make up for week 3 blog #2

We watched a commentary on Disney movies the other day. I had remained completely ignorant to the fact of how racist and sexist those movies were. I am doing my final research paper on traditional and non-traditional representation of women in movies and this commentary led me to use a couple of these movies to contrast the women. In Beauty in the Beast, Belle is often verbally and physically abused. The beast tends to scream in her face and lock her in rooms without food or water for certain amounts of time. She is portrayed as a weak and self-less woman throughout the movie. On the other hand, The Little Mermaid, my favorite Disney movie, shows Ariel as a rebellious, independent and adventurous young woman. Ariel is one of many women in all of the movies that are represented in this untraditional manner. I remained oblivious to the great contrast of characters for the past 20 years of my life. I almost believe that children should not be exposed to the true “meanings” of these movies because it is completely harmless to them as they don’t realize the extremity of these issues.