The Case for the Disney Revolution
Jan. 21st, 2016 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastDisney's had it's Rennaisance. And, like the Rennaisance, it came with an explosion of art, science, and even morality. The moral innovation was expressed in Beauty and the Beast, when the classic hero was made the villain. This was Disney admitting there was a problem with some of their classic movies. The problem they were dealing with, at the time, was that the place they were making for women was not much of a place, with not much room to be an individual.
Well, it's time for Disney to admit that there's another problem.
There's a sin shared by Scar and Jafar and the wicked stepmother and Yzma and Hans. They each made an effort to achieve, for themselves, a higher station.
Cinderella and Snow White are allowed to be pulled up to higher station by Princes. Aladdin is allowed to become more than a "street rat" by the love of Jasmine and the grace of the Sultan. And, in the Sword and the Stone, Arthur can be found to have been born to high station. Apparently, there is virtue in being given that there is not in achieving.
That's entirely expected. Disney is taking from the public domain fairy-tales that, themselves, have the great flaw of idealizing and assuming the virtues of monarchy and class. Good people stay in their place and are promised great reward. Bad people have dreams outside their place. It is only recently that we've begun to see ambition as something that can be good or at least harness-able for social good.
But, that's also why the fairy-tale treatment of women is entirely expected, too. Disney's acknowledged that problem. So, let's acknowledge and take steps about this one, the problems of monarchy and feudalism in general.
The best place to start, I believe, would be in revisiting the setting of Beauty and the Beast. This shows the problems a few ways.
Firstly, and most obviously, the servants were all cursed, right along with the one we would call The Beast. Arguably, they suffered an even graver body-horror than the Beast. At least the Beast still has the same limbs and the same basic skeleton. Lumiere has doesn't even have a skeleton for these ten years. And, what was their great sin? They were the noble's servants, so they just came along for the ride.
Secondly, there's the question of Gaston. If a woman is going around testing people for shallow values and punishing those who don't look past the surface, why wasn't Gaston, of all people, given the old-lady-test? It could be that, as vain as he is, he's not cruel, unless his sense of self is shaken, and would have passed the test... but I doubt it. More likely (and yes, I've already made this point in my Black Hat Brigade*) he wasn't given the test because he wasn't highborn and wealthy enough to merit it.
Thirdly, let's look at how a fiefdom is supposed to work in Feudal France (or France-like fictional location). The feudal lord or duke or whomever is given the land has the right to tax the people and make pronouncements. In exchange, the feudal lord sees to keeping the law, protecting the village from invaders and bandits, and otherwise seeing to public projects, usually churches and/or Cathedrals.
That means that, ten years prior to the Belle finding herself in a dark castle surrounded by dark woods, the nearby village suddenly, without any note of warning, lost their defender and judge. They had to interpret and enforce the law, themselves. They had to adjudicate legal disputes themselves.
They had to attend their defense themselves. They aren't a remote village, the castle is right there. Castles are supposed to be right there, so that people can take refuge in the castle walls when they're under siege. But, castles are also where people go to meet with the local lord, see to the status of the fiefdom, etc. They can't hide, because their sudden absence of a defender is quickly obvious. And, they don't have a set of castle walls for refuge.
With neighboring fiefdoms or kingdoms ready to snatch up available, unprotected land to use for growing food for their own armies, and ready to mutilate the local population as a message to anybody who might rebel against the new ruler, this village had to attend its own defense, and fast.
And, they did. Look at the village in the movie. The town is peaceful, the people in good health, bodily intact, and in good spirits. The song they sing is about how great is Gaston, not how frightening is the next set of invaders or about how horrible it is to live in a town without law.
So, what we have is one village that is intimately aware of how they don't need a noble class to protect them, to maintain law and order, or to see to the public good. In order for the village to be as it is, they have to have done all that for themselves.
Then the Beast turns into a human being (I think he also gets the name Adam?) and... now what?
Does he become the Noble Lord over the village, again? After a decade of only existing as a scary castle and rumors of a monster?
No, I don't think it's that easy. The villagers can't be given the respect due human beings and simply accept a new noble lord after they've spent a decade proving quite capable of taking care of themselves. The villagers can't throw away their hard-won self-ownership after what must have been an initial severe emergency within fresh memory.
In fact, they were so successful, in a middle ages setting, that Belle's literacy isn't remarked upon, just the amount of time she spends reading. Noble Lords and Princes would have worked against that as a literate populace might threaten their position.
Does the Beast retain his employment of his servants?
That isn't that easy, either. They have ten years of seeing the full extent to which they are dehumanized in the current system. One young boy has spent more of his life as an animated object than as a person. At the same time, they're all ten years isolated from their closest outside relations.
I imagine a sequel in which Prince Adam seeks to reestablish himself as the Noble Protector of this fiefdom and meets unexpected resistance. His servants are split down the middle. The wild cards are chip and Belle.
If he's smart, it'll end in some kind of Magna Carta situation. If not, it'll turn into a fight between a man and his own villagers. But, neighboring Lords will help. "If they rebel in your home, they might get ideas in ours."
From there, yes, "they" will get ideas in other places. They'll start to see that it's possible to have a more egalitarian society, one with class mobility and a place for ambition. Villains and would-be-villains will take sides with the people and heroes of the monarchy will resort to villainous ends... and someone will repeatedly point out the etymology of the word "villain".
It'll be slow, difficult, and worth a lot of movies. But, this admission can make the magic kingdom into something better. The Magic Democracy. Perhaps a Magic Parliament or a Magic Direct Democracy or perhaps a Magic Representative Republic. But, a place where a person can achieve for themselves, rather than be stuck hoping that, some day, their Prince will come along.
