I was listening to my Disney Pandora station while washing dishes -- okay, and I'm still listening. I used to think I related to Disney Princess and one day I'd play one at Disney World. However, I found out you have to be tall, beautiful and graceful to do so! NEVERMIND!
The song "Belle" came on and I know every word, of course. The line I always related to most was "I want so much more than they've got planned." I imagine this meaning that I will travel the world and change the lives of everyone I come in to contact and I'll be world renown for my goodness and the good works I do. Tonight I realized that what Belle meant by that was... to marry a handsome prince and live happily ever after.
As a little girl, you believe in happily ever after. It happens to every leading lady! Everyone finds their prince! But after they win the prince, the movie ends. You so rarely see what happens next. Yea, I've had what I considered movie-love. But then the movie ended and life went on. Sleeping Beauty was never cheated on! Belle didn't have to choose between a career and a family (not that I've had to choose either). Cinderella didn't have to deal with mental illness and family issues. You never even see them "grow apart" and "move in different directions" or have "irreconcilable differences."
Apart from the happily ever after fallacy, Disney also encourages girls to pursue men, not careers. The newest classically styled movie, The Princess and the Frog, does encourage girls to reach for their career dreams. However, this princess also gets her prince.
I found this Second City series that gives advice from Belle, Ariel and Snow White. There were also a bunch of videos dubbing popular movie audio over Disney characters. This basically proves my point about Disney movies and Love movies in general: all the same formula, none realistic. This is coming from a total sucker for formulaic love movies.
But we all know there are flaws in Disney movies. The racism, sexism and stereotype is blatant but the catchy tunes always reel me in! I will always sing Disney songs and watch Hercules and Aladdin over and over again, but I'm gonna be mad about it!!!
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