Deconstructive Criticism on Disney’s Representations of Life’s Meaningful Aspects: Beauty and the Beast

Deconstructive Criticism on Disney’s Representations of Life’s Meaningful Aspects: Beauty and the Beast

1. Abstract: 

Mindset, which is a way of thinking or, in other words, a frame of mind and a menal attitude is formed through experience, education, upbringing, as well as media. As one of the plat forms of media, Disney is considered to be a big influence on our frame of mind since childhood. Romance, beauty, gender roles  (masculine, feminine and others), marriage, and other concepts are perceived and visualized partially through TV shows and movies. 

Keywords: Deconstructive perspective, Disney, representation, sexual tendencies, gender roles, marriage, romance, and beauty concept. 

This research would endeavour to construct a critical narrative on the representation of such aspects in shows on different television channels. The messages delivered through television programming are analyzed by examining the marriage portrayed in shows, romance, beauty, and the gender roles fulfilled by different characters (feminine, masculine or others), and how they are propagated or challenged.

Beauty & the Beast is the sample for this textual analysis. The research has been contextualized in the deconstructive theory paradigm and uses Jacques Derrida’s theorizing of ‘representation’ and ‘decoding’ for the narrative analysis of this movie. 

2. Introduction: 

Television plays a significant role in the socialization and education processes of children’s lives. It is an omnipresent entity in children’s everyday lives. As a result, their engagement with television content requires an investigation as it produces many discourses related to society, culture, and identity. 

The role of television in framing and developing people’s ideas has been researched in different global contexts. Many studies have been conducted on the impacts of media and television on children and adults, focusing on the negative effects and the positive ones. 

Popular and common conclusions are drawn by most of scholars who, most of the time, focus on the physical aspects of Media’s impacts. Developing vision problems, escalating obesity, distorting body image, and shortening attention span are commonly widespread physical consequences. The thing that is as important as the physical side is the mental one. The mental aspect covers a set of opinions formed by people about different topics in their lives.

Several studies have analyzed representations  of the issues mentioned above in different forms of media including television. These researches have been achieved in different academic contexts: linguistics, political-economy, psychology, peadiatrics, culture studies, and sociology. 

Content analyses of movies, and TV shows (fiction and news) to deconstruct codes of the representations have been done by many scholars globally. The tradition of ‘Effects Research’ has been important, where the impact of media representations of life’s meaningful aspects on people has been evaluated.

3. Literature Review: 

Beauty and the Beast is  Disney fairy tale classified as a classic beloved story. Both children and adults enjoyed through generations. It is a romance story between a pretty young lady and a beast-like creature who is, in fact, a prince but cursed by a sorceress. In this research paper, I will be analyzing this treasured piece of literary text from the Deconstructive perspectives (post-structuralism). 

“Deconstruction” does not have an appropriate definition. In fact, language scholars find this expression quite difficult to define. This expression can be, hardly, defined as: “the re-imagination of a literary text from an alternate point of view which the author or the creator might not have initially expected to do”.  Deconstruction is one the major factors of Post-Structuralism. For example, a liberal humanist approach decoded Beauty and the Beast concluding that this Disney fairytale’s Belle, who is the “beauty” of the story is the expected victim of the Beast’s actions. As for  the deconstructive approach, this notion is questioned. Even if seemingly, Belle is portrayed as the supposed casualty of the Beast, is there genuine evidences for Belle to fall a victim or to be a real victim? Indeed, is the Beast a suppressor? or the background story of the Beast virtually more repulsive and vile than really depicted? To be fair, the whole movie is a contrivance of an unmentioned  mental disorders and uncommon tendencies and preferences of a mate.

3.1. The Concept of Love: 

What made Belle stay with the Beast?

Unlike the popular thought that the Beast’s  change of heart is the reason behind Belle falling in love with him, the reality is a bit more complex than such reason. 

In this manner, children are habituated with this concept of love, where you love someone unconditionally (which is great to some extent) but “unconditionally” also has limits. This “unconditional love” sometimes makes no sense and may go against human nature or cause harm to others. “Unconditionally” does not equal crossing the borders of what people are used to. 

In order to understand that. The protagonist’s character (Belle) has to be analyzed briefly. At the beginning of the film Belle starts singing and states several times that “there must be more than this provincial life”. She expresses her dream of traveling and learning about the outside world. In addition to that, she is fond of reading books and novels where at that time shown in the movie books are quite expensive and, as we know, Belle comes from a poor background. It is unlikely for Belle to pursue her dreams of traveling the world due to her financial situation. Thinking of Gaston as a husband or a life partner is not an option either. Simply because of Gaston’s way of treating women like his possession and never paying attention to their wishes, no matter how rich he is.

