In the wake of the new Disney adaptation of Beauty and The Beast, which will star Emma Watson, Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen and Dan Stevens, I decided to watch the 1991 film again. I was surprised by the apparent anti-feminist messages that had swept over my innocent head during my childhood. This then got me thinking about some of the older versions of Beauty and The Beast, were these same messages also evident in them too?
The Beauty and the Beast story that was used in the 1991 Disney version was inspired by Madame de Beaumont’s, which was written in eighteenth century France. However, as with the story of Cinderella, there are versions which date back hundreds of years and appear in a wide variety of cultures. Understandably there are slight differences between them but the recurring theme is that of the beast and that Beauty is either sold to the beast by her father or volunteers her life for his, as in the Disney version. There are also some versions where the beast is not cursed because of his ‘beastly’ behaviour but that he is cursed out of spite by an ugly old witch who wanted to marry him but was refused.
I then started digging around (as all good research students do!) and found a plethora of articles relating to feminist interpretations of the story (or even legend) with opinions varying from Beauty and the Beast being a proto-feminist story to it encouraging young women to seek out violent bad boy relationships. The most interesting is Beauty and the Beast: A Feminist Tale? By Kristin, of Tales of Faerie
(http://spinstrawintogold.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/guest-post-beauty-and-beast-feminist.html). Kristin poses explanations for both attitudes to the story, before saying that we should continue to read this story, despite it’s complex and contentious feminist issues, to children just to show them how far we’ve come as a society.
Turning to the feminist analysis of the 1991 Disney film, the first arguably anti-feminist instance is the opening song. Belle declares her frustration with her circumstances by saying that “there must be more than this provincial life”. Her dismay with her life is eased by her reading through which she can escape to more stimulating and fulfilling worlds. Interestingly they are chiefly fairytale worlds that she describes whilst living in a fairytale world herself. Her excessive reading, whilst ameliorating her frustration marks her as ‘peculiar’ as the village describes in song:
“Look there she goes that girl is so peculiar, I wonder if she's feeling well, with a dreamy far-off look and her nose stuck in a book, what a puzzle to the rest of us is Belle.”
Interestingly, her inordinate beauty is not enough to save her from being marked as eccentric “Behind that fair façade I’m afraid she's rather odd”. Feminine behaviour for the villagers obviously does not involve being literate and educated. Despite being considered as ‘odd’ by society, Gaston the hunter wants to marry her anyway. Gaston’s description of her and references to her imply that he sees her as a prize because of her beauty, that he will win because he is the best. When he approaches her to first ‘make his move’ he tells her that she needs to sort out her priorities as she shouldn't be reading “The whole town’s talking about it, it's not right for a woman to read, soon she starts getting ideas and thinking”. If you left the feminist analysis there, it would be very easy to dismiss the 1991 version as anti-women, however the fact is that Belle does not fall for Gaston because she finds him repugnant. She even later calls him a ‘beast’, which loudly proclaims the message of the film, that it's not your appearance that makes you a monster, it's your character. Gaston’s foil is of course the Beast. He embraces Belle’s love of reading and nurtures that as he sets about wooing her by giving her his library. When Gaston discovers the beast’s existence, being a consummate hunter and taunted by Belle’s apparent feelings for him, he sets about hunting and then killing him. When they meet Gaston taunts the beast by saying
“Were you in love with her beast? Did you honestly think she'd want you when she had someone like me?”
The last line is somewhat redolent of the adolescent male’s leering yell ‘I’ve had her’, further suggesting Gaston’s objectification of women. Gaston’s attitude towards women is not permitted to continue in the story world as he dies trying to kill the beast. Further evidence of the story being pro-women and feminist is that it is ultimately the story of a man being re-educated out of his dominating, superior, spoiled, selfish, unkind behaviour and out of the mindset that values beauty over morality. The line that the film opens with is “who could learn to love a beast?” and this line suggests that marriage is and should be between people who love each other, that a woman should love her husband. Now as much as in eighteenth century France, women are forced into arranged marriages where they must be submissive to their husbands in a loveless marriage, so it will be very interesting to see the take that the director Bill Condon takes with 2017 adaptation.
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