Beauty and Beast Gender Roles

 




Beauty and the beat is a popular fairy tale that has been adapted into the popular Disney film, animated and with real people. The summary of the movie is really simple, a young woman, Belle tries to find her father who is imprisoned by a Beast, a prince who’s cursed due to his selfishness and lack of compassion. Belle offers her place instead of her fathers as Beasts Captive and she slowly starts to fall in love with him. But other than the entertaining plot, this movie also portrays genders in traditional and unconventional ways, offering the exploration of masculinity and femininity. Let’s first look at the traditional gender roles, the main characters both Belle, Gaston and Beast’s characteristics can be seen as traditional, for example, Belle initially conforms to the conventional role of the Disney princess who dreams of romance and adventure. She is depicted as compassionate, nurturing, and kind-hearted, embodying traditional feminine traits and Beast represents the masculine ideal of strength and power, albeit in a flawed form. His initial aggression and temper reflect stereotypical masculine traits associated with dominance and aggression. At last Gaston serves as the stereotypical masculine antagonist, boasting about his strength, looks, and accomplishments. He represent toxic masculinity with his arrogance and sense of entitlement. But later on in the movie, these characters step out of their traditional roles as Belle stands out by displaying independence, intelligence, and a desire for adventure which woman aren’t expected of and she also doesn’t seek a savior prince who needs to rescue her as she instead falls in love with her captor, Beast and this couldn’t have happened if Beast hadn’t stepped out of his role as displays vulnerability and emotional depth as the story unfolds. He learns to love and be loved, challenging the common stereotypes of strong masculinity doesn’t have room for love and emotions. 


Overall the characters initially show stereotypical traits associated with their genders but later on they also challenge these roles through their actions and character development and this why Beaty and the Beast’s plot is very unique as its very different from other traditional Disney movies 

Comments

  1. Anonymous4 February 2024 at 19:09

    I liked how you wrote about how the characters breaking out of their stereotypical gender roles benefited them, and how if they didn't step out of these roles they wouldn't have fallen in love.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5 February 2024 at 05:09

    I really like how you said that what makes the plot of this movie unique and interesting is the characters breaking out of their traditional gender roles and without this it would have been like everything other Disney film

    ReplyDelete

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