The Beast is the one Belle could actually depend on. The Beast could afford the expenditure of her travels, as well as he respects  her wishes. Initially, he might have been rude towards her. But eventually, Belle realizes that the Beast is kindhearted. More than that, he is basically more capable to fulfill her wishes and dreams than any other man. On top of that, the Beast owns a giant library which is another of Belle’s priority.

In conclusion, we cannot label a princess as greedy. Belle simply has more expensive dreams. She realizes that being with the Beast will be more beneficial and financially secure for her. Hence, the sudden change of heart Belle witnessed in the Beast is not the only reason which attracted her towards him. His financial stability played another major role in Belle’s choice to stay with the Beast.

3.2. Representations of Gender Roles Within the Concepts of Strength and Attractiveness: 

Children are exposed to a plethora of media images in which they are permanently involved. Although this can be very overwhelming, it is never an exaggeration to argue that theses images’ influence is a negotiated process of mindset framing by children. 

Media, in its different forms, plays the role of socializing agents in children’s lives. Media messages focus on promoting specific ideologies more than the others. Hence, engaging constantly with the media helps children internalize these images and ideologies promoted. 

From the lens of dominant media discourses, gender representation can influence children’s  perception of masculinity and femininity. 

This notion of masculinity is portrayed in association with strength, power, and having control over women. These traits related to the concept of “masculinity” are what make Gaston attractive and admired by the ladies of the town.

Beauty & the Beast portrays women as the main victims for others. Belle’s father, Maurice, goes on a business trip and because of alleviating from the right road, he gets trapped into the Beast’s palace. Then, the beast negotiates a settlement that in order to save his life as he is old, Maurice must bring Belle to the palace. As a result, and without any second thoughts Beauty (Belle)gives up her life to save her father’s. After living a short period with the Beast, she starts to fall in love with the beast, turning a blind eye to his appearance. Belle sees the charm and love beneath the exterior of a monster who imprisons her. 

This ‘beloved’ fairytale demonstrates an ideal woman, who is beautiful inside out. Beauty Belle is adjusted to housework. Her dreams are centered around the ideal charming husband. This emphasizes the marriage thoughts that women have always dreamed of, as they are trapped in a place where the only way to free yourself from your parents is to get married.

Another prejudice is present toward women in which they are at home taking care of the children and cooking while their husbands work. Men’s superiority on women plays a major role in fairytale. The beast is an example of that; the beast thought that by being bigger and frightening he could possibly have an influence on Beauty’s marriage decision. Being terrified Beauty did not hesitate to tell the beast no and by slowly controlling his anger she was able to work around him. By this it shows that women are capable of being in control.

• Marriage Proposals & Physical Appearance. 

Another prejudiced, powerful emphasis is on marriage proposals. This occurs when Beauty Belle answers the Beast  “No, Beast. I am sorry, but though you are kind to me and have treated me fairly, I can never be your wife because I do not love you”. (Beauty and the Beast). 

This indicates that even though Beauty Belle has an inside beauty, she also cares about outer physical appearance, overlooking the kind way the Beast treated her. 

Women at home taking care of the children and cooking while their husbands at work is another prejudiced image of gender portrayed in the story. Superiority of men on women plays a big role in this fairytale. An example of that is the beast; he thinks that by being huge and frightening he could influence  Belle’s marriage decision. Terrified, Belle doesn’t hesitate to say no to him, but she controls his rage by being able to work around the Beast. This shows that women are easily put in control.

3.3. Beauty Belle Has Unusual Sexual Preferences: 

Financial security and having a kind heart cannot be the only factors that make a person in love with someone else. One has to be sexually attracted to the other person in order to fall in love with them. But, the Beast is not even a human-like creature. Moreover, Belle is unaware of the curse from the beginning and that he is originally a prince. He is only an animal-like creature with specific human features. Yet, she falls in love with him. This indicates that she has zoophilic tendencies.

“A human’s sexual attraction to an animal” is normally known as zoophilia. Throughout the movie, Belle shows signs of such tendency. 

A song she sings: 

 “Something There”:

She glanced this way, I thought I saw

And when we touched she didn't shudder at my paw”. She falls in love with the Beast before even knowing he is a prince.  

