I re-watched my two all-time favourite Disney films, Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas, recently as light entertainment whilst moving house. The songs are still as good as they were when I was six but this time I paid attention to what the pictures were saying alongside the words, and I realised just where certain of my understandings of femininity and masculinity had come from. Things made a lot more sense and other things were troubling and I wanted to share my review with you to see what you think.
I’ll start by saying that I’ve always looked up to Belle and Pocahontas. I loved their stories enough that I’ve read various takes on the originals. I had Barbie dolls of both of them and I remember thinking that I would name my first daughter Pocahontas, I wanted to be her so badly. They’re good people, strong, independent women, who know how to use their brains and their voices, who will fight to protect the people they love. They bring out the best in people and they’re not afraid to sacrifice themselves to save those they love.
Wooo yeah! The freedom that I love.
Others say that Disney is all about the pretty dresses and having a man rescue the heroine at the end, but I think they’ve missed something else. I’m not saying that Disney didn’t tone down the original La Belle and le Bête fairytale nor completely mess up Pocahontas‘s story (you can find other stuff on Wikipedia – usual caveats apply), and made the lead women less than they were, but enough of their original character got through to make the point that you didn’t just have to be a pretty face.
A Hat Full of Ness 