Review Assignment: Rise Like the Break of Dawn

Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty perpetuate stereotypical gender roles: each of three of the heroines is damsel in distress who is rescued from a powerful, evil woman by a powerful man – a prince.  But all the other movies we studied contribute to a new girlhood, some more than others.

In "The Little Mermaid", Ariel's primary ambition is not to find a man but to become human and live on the land, although her desire is increased when she meets and falls in love with Prince Eric.  It is only because of her father's initial stubbornness that she is forced to turn to Ursula the Sea Witch, who in turn forces her to depend upon Prince Eric's kiss in order to stay human for more than three days.  And she does save Eric from drowning – turnabout on the usual theme of the man saving the woman.

In "Beauty and the Beast", Belle too wants to change her life because she is smarter than the people around her.  She rejects Gaston, the parodic male chauvinist pig, even though she finds him handsome.  She learns to love the Beast once he learns to act like a gentleman, even though he shows his vulnerability, and she rescues  him from the curse cast on him rather than the other way around.

In "Aladdin", Jasmine too wants a change of life.  She defies the cultural taboo against being unsupervised in the company of a male who is not her husband or a family member when she accompanies Aladdin on a magic carpet ride.  She rejects Jafar, saying that she is not a prize to be won, and she marries Aladdin, who is of a lower class than either she or Jafar.  And she is fond of power: she threatens to get rid of Jafar when she becomes Queen because she thinks that Jafar has killed Aladdin.

Mulan is a very strong female character. When her father is conscripted into the army, she dresses up like a man and joins the army in his place to save him.  Initially weak, she trains until she attains enough strength and skill to pass boot camp, and then, through a combination of her newly acquired fighting skill and her superior intelligence, she manages to save the Emperor's life and defeat Shan-Yu's army single-handedly, an army that had previously defeated the Emperor's army, by causing an avalanche that kills most of Shan-Yu's men.  Some of them survive, but she captures Shan-Yu and reveals to him that she is a woman, adding to his humiliation. And then, unfortunately, she returns home instead of becoming the Emperor's Minister of Defense.

In "The Princess and the Frog", Tiana isn't quite as powerful as Mulan but she doesn't have to be, because her ambition isn't to become a soldier but to own a restaurant.  Beginning as a waitress in a restaurant, she soon becomes more proficient than all the other employees.  She eventually does get to own a restaurant and Naveen works as her assistant rather than the other way around as is usually the case.

In "Tangled", Rapunzel doesn't play the role of damsel in distress to be rescued by a man, as her counterpart does in the original fairy tale.  While in the tower, after performing her traditionally female household duties, she amuses herself with creative activities: reading, painting and astronomy.  Her desire is not to meet a man but to escape from her prison – to have her life begin, as she puts it.  When Flynn climbs the tower, she doesn't fall in love with him.  Instead, she uses him as a means to escape.  She bops him over the head with a frying pan, ties him to a chair, hides his satchel containing "his" crown (which is really hers, although she doesn't know that yet), escapes from the tower using her own hair and tells him that if he wants his crown back he'll have to take her to the place where the lights come from.  It is her hair that enables her and Flynn (that is, Eugene) to escape from the cave.  She first heals his hand, and then revives him after Mother Gothel stabs him.  Finally she marries him after she finds out that she is a princess even though he is not a prince, a turnabout from Cinderella who becomes a princess by marrying a prince.

