Female Stereotypes

Judging from most classic fairy tales, a prerequisite for being the heroine of the story is being incredibly beautiful. Beauty, in life as well as literature, is incredibly valued. To be beautiful is to be good and vice versa. This line of thinking is well-represented in classic fairy tales. “Cinderella” by Lin Lan is one of the best examples of how a piece of literature, as well as a society, sees the relationship between virtue and physical attractiveness. Lin Lan’s Cinderella, as with many fairy tales, believes that beauty and goodness are strongly correlated, shows this through the characters and how other characters value beauty, and represents the opposite as well: to be evil is to be ugly. This point of view shown in “Cinderella” is

Beauty and the Beast is a “Tale as old as time” or at least as old as 1740 which is when the first publication appeared (De Villeneuve). The original author, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, wrote 362 pages which Jeanne- Marie Leprince de Beaumont later abridged (De Villeneuve). Countless people know the general story of Beauty and the Beast: A beautiful girl saves her father by becoming a prisoner in an enchanted castle. She and the master, a hideous beast, become acquainted. The beast wants the girl to be content, even when her request is to leave, so he lets her go. When the girl returns, the beast is in grave danger. Tearfully the girl confesses her love for the beast, and he transforms into a handsome prince.

Overall, the emphasis that fairy tales place on physical appearance can be very detrimental to a child (particularly a girl’s) development and ideas of reality. To add, fairy tales, although perhaps unintentionally, depict that attractiveness determines who is good and who is evil. The protagonist is often the princess, who is described as the prettiest in the land. The antagonist on the other hand is often less attractive and more than likely labeled ugly (Schussler). Because fairy tales often depict good conquering evil and evil succumbing to its immorality, this therefore shows the reader that ugly people are punished. This also can influence a girl’s self-esteem, considering that the created sense of beauty is impossible, thus they may feel inferior (Danish). Grauerholz hypothesizes that “[t]hese powerful messages that say women need to be beautiful may compel some women to seek beauty at the expense of other pursuits, such as careers or education” (Grauerholz). The exaggerated emphasis on beauty has potential to be a very limiting factor for young girls. However, the stereotypical beautiful princess is not the only gender stereotype that plagues women in the tales.

This scene here is a perfect example of how this movie teaches viewers that being ugly is a sure sign of punishment, while in contrast obtaining beauty is a reward. This also encourages hegemonic heterosexuality because the enchantress tells the beast that he will be rewarded solely if he loves and is loved by another woman. This is noted as well and shown when some of the other characters in the movie speak of Belle as “the girl who could break the spell”. There are also notions of very heterosexual dating advice given by some

​Jeanne Marie Le Prince de Beaumont’s original story, “Beauty and the Beast” was written in the 18th century, in a time where arranged marriages were common and females were expected to do as they were told. Beauty, the main female in the novel, succumbs to the hierarchy and goes to live with the

In the Story of Beauty and the Beast written by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont, there was a very rich man with six children, three sons, and three daughters; his daughters were very beautiful, especially the youngest. As a little girl, everyone around her called her “The little Beauty,” as she got older, the name stuck and that is the name that she went by; that made her sisters extremely jealous of her. Beauty, not only known for her pretty looks, she was also known for her kind heart, unlike her sisters. Beauty’s sisters only cared about their riches and the men who wanted to marry them, and many men did because of the girls’ fathers fortune. However, Beauty turned each man down because she thought she was too young and wanted to stay

Throughout Beaumont’s version of Beauty and the Beast the idea of a patriarchal relationship was evident between Beauty and the Beast. The Beast used the tactic of manipulation and had complete control over Beauty ultimately leading to her falling in love with him. Every night the Beast would ask

