Beauty And The Beast Gender Roles Essays - , Term Papers

Beauty And The Beast: Gender Roles Marian Belle is the main character, she lives with her father who is considered by the town a loony man therefore, Belle is also looked upon the town as being a little out of the ordinary. Even so, she is the most beautiful girl in the town, her name means beauty and it is shown with her wonderful appearance throughout the duration of the movie. Gaston a very courageous and dignified worrier, who is in love with Belle and wishes to marry her. Moreover every women and man in the town look up to him and would do anything for him. Nonetheless, Belle sees right through his beauty and recognizes him as a mean and conceded fool who does not know how to love. Meanwhile there is a prince in a near by castle who wakes up to a widow knocking on his door. When he answers she offers him a rose for shelter out of the cold. When he consistently said no the widow turned into a prices. He tried to apologize but it was too late. The curse of the flower turned him into a beast. Consequently, the curse can not be broken until he finds a woman to love him from within instead of just his outside appearance. Little does the audience know that feminism is displayed throughout the entire movie, for example Belle is walking through town one day and I noticed vital parts of the film displaying old traditional methods of living with the man working for a living while the wife stays home and takes care of the house and the children. When I reiterated the part over and over I noticed more and more displays of such chauvinistic nature. For instance, It seemed very odd that the men of the town were only paying attention to the pretty women and saying hello to them. Not to mention, how the men ordered around the women like slaves. I totally disagree with this way of life and think Disney should have thought greatly before displaying such difference between women and men. Similarly, you have a scene with a widow holding about four kids begging a man for six cents in which the man was just shoving her off like a dog or cat. After all, this is just the first scene in the movie. Personally I never rea lized this horrible display of feminism until I paid a little closer attention to what is going on around the main characters. Meanwhile, as Belle is finishing her walk through the chauvinistic town, Justin jumps in font of her grasping the book she was peacefully reading and says ?Its not right for a women to read then they start to get ideas and thinking.? If this were a statement made by a stubborn political figure back in the 1800's I would understand because that was just how things tend to work back then. However, this is a movie written in the 1990's for children to watch seventy years after women got the vote and were recognized to be equal to men. Nonetheless, I probably doubt that most children who view this movie look at it in a chauvinistic way but if they did recognize the feminism towards women it would upset them. Adults on the other hand, pick up on these inessential parts of the movie and are struck with disappointment. As I viewed the movie and realized what was actually going on it hurt me to think that in such an innocent movie things of this nature take place. Indeed, this is just the fi rst few signs of feminism. Sadly but surely the events that lead me to think of feminism and chauvinism we have just had a sample. AS we go further in dept into the movie Justin proposes to Belle after very rudely forcing himself into her house. The proposal is a surprise to Belle but the whole town thinks of it as no big deal that she is oblivious to the proposal. As Justin is asking Belle to marry him he reminisces on how great their life would be together stating ?Picture this my latest kill on the fire and my