"Frozen" is the most pro-feminist of the lot because Disney Studios wrote most of the material instead of adding feminist content to an old-fashioned fairy tale.  Elsa and her younger sister Anna are both strong female characters.  Elsa has magical powers instead of being acted upon by others with magical powers.  When she finds that she can't control them, she climbs up the Ice Mountain to be by herself so as not to harm anybody – she doesn't yet know that she has already buried Arendelle in eternal winter.  Anna and some friends climb up the mountain to implore her to return to undo the curse she has accidentally cast on Arendelle, but Elsa doesn't think she can do it.  She accidentally casts the freezing curse on Anna.  Prince Hans, who has been posing as Anna's boyfriend, is asked to kiss Anna to heal her, but he refuses because his only interest is in capturing the throne.  Leaving Anna to die, he frames Elsa for Anna's death and tries to kill Elsa in order to capture the throne.  Just before Anna turns to ice, she steps in between them, sacrificing herself for her sister.  This sacrifice on Anna's part, and not any man's kiss, is the act of true love that allows Elsa to control her magic; so she can save her sister and reverse the curse she put on Arendelle.  Elsa becomes Queen on her own rather than by marrying into royalty.  Note that in this movie, although there is a male villain, there is also a very positive male character: Kristoff, who, although he loves Anna, lets Hans kiss her instead, thinking that, since Anna loves Hans, Hans' kiss has a better chance to save Anna than his own, and fully expecting Anna to marry Hans.  This is the best sort of feminism: there are supportive males, although they are not necessary for the females' salvation.

Review Assignment: Good Girl You Always Had to Be

Justice prevails in all of the movies we studied this year.  Princess Aurora, Snow White, Cinderella and Rapunzel are each saved from a villainess.  Ariel is eventually turned into a human by her father and gets to marry Prince Eric.  Belle rejects that male chauvinist pig Gaston, learns to love the Beast once he learns some manners, and turns him back into a prince.  Jasmine rejects Jafar and gets to marry Aladdin. Tiana gets to own a restaurant and hire a man as her assistant instead of the other way around, which was the usual state of affairs.

In "Frozen", Anna sacrifices herself to save her sister Elsa from Hans, who tried to murder Elsa to capture the throne for himself.  Her act of sisterly love saves her from the freezing curse that Elsa had accidentally cast on her and enables Elsa to control her magical powers so that she can reverse the freezing curse she accidentally cast on the kingdom of Arendelle.  Elsa becomes Queen on her own instead of having to marry into royalty, while Hans is deported back to the Southern Isles to face justice for his attack on the royal family of Arendelle.  And Kristoff, that supportive male who loves Anna but lets Hans kiss her instead, thinking that Hans' kiss would have a better chance than his own to save her, finally does get to kiss her after she saves herself and her sister – a hint that he will get to marry her in the upcoming sequel.

The most global example of justice prevailing occurs in "Mulan".  When her father is conscripted into the army, she dresses up like a man and joins the army in his place to save him – she has to disguise herself as a man because women weren't allowed to become soldiers.  Initially weak, she trains until she attains enough strength and skill to pass boot camp, and then, through a combination of her newly acquired fighting skill and her superior intelligence, she manages to save the Emperor's life and defeat Shan-Yu's army single-handedly, an army that had previously defeated the Emperor's army, by causing an avalanche that kills most of Shan-Yu's soldiers.  Some of them survive, but she captures Shan-Yu and reveals to him that she is a woman, adding to his humiliation.

Here's an example from my own childhood.  When I was seven or eight years old, my father, who was on the Toronto Board of Education, made a speech in which he said that Winston Churchill was a hero in World War I and in World War II and, if he had his way, he would be a hero in World War III.  His speech was written up in the local newspapers.  The next day I was attacked by a gang of three boys.  One of them held my arms, one of them held my legs and the ringleader held a knife to my throat and ordered me to say that my father had lied.  I refused, and the boys eventually gave up and let me go.  The ringleader admitted his responsibility, but he was never punished; so justice didn't prevail then.  It prevailed many years later, when I learned that Churchill actually did recommend going to war with the Soviet Union to break the Berlin blockade.  That information vindicated my refusal to call him a liar.

Review Assignment: Can't Marry a Man You Just Met

(Note: I've revised this essay – the first paragraph is new – because it didn't fully answer the prompt.)

