Stereotypical Beauty for a Beast

1315 Words6 Pages
Amanda Mortensen Mrs. Hawkins ENG 102 21 Feb. 2013 Stereotypical Beauty for a Beast Who has ever felt unworthy or not pretty enough? Many times I have wondered: who decided what is beautiful and what is not? With deep thought, I realized that it has been instilled in me since day one what beautiful is. According to the media, pop culture, and society beauty is being skinny, having nice facial features, and a big bust. Every movie I watched growing up instilled this very image into my brain. One of my favorite movies was Beauty and the Beast. Beauty and the Beast is your typical fairy tale; a witch turns a handsome shallow price into an ugly beast and tells him he must find someone to fall in love with to break the curse. “Beautiful” girl meets mean ugly Beast, falls in love with him, and breaks the curse. There are many disturbing images in this storyline, but the most disturbing by far is how Beauty and the Beast reinforces typical female gender stereotypes. One way Beauty and the Beast portrays the typical female gender stereotype is by having the main theme in the movie be that if a girl is good enough then she can change any man. Beast takes Belle as his prisoner and is verbally abusive to her, but she still falls in love with him and tries to make him more civilized. Belle teaches the Beast how to behave at the dinner table when she disapproves of the barbaric way he shoves food into his mouth. Belle politely shows the beast how to pick his bowl up and slurp his soup in a more sophisticated manner. Belle teaches the Beast how to be gentle when she helps him feed baby birds. At first Beast charges at the birds, but Belle shows him that he must be patient and wait for the birds to come to him. Not only does Belle teach the Beast how to be more civilized, she also changes him from a violent monster into a handsome prince. Belle first arrives at

More about Stereotypical Beauty for a Beast

Open Document