* http://wingedbeast.dreamwidth.org/36285.html
Well, it's time for Disney to admit that there's another problem.
There's a sin shared by Scar and Jafar and the wicked stepmother and Yzma and Hans. They each made an effort to achieve, for themselves, a higher station.
Cinderella and Snow White are allowed to be pulled up to higher station by Princes. Aladdin is allowed to become more than a "street rat" by the love of Jasmine and the grace of the Sultan. And, in the Sword and the Stone, Arthur can be found to have been born to high station. Apparently, there is virtue in being given that there is not in achieving.
That's entirely expected. Disney is taking from the public domain fairy-tales that, themselves, have the great flaw of idealizing and assuming the virtues of monarchy and class. Good people stay in their place and are promised great reward. Bad people have dreams outside their place. It is only recently that we've begun to see ambition as something that can be good or at least harness-able for social good.
But, that's also why the fairy-tale treatment of women is entirely expected, too. Disney's acknowledged that problem. So, let's acknowledge and take steps about this one, the problems of monarchy and feudalism in general.
The best place to start, I believe, would be in revisiting the setting of Beauty and the Beast. This shows the problems a few ways.
Firstly, and most obviously, the servants were all cursed, right along with the one we would call The Beast. Arguably, they suffered an even graver body-horror than the Beast. At least the Beast still has the same limbs and the same basic skeleton. Lumiere has doesn't even have a skeleton for these ten years. And, what was their great sin? They were the noble's servants, so they just came along for the ride.
Secondly, there's the question of Gaston. If a woman is going around testing people for shallow values and punishing those who don't look past the surface, why wasn't Gaston, of all people, given the old-lady-test? It could be that, as vain as he is, he's not cruel, unless his sense of self is shaken, and would have passed the test... but I doubt it. More likely (and yes, I've already made this point in my Black Hat Brigade*) he wasn't given the test because he wasn't highborn and wealthy enough to merit it.
Thirdly, let's look at how a fiefdom is supposed to work in Feudal France (or France-like fictional location). The feudal lord or duke or whomever is given the land has the right to tax the people and make pronouncements. In exchange, the feudal lord sees to keeping the law, protecting the village from invaders and bandits, and otherwise seeing to public projects, usually churches and/or Cathedrals.
That means that, ten years prior to the Belle finding herself in a dark castle surrounded by dark woods, the nearby village suddenly, without any note of warning, lost their defender and judge. They had to interpret and enforce the law, themselves. They had to adjudicate legal disputes themselves.
They had to attend their defense themselves. They aren't a remote village, the castle is right there. Castles are supposed to be right there, so that people can take refuge in the castle walls when they're under siege. But, castles are also where people go to meet with the local lord, see to the status of the fiefdom, etc. They can't hide, because their sudden absence of a defender is quickly obvious. And, they don't have a set of castle walls for refuge.
With neighboring fiefdoms or kingdoms ready to snatch up available, unprotected land to use for growing food for their own armies, and ready to mutilate the local population as a message to anybody who might rebel against the new ruler, this village had to attend its own defense, and fast.
And, they did. Look at the village in the movie. The town is peaceful, the people in good health, bodily intact, and in good spirits. The song they sing is about how great is Gaston, not how frightening is the next set of invaders or about how horrible it is to live in a town without law.
So, what we have is one village that is intimately aware of how they don't need a noble class to protect them, to maintain law and order, or to see to the public good. In order for the village to be as it is, they have to have done all that for themselves.
Then the Beast turns into a human being (I think he also gets the name Adam?) and... now what?
Does he become the Noble Lord over the village, again? After a decade of only existing as a scary castle and rumors of a monster?
No, I don't think it's that easy. The villagers can't be given the respect due human beings and simply accept a new noble lord after they've spent a decade proving quite capable of taking care of themselves. The villagers can't throw away their hard-won self-ownership after what must have been an initial severe emergency within fresh memory.
In fact, they were so successful, in a middle ages setting, that Belle's literacy isn't remarked upon, just the amount of time she spends reading. Noble Lords and Princes would have worked against that as a literate populace might threaten their position.
Does the Beast retain his employment of his servants?
That isn't that easy, either. They have ten years of seeing the full extent to which they are dehumanized in the current system. One young boy has spent more of his life as an animated object than as a person. At the same time, they're all ten years isolated from their closest outside relations.
I imagine a sequel in which Prince Adam seeks to reestablish himself as the Noble Protector of this fiefdom and meets unexpected resistance. His servants are split down the middle. The wild cards are chip and Belle.
If he's smart, it'll end in some kind of Magna Carta situation. If not, it'll turn into a fight between a man and his own villagers. But, neighboring Lords will help. "If they rebel in your home, they might get ideas in ours."
From there, yes, "they" will get ideas in other places. They'll start to see that it's possible to have a more egalitarian society, one with class mobility and a place for ambition. Villains and would-be-villains will take sides with the people and heroes of the monarchy will resort to villainous ends... and someone will repeatedly point out the etymology of the word "villain".
It'll be slow, difficult, and worth a lot of movies. But, this admission can make the magic kingdom into something better. The Magic Democracy. Perhaps a Magic Parliament or a Magic Direct Democracy or perhaps a Magic Representative Republic. But, a place where a person can achieve for themselves, rather than be stuck hoping that, some day, their Prince will come along.
* http://wingedbeast.dreamwidth.org/36285.html
