles throughout the movie and remains strong and true to herself for its entirety.  She is able to hold on to her innocence and her compassion, something many of us lose without going through half of what she does.  I love her and you should too, but if you do not, I still love you!  

**Pocket Princesses by Amy Mebberson.  Her tumblr is here.  

In Defense of Disney Princesses: Introduction

Many people seems to love talking about how terrible the Disney Princess Franchise is for feminism, society, blah, blah.  Believe me, as a Women’s and Gender Studies major, I am constantly subjected to how backwards and submissive the lovely princesses are.  I have an issue with this for a few reasons.  I think that many times we get so angry that we forget the good qualities of whatever it is we are hating on in that particular moment.  I do it all the time.  Somebody says something about certain religious figures or about certain political leaders/ideas and I immediately say all the bad/wrong things about the person or idea just mentioned, without considering the positive aspects of them/it.  

Therefore, I would like to take a little time to do a short series that looks at the princess movies and the princesses themselves from a more positive viewpoint while still acknowledging the less than desirable aspects of them.  I will do them in chronological order from Snow White to Rapunzel, remaining within the Disney Princess canon.  This would include Snow White (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), Cinderella (Cinderella), Aurora/Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty), Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Belle (Beauty and the Beast), Jasmine (Aladdin), Pocahontas (Pocahontas), Mulan (Mulan), Tiana (The Princess and the Frog), and Rapunzel (Tangled).  Hopefully, I will write about Alice (Alice in Wonderland), Wendy (Peter Pan), Esmeralda (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and Meg (Hercules) at some point, but they don’t really fit into what I’m doing with this series.  

This is not to purposefully anger or enrage anybody, but to illustrate the way we interact with people, culture, and ideas.  No one is going to agree with anyone else 100% of the time, so we really have to be intentional in how we start dialogue.  In my experience, people love disagreeing with each other as long as everyone’s voice is heard and everyone is respected.  I hope that by doing this series, I can show the importance of listening to less than popular or loved opinions in order to create a more harmonious world.

**Pocket Princesses by Amy Mebberson.  Her tumblr is here.