In conjunction with our discussion of media violence on Wednesday and of princesses and gender roles on Monday, I would like to present to you the realization I had the other day.
Okay so my favorite Disney movies have always been Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, and Pocahontas. When I was a toddler Beauty and the Beast was that movie that I watched ad nauseum, had memorized, basically worshiped. I loved Belle because she loved to read and wanted adventures and had brown hair like me and thought Gaston was a jerk. Also I loved the music. When Pocahontas came out I was five years old, and I was all about her super long hair and the fact that she loved the environment like I did and was the one who saved the boy. I LOVED that. Also the music was beautiful. When Mulan came out when I was eight I loved her for again being the day who saved the day, and in the end being a hero who still got to be a girl. Plus again, music.
Changing gears though, there is a lot of violence in those movies for a kid of age eight and below to be seeing. The Beast and Gaston battle it out on top of the castle and Gaston stabs the Beast in the side with a big scary dagger and there is blood. Then the dude falls off the castle to his death. Yikes.
In Pocahontas, our girl herself is very "hey no don't fight each other that's stupid," but there's still plenty of fighting. Our boy Thomas shoots Kokoum and emotionally scars a generation. The two sides go to WAR with each other, even if the only gunshot is the one that hits John Smith in the end. But man. Shooting.
But then. BUT THEN. There's Mulan. I mean, yes, this is a movie based off the story of a war hero, so obviously there's going to be war involved. But the fact the remains that Mulan goes to training camp and learns to fight, then goes to war with the Huns where she starts an avalanche that kills thousands of people. I will say again: the heroine of this movie has a body count in the thousands. Not to mention that we see the battlefield wasteland the Huns left behind when they decimated the imperial army, plus more fighting once they get to the imperial city. That is a violent movie.
Does that mean they're bad movies? No. Do I think I am more aggressive as a result of being obsessed with them? I don't think so. I mean, I like to think I got the right messages from those movies, especially because I identified with them so strongly because those main characters embodied so many characteristics that I already had and/or valued. But still- thousands. Yikes!
People want power. They want control of things in their lives. They tend to want a level of stability. Are depictions of unrestrained physical dominance over other beings the easiest way to display power? To display control of things in one's life? To display a level of stability from controlling one's environment?
ReplyDeleteAre fighting and physical feats easier to see and follow (or quickly understand and not be confused about) than relational and conceptual conflicts, battles and wars? The media wants to grab our attention. Perhaps physical conflicts displayed are easily detectable, without paying much attention, and, compared to real life, are shocking depictions? Perhaps they suck us in, so to speak?
Also, in fantasy, do we not often create situations where normal boundaries that restrict people from physically fighting are removed or reduced, and in such situations, physical violence often becomes (or appears to be) an effective tool to accomplish a goal?
Perhaps this has something to do with why there is so much violence in the media? Attention grabbing fantasy power through physical depictions of violence?
...some thoughts I had about your princesses with body counts. :)
This is really interesting. I've never even sort of thought about this; I always took these movies in stride, and I guess I assumed subconsciously that since there was a princess, the violence either a) didn't exist or b) wasn't really a thing. I find that an interesting train of thought, and now a totally incorrect one! Thanks for the post; it's been thought-provoking!
ReplyDeleteI agree! There is A LOT of violence in Disney that we kind of gloss over. One that has always struck me is in Tarzan when Clayton accidentally hangs himself! SOOO scary!
ReplyDeleteThose were some of my favorite movies! I literally thought that I was Belle. Brown hair, loved reading. Yep, she was me. I was always creeped out when the villagers stormed the Beast's house, but I had never thought about the fact that Mulan killed thousands of men. It's funny how you can say something in so many different ways. "Hero" vs. "Mass Murderer."
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