The story of "Beauty and the Beast" by De Beaumont appropriately teaches the 18th century values of rationality, proper etiquette, and self-sacrifice. De Beaumont story begins by telling the misfortunes of a merchant and his six kids but puts emphasis on the merchant's youngest child affectionately called "Little Beauty" (De Beaumont 200) due to her immense beauty and particularly good nature who treated everyone fairly. When the merchant tries to obtain a rose for Little Beauty he is sentenced to death by the Beast but is given three months to live. Beauty sacrifices herself for her father and the Beast in return allows Beauty to live and each night has dinner with Beauty while she politely allows him to give her company at dinner despite

Beauty as well portrays herself as someone who keeps a promise. The Beast was a stranger to Beauty, but she had to swallow her fear and become brave for her fathers sake. Then the horrid Beast proves that he is not a wretched person and kept his promise to the father, although he did not like how the father was taking his roses. A promise is a promise, no matter what the consequences are; ruining a relationship

The first thing that comes to mind about this story is the importance of inner beauty, and how people’s appearance does not identify their personalities. When Beauty looks passed the Beast’s ugly appearance, and his lack of intelligence, she sees a kind heart inside him – the virtue that she most desired. However, in the 18th century, when this fairy tale was created, the story’s original purpose could aim for a different direction. As Lurie mentions, many stories back then with a female character “seems to be about the proper behavior of women” (360). The character Beauty, has all the possible virtues.

The ‘latent content’ of fairy tales as defined by carter is the objectification and suppression of women. In this case female sexuality is not seen as empowering as they strip themselves as a ‘response to male arousal’ as stated by Patricia Dunker. Though this can be applied to the heroine and the Marquis, towards the denouement, the heroine is no longer passive and acts upon what society tells her not to do and uses women’s sensuality as a form of empowerment as seen in The Tiger’s Bride where the heroine ultimately rejects the role of a woman by metamorphosing both violently and sexually by ‘lick(ing) the skin off’ her into a tigress. The heroine’s father considers her as one of his belongings ‘careless of (your) treasures’ and so gambles and loses her to the Beast.

The story about “Beauty and the Beast” relates to me for two reasons. For one reason, I have an understanding of personality. My personality is something I think is important. Despite that I have never found love yet, I think that personality is not only important to myself, but also for the person who as a personality that I would like. Similar to “Beauty and the Beast”, a personality is far more important than my appearance and anyone else’s

Gender roles in society vary within cultures throughout the world. History gives aid to the portrayal of women being seen as submissive and beautiful. Although women have achieved some of the impossible tasks, many people still have the same medieval viewpoint of women, being only homemakers, wives, and caregivers. Men are expected to be leaders of the home, breadwinners, and dominate over the women. The original purpose of fairy tales was not for the enjoyment of children, but to focus on cultural issues and biases. Beauty and the Beast, originally written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, is an example of a fairytale written to share a liberal aid of gender expectations and prejudice ideals. “Beauty and the Beast” emphasizes negative

There are many different versions of Beauty and the Beast; It is a magical story of unconditional love. It teaches children that beauty is much more then skin deep. In this assignment I am to compare two, Beauty and the Beast stories; one by the renowned, famous Grimm Brothers as presented by Disney. The other called Beastly by the modern author Alex Flinn. The two versions have many similarities but still quite a few differences.

All over the world Feminism is a current topic of concern and there are very few advocates who are currently fighting for gender equality. In the media men and women are attempting to use their voices to fight for equal rights and get the message across to all generations. In this paper, I will be analyzing the movie Beauty and the Beast (2017) by drawing upon the feminist theory, which will demonstrate how the main female character, Belle challenges the modern-day system of inequality and the socially constructed gender roles. I will do so by examining why Emma Watson was chosen as the leading actress, how Belle is different than the other women in her town, the modifications from the original movie, and how Belle ultimately gets to decide her destiny. I will also consider why some people may view the film as anti-feminist, which will allow for me to understand a different perspective. It is my thesis that socially constructed gender identities are negatively presented in popular culture, however actors and actresses are attempting to use their influence to make an impact and move towards equality.