Kristoff, from the movie Frozen, is an everyday man in the sense that he is very far from being a prince.  He ekes out a living harvesting ice and selling it.  He is neither good looking nor charming.  He lives a solitary life with only his reindeer Sven as a friend; so he has never learned social graces.  Aside from his physical habits, he always says exactly what he thinks; for example, he got himself thrown out of a store for calling the owner a crook.  Nevertheless, he is content with his solitary life – until he falls in love with Princess Anna.  Then, aware of his inadequacies, he never reveals his feelings for her, even when the trolls suggest that they'd make a good couple despite his flaws, and when she does develop feelings for him, she has to initiate their first kiss.  What is there about him that could make her learn to love him?  He is certainly big and strong, but his main virtue is his kind heart, and it is for this reason that he's my favourite male character among all the ones seen in the Disney movies we've studied.

Although he prefers solitude, he agrees to help Anna climb the ice mountain to find her sister Elsa.  When Elsa accidentally hits Anna with her freezing curse, Kristoff rushes Anna to Pabbie, hoping that Pabbie can save Anna, but Pabbie says that Anna can only be saved by an act of true love.  Kristoff is in love with Anna, but he knows that Anna loves Hans and he thinks that Hans loves Anna; so he concludes that Hans' kiss has a better chance than his own to save Anna.  He overcomes his jealousy and allows Hans to kiss Anna, fully expecting her to marry Hans instead of him.  Hans turns out to be only interested in power; he leaves Anna for dead, frames Elsa for Anna's "death" and tries to kill Elsa in order to capture the throne for himself.  When Anna's sacrifice saves Elsa and herself, Kristoff is overjoyed.  Only then does he kiss Anna.  He's not the ideal romantic partner in the sense of being the sort of dashing hero who can make a woman fall instantly in love with him, but he's the best sort of partner for a woman who wants to be well treated, and I hope that he and Anna get married in the upcoming sequel.

It would be an insufficient compliment to Kristoff to compare him with that despicable would-be murderer Prince Hans.  Even that parodic male chauvinist pig Gaston looks good compared to Hans.  A more suitable comparison would be with the other positive male characters, and there are quite a number of them.  The princes in the three movies we studied in lesson 1 are all positive male characters.  If a damsel really is in distress, it is surely better to rescue her than to let her save herself – if she can – for the sake of feminist ideology!  The Beast and Triton become positive male characters once they come to their senses, especially Triton because he turns Ariel into a human.  He learns to let go of his child, a lesson that Mother Gothel never does learn.  Aladdin is a cool dude who gives Jasmine a good time.  But none of these men take any real risks.  Flynn and Eric do take considerable risks, and of the two I prefer Prince Eric because he is not a thief.  But each of these men takes a risk for a woman he has some hope of marrying if he can save her.  Kristoff risked less than they did, but his act was one of 100% pure altruism, and it is this that makes him the best of the lot in my book.

I hope to meet such men in Week 2, whether or not the beneficiaries of their acts of altruism are potential romantic partners.

Review Assignment: Do You Want to Be Artistic? (prompt 1: the song parody)

Do you wanna watch a movie?
Come on, let's watch a show.
It isn't nearly so much fun
Without someone;
So come out and let's go!

There's lots of shows to choose from.
What do you like?
Is it films that make you cry?
We could watch a film by Disney.
There are a lot of films by Disney.
(Not interested!)
Okay, bye.

Do you wanna watch a movie?
There is a new one ev'ry day.
Click on the link to it on HiH.
It'll make all your troubles seem to go away.
(Too much trouble!)

Then we can answer questions
And get lots of points
That will help us win the cup.
(Work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work!)

It's fun to watch movies
All about princesses and kings,
And magic lanterns, wicked stepmothers,
And lots of other interesting things;

So let us watch a movie.
Let us watch a show.
I wanna watch with you!
Do you wanna watch a movie?
(I already told you: NO!)

Review Assignment: Fairy Tales are an Open Door (prompt 1: Einstein's recommendation)

Fairy tales increasing children's intelligence by teaching them to think outside the box – that is, to look beyond their immediate experience to seek the truth.  Many important discoveries are made by people thinking outside the box, including Einstein's discovery of the special and general theories of relativity.  In the case of the special theory, the box was the existence of an ether that defined an absolute frame of reference.  He showed that any two observers moving with respect to each other in a straight line at a constant speed had an equally legitimate frame of reference – that is, all motion must be measured relative to the observer rather than to an absolute frame of reference, whence the name relativity.  In the case of the general theory, the box was the distinction between weight caused by acceleration and weight caused by gravity.  By doing thought experiments he showed that they were the same thing.