Near the end of the film, after the curse is removed off, Belle reaches his hair, not his hands that are covered with skin. His hair resembles the fur of an animal.

4. Methodology

The aim of this study is to evaluate if the themes and messages of  Beauty & the Beast, one of Disney's most popular movies influenced females understanding of beauty, love, marriage and gender in a negative way. 

Sections mentioned in this part are: sample, instrumentation, procedures, field site, data collection, and data analysis.

4.1. Sample/Data: 

The sample was taken from Disney’s one of the most popular movies, Beauty & the Beast. Quotes and songs were taken from this movie. Beauty & the Beast movie broke the records and got a wide base of audience from all over the world. Hence, its influence is going to be much bigger; researches and studies have been conducted to evaluate its influence and how far it challenged the way people perceive concepts in their context. 

4.2. Approach: 

  This research paper follows the textual analysis methodology. In this approach language, symbols, and/or pictures have been analyzed in order to  understand how people and children make sense of and communicate life experiences through this cartoon literary work.  Non-verbal and verbal messages helped us provide cues to ways through which the audience frame its mentality regarding many aspects and concepts. These messages are understood as portrayed. For example, images of gender, beauty, or marriage portrayed in Beauty and the Beast challenge historical, political, cultural, and ethical contexts for which they already exist. 

4.3. Procedures: 

The sample deconstructed, Beauty & the Beast, was introduced to give a general background. Since this sample is a literary work, it was introduced in relation to people’s ways of perceiving concepts, especially those portrayed in media forms, such as movies. The research investigated a number of the most important aspects of life, such as marriage, love, sexual tendencies, gender roles, and beauty. These aspects are perceived through different ways; media is one. Beauty & the Beast involves these aspects and portrays them in a certain way through the factors of characterization, atmosphere, economical situations...etc. These portrays form a big infleunce on how people perceive things. 

4.4. Data Analysis: 

Quotes, arguments of literary researchers, and references to certain external factors are used in this research paper to analyze the data.

5. Results: 

The purpose of this research is to put the light on the weapon of humanity, Mind. Our mindset and the way we perceive things are reflected on each and every aspect of life at all levels and at all times. Since media is a direct cause of influencing this weapon, I had to do a research. According to the information and the analysis included in the research that were all built on this literary work, it showed a huge resemblance to the reality now, meaning that it was through media that people got their mind frames.

6. Discussion: 

6.1. 

“Oh, isn’t this amazing?

It’s my favorite part because you’ll see

Here’s where she meets Prince Charming

But she won’t discover that it’s him ’til chapter three!”

- Belle reading her favorite story, that seems to be Cinderella. 

• The story is too similar to her own story. Belle meets “Prince Charming”, but in the shape of the Beast, and that’s before discovering that it’s “him” — meaning her “Prince Charming”. 

6.2.  

“She’s the most beautiful girl in town. That makes her the best!” -Gaston 

•Gaston is vital to understanding the journey of the Beast. He is the prince before getting transformed into a beast. Gaston is totally obsessed with outer beauty. Not with Belle herself, but rather with beauty as a concept. He’s impressed by his own beauty. He keeps on  checking himself out in mirrors, singing about  and romanticizing his physical attributes, etc.

Gaston is the gist  of everything image-obsessed and shallow. The townspeople are obsessed with his appearance, too.

“It’s not a story about Belle and the Beast.

It’s a story about Beauty and the Beast”.

7. Conclusion:

Having Analyzed all of the above, data shows a great influence of Disney movies on people's perceptions of romance, gender..etc. The evidence of this exists in the  realistic and available gender models we are exposed to in day-to-day contexts. 

People feel influenced by the notion of beauty, due to such portrayals, as they tend to describe Disney female characters in accordance to their outer appearance. 

People’s expectations of romantic relationships shock them and, of course, 

change through their own dating experiences. 

“Love at first sight” is mostly gained from Disney movies and other media sources. Also, the framework of the 'happily ever after" belief is still strong among people.

References: 

• Downey, S.D. Feminine empowerment in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. (1996). 

• Coltrane, S., & Adams, M. Work-family imagery and gender stereotypes. (1997). 

• Bryant, Sylvia. “Re-Constructing Oedipus Through ‘Beauty and the Beast’’. (1989).

• Trousdale, Gary and Wise, Kirk, dir. Beauty and the Beast. 1991; New York: Walt Disney Studios, 2016. DVD.

• Warner, Marina. “Beauty & the Beasts.” Sight and Sound, 2, no. 6, 1992.