I feel like my childhood is slightly ruined

[PainfullyVivid]

This is what happens when you go to a lecture about how women, men, and gender violence are portrayed in society and the guy shares a clip about gender portrayals in Disney.

I realized that Disney movies are way more problematic than I remember. It makes me feel stupid for not realizing it sooner.

Take Beauty and the Beast.

Beast is a giant, abusive d**k. He takes Belle from her family because her father picks a ******** rose. Then he yells at her. She is understandably upset about the entire situation and hides in her room and is reluctant to be around the beast who violently ripped her away from her father. He yells at her some more and tells her that she isn't going to be able to eat at all if she won't eat with him at the table.

Then, by being nice and kind, Belle changes him, and she reinterprets his personality and wonders how she never saw how gentle and kind he was before that point. Uh. Because he was an a*****e? Then they live happily ever after because Belle stayed with someone who yelled and punished her for not doing what he ordered her to and chaaaanged him.

And then the clip I was watching had some kid talk about how if Belle was her friend, then she would be happy for Belle because she changed Beast by being kind. DX
No, tiny human. Noooooo.

Beauty and the Beast was one of my favorite Disney movies as a child.

And I just realized. Beauty and the Beast is my Twilight.
KJSFJDSOJFDSLKJFSD>
Why?  

[Szen]

Oh I see you answered my question here. XD
I don't think any of the Disney princesses are particularly good role models for girls.



And this. XD  

[Nexus Carbuncle]

Yeah...And uh..

Snow White...

Some random guy comes along and kisses a random dead body he finds. So...Marry him?

What a champ.

 

[de.Lici.ous]

So this is to blame for so many girls growing up thinking they're going to meet the perfect man, get married and live happily ever after.

I came to the realisation a long time ago that my life is not a fairy tale. I still love Ariel sad

Szen: Man, I totally want to be made out with while I sleep!  

[Adorky]

Nexus Carbuncle

Yeah...And uh..

Snow White...

Some random guy comes along and kisses a random dead body he finds. So...Marry him?

What a champ.

Well, they did meet before.

But she was 13 or something. ninja  

[Lychee Fruit]

If it helps, look at the sorts of movies they make nowadays. While still rife with stereotypes, there are much stronger female characters in Mulan, The Frog Princess, Tangled, and Emporer's New Groove. They save themselves AND their men, and in some cases, they still manage to run a household.

But go ahead and look at the women in the old movies, too. Maleficent might have been evil, but she made it SEXY - and she was clearly the one all the other bad guys looked up to in her world (and in KH1, which has notoriously lame female characters). Hell, Philip couldn't defeat her until he had the help of three women. Yes, Aurora was a dumb twit who welcomed strangers into her home and married the first man she saw, but who wanted to grow up and be Aurora anyway? ;3  

[Icicle The Overlord]

Yes, Disney movies do tend to portray women with the roles of "Stay at home and cook and clean. Get married, have kids". But take a look at Mulan (Which I'm pretty sure someone else mentioned already).  

[[X]Harajuku[X]]

Personally Beauty and the Beast is more like real life relationships than any other Disney movie I can recall.Minus ofcourse the part where she marrys some prince,but every girl that I know who is in a serious relationship has put up with a lot of b.s from guys 'cause guys can be assholes when they are challenged about their actions.'Cause lets face it,no one likes to be told that what we do is wrong..and she pretty much kills him with kindess..which turns him back into a human being,either way she wins,he was an a**,ends up sorry,just like real life..  

[Supar Ingimon]

I grew up with The Hunchback of Notre Dame, you can go through hell for the lass but if you ain't got looks she ain't wantin' you. Also The Jungle Book but that taught me to never fear bears as they love all living meat filled creatures, initially.  

[diffun]

i may or may not have had under the sea on repeat for two weeks or so before seeing this.
...
i really don't think that disney movies gave me any relationships expectations - i liked the drawings and the music. oh, and i really wanted a pet tiger.
i do sometimes wish that it was socially appropriate to break out into song throughout the day, but other than that, nada.

also, i always found Snow White and Cinderella boring as a child, so yeah...

 

[Szen]

Oh right, guys are assholes.
Funny how the nicest guys I know often have trouble getting dates, because the girls are always out dating... yeah. rolleyes

ghetto trash

i may or may not have had under the sea on repeat for two weeks or so before seeing this.

It's okay. I regularly break out and sing Ursula's song. XD  

[PainfullyVivid]

de.Lici.ous

So this is to blame for so many girls growing up thinking they're going to meet the perfect man, get married and live happily ever after.

I came to the realisation a long time ago that my life is not a fairy tale. I still love Ariel sad

Szen: Man, I totally want to be made out with while I sleep!

Well, I don't think Disney is the only reason. Disney seems to just be more a symptom of a culture that has these ideals. Obviously, there has to be something wrong with the rest if Beauty and the Beast is something that doesn't really get thought about as problematic.

I mean, Sucker Punch and the TV shows (that got canceled thankfully) about Playboy Bunnies were advertised as/said by some of the movie makers to be "empowering to women."

There's nothing wrong with finding entertainment in Disney. One should probably just realize it's problematic.

@Lychee
They are stronger. I will give them that. Though they obviously still treat males and females differently in movies. I honestly don't remember much from the other movies except Tangled though, so I really can't comment on them as much.

Though, I wouldn't say the main character plays a really important role in saving herself and the male at the end of Tangled. She does help in a few of the minor situations before the big climax, at least.
She gives up fighting in order to save the guy (and if the situation had been reversed, Disney would probably have had the male fake promise and then kick some a** and save everyone rather than give in). Then, it's the male that cuts her hair and saves her. Hell, the animal sidekick ends up doing more than she does to save herself when he trips the crazy old lady. She just cries and accidentally heals the guy. I do like that she told the crazy lady that she would fight and fight to get away, but the next bit kind of ruined it. I just wanted her to promise to go with her to make the lady's guard go down and trip with the lady with her magical hair. And save the ******** day with the guy following her lead.

@Hara
Um. If your real life relationships are like Beauty and the Beast, I think you might need to get out of those ones. If a guy treats you like s**t, you kick him in the balls and break up with him. Then you find a guy that doesn't treat you like s**t.

And unfortunately, being nice doesn't often change people. Maybe they realize they have to pretend to be nice in order to keep the relationship, but unless they want to change, they aren't going to.

@Supar
Ugh. That's one reason I hate Hunchback. I've hated it since I watched it.

@Ghetto
Well, Disney won't magically make a child think abusive relationships are healthy if everything else is great. They do help though, along with the many other s**t girls get told.

I mean, I obviously didn't turn out thinking the relationship between Belle and Beast is the best ever, and I loved it as a child. It's just that what we watch and the information children collect can affect how they view things. I'd like to think that media doesn't influence me, but I would be lying to myself.  

[[nike13]]

It's definitely not just Disney, look at the women in Romantic Comedies - the ones I've recently seen basically require the woman to change who she is to get the guy and the guys are self-centered jerks.  

[Szen]

I've noticed too that ugly, nerdy, etc. guys always get the beautiful woman, but never vice versa. Obviously, women have to look good to succeed.