Fairy tales give children an example of thinking outside the box because they are totally figments of the author's imagination, but the fantasies they create have analogues in the real world.  In the real world, you can't turn a frog into a prince by kissing him or a beast into a prince by loving him, but you can give someone the confidence he needs to become more attractive.  In addition, some fairy tales show the characters thinking outside the box.  Ariel wants to become a human being and live on land instead of staying in the sea.  Jasmine, Rapunzel and Anna all want to escape their restricted, albeit comfortable, lives.  Tiana wants to become a restaurant owner, Cinderella wants to go to the ball, Mulan wants to become a warrior in a country where women are not allowed to do so, and the list goes on and on.  They all succeed, giving people confidence that they too can realize their dreams if they're prepared to work hard enough.

Of course, any work of fiction can teach people to think outside the box.  Science fiction is particularly suited to this task.  What fairy tales are best suited to is teaching children the author's way of thinking about the world in a way that is more palatable than by preaching a sermon.  Not all fairy tales teach the sort of values that parents would want to inculcate in their children.  Aladdin, for example, is resourceful and charming, and he does give Jasmine a good time, but he is too lazy to work, relying instead on the genies to give him what he wants, and he is unscrupulous in his treatment of those who stand in the way of his desire to marry Jasmine.  But three of these films teach positive values, and it is these I would like to discuss in some detail.

The film "The Beauty and the Beast" shows that people can reform themselves if they are sufficiently motivated: Adam learns to control his temper and to improve his table manners under Belle's tutelage because he knows that by so doing he may be able to earn her love and in this way undo the curse that turned him into a beast.  It also teaches that beauty is only skin deep: Belle rejects Gaston, a handsome man but a male chauvinist pig, and learns to love Adam once he mends his ways in spite of his physical ugliness.  It also shows the power of love: in the real world, loving a man won't make him better looking, but it will make him more self-confident, which will in turn make him easier to love.

The film "Mulan" shows that anything is possible if one works at it hard enough – and smart enough.  Mulan lives in a country where women are not allowed to become warriors, but she is determined to become one; so she disguises herself as a man and through hard work overcomes her initial weakness to pass boot camp.  Then she uses her intelligence to defeat the invading army that had got the better of the defenders: she causes an avalanche that kills most of the enemy warriors.  Finally, she captures Shan-Yu, who survives the avalanche, and adds to his humiliation by showing him that she is a woman.  By her example she shows that gender is no obstacle to success.  I think it rather a pity that she then returns home instead of becoming the Emperor's Minister of Defense.

The film "Frozen" teaches any number of positive values.  Elsa learns the power of love: in her world it can reverse the freezing curse, and in the real world it makes people happier.  Anna learns that a man who is handsome, charming and a prince isn't necessarily a good person – Prince Hans reveals himself to be so power hungry as to be capable of murder – and that a man like Kristoff, who has none of these attributes, can be an acceptable romantic partner even for a princess – if he's a good enough bloke.  Kristoff, originally a solitary man with no use for other people, learns to put others' needs ahead of his own: although he loves Anna, he rejects his reindeer's urging him to kiss her because he thinks that Hans' kiss has a better chance of reversing the freezing curse, fully expecting Anna to marry Hans.  By eventually learning to love Kristoff, Anna shows that nice guys don't necessarily finish last.  Stereotyped gender roles are rejected in this film: the act of true love that reverses the freezing curse is not any man's – it is the love between the two sisters – and in the eventual relationship between Anna and Kristoff, she is the one who is part of the royal family.

The sort of values taught by these films do represent a sort of intelligence, because they represent the triumph of reason over instinct, which would have made the characters do what was easy rather than what was right.