As a girl growing up we learn about Prince Charming and his white horse. These fairy tales are what we have grown up on, however are these lesson what we really want our youth watching. I mean from the stereotype women that Disney portrays to the ways lessons where archived. Take Beauty and the Beast for example, in this movie the Beast locks Bell up in a tower and holds her hostage. Even when he lets her out he is mean and abusive to her. Is this the kind of relationship we want our young girls and boys watching....sure the Beast realizes his ways and falls in love with Bell but this still does not justify what he did to her. In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo is a hunchback that is pretty much exiled from the town. He lived in a bell tower and had low self-esteem. From the time, Quasimodo saw Esmeralda he fell in love with her. Quasimodo even saved her life when Frollo was burning her at the stake. As fairy tales go Esmeralda should have fell in love with Quasimodo and they should have lived happily ever after...However Esmeralda met a tall dark and handsome man fell in love and lived happily ever after with him.... I guess you only get to save the girl and live happily ever after if you are handsome...Even if you are mean like the Beast that can be over looked if you look good.
Then we have The Little Mermaid, where do I even start with this movie. Ariel is a young teenager who goes against every rule her father has set for her. She is late for her responsibilities and even makes a deal with evil to get what she wants. After all, of this she gets everything she dreamed of...are we teaching our children that breaking the rules and pushing off responsibility is OK.
I guess every one wants to believe in Happily ever after, but I think there are better ways to achieve it.
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I could not agree with you more!!! It is almost sick how they throw that kind of stuff in little kids faces!
ReplyDeleteI wish they could make a more realistic fairy tale...but then it wouldn't be a fairy tale, would it?
It seems like were telling kids that beauty is everything. By doing that were telling them that that is all you look for. Don't look at people's personalities or their achievements, just look at their bod's and faces.
Is this really the kind of society we want the next generation growing up in?
I would have to disagree with this, and im going to catch heat from melissa for this. :) Uhm..... how do i put this... "to a little kid" Hi Im Santa Clause and IM NOT REAL ... AND I DIDNT BRING YOU ANYTHING... what im trying to say is, its a MOVIE...
ReplyDeleteDo we really need to tell our 6 yr olds that Bell wasnt with the beast because he was abusive? Quasimodo because he was too ugly, or the little mermaid because she was so unhappy. Im pretty sure i think kids should just be happy until their older at least.
They make these movies Happy Endings to keep them Happy, Like people who say watching spongebob turns you gay. Really ???
Media Changes as the Generation's change people, dont let yourself be one of those overprotective people saying Halo is Bad.
I would have to agree with you that this might show kids that everyone gets a fairy tale ending. Even though it isn’t true, the shows are still portraying it that way. The movies aren’t good when they show that it is ok for the guy or the beast or hunchback to act the way they do because that’s not how it always works. I know children don’t really understand the true concepts like adults do. They don’t really think the beast is being too harsh and that’s how it is in real life. Do you think that movie producers will change the way the movie ends?
ReplyDeleteI personally don't have any problems how fairy tales are. We all grew up listening and reading to them all. And if a fairy tale is what affects our growing up for a positive or negative reason. Then something is wrong.
ReplyDeleteWhoa. Good point about the Beast being abusive. He kind of is, now that you mention it. I mean, I was scared of him at the beginning of the movie, but I never saw him as abusive, even when I was little.
ReplyDeleteI've been realizing lately that all the Disney movies are hung up on looks, especially the looks of the female leads. I do not recall any Disney movie in which there is an unattractive female lead. It is really starting to annoy me.
I guess little kids just think of "evil" as "ugly". For instance, when I watched the Goonies with my brother Daniel (who was 4 at the time), he thought that the misshapen man in the basement was the evil guy, instead of his abusive family members who menaced the kids. He didn't even understand at the end of the movie, when Chunk hugs the less than handsome man. In fact, my brother thought the guy was attacking Chunk. It just really opened my eyes to the way little kids think.
Melissa, I thought that was a very good perspective you had brought up. I can see what you’re getting at with our Disney movies not being very reliable to have young children look up to. It is hard to see that as a child, I know when I was little watching those movies I had never thought about what types of lessons and actions were being taken place, but now as I am older I can definitely see why parents do not want some of these characters as role models.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post. It is sad how these children's movies portray only the good looking men and beautiful women "living happily ever after". It almost gives off the image that the only way you are ever going to be happy in life is if you are beautiful, and find a handsome man. In the case of the hunchback of Notre Dame, it shows that even though he saved her, she is going to choose the handsome man, because that is what everyone wants, and that is what everyone wants to see. And in the little mermaid it is showing kids that she can get away with disobeying her dad, and still end up happy in the end. Although, I don't think kids look at this and see these things. They don't read into the subliminal messages that we can see.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting blog. It seems like either the guys in these fairy tales start out really bad then get really good or are too good to be true. So when we get older we are looking for a guy that is just as good as one in a fairty tale and that is nearly impossible to find. It makes it hard for us to accept people's flaws and be real. I have to agree with you that there has got to be a better way to catch kids's attention.
ReplyDeleteGood blog topic! It was interesting to read and even more interesting to see everyone discuss and debate it.
ReplyDeleteNow here are my thoughts....
I think that movies like this yes shape children’s ideas about life situations such as love. But I also want to point out how not one of these movies end no "happily". I don't see a problem in giving kids a taste of what love could be or what being happily ever after should look like. Yes, you can look at these movie examples negatively, but i also think you can make the positive and out way the negative. For example, the Beauty and the Beast, yes the beast was mean and hostel towards anything and everything. But it wasn’t until this positive beautiful young princess (the role that young children want to pursuit) came into his life that he was a changed person for the remainder of his life.
….once again good choice in topic and great post.