The world of fairy tale bloggers is greatly enriched by the work of Gypsy Thornton. In 'Beauty vs Beast?' she comments on another blogger's take on the tale.
I won't expound. Just read Gypsy's ideas and follow the link to the original post by another blogger. It's worth the effort.
Image by Eleanore Vere Boyle.
4 comments:
It is interesting how one person can take a fairy tale such as "Beauty and the Beast" and relate it to how women treat men. It really is more a take on what happens when a person treats someone with compassion and respect. Beauty does not really marry the Beast until she realizes she actually does care about him as the person that he is, “the Beast”. She is not flaunting herself in front of him compelling him to change. Rather, she does not even think about the Beast ever changing. Beauty is willing to love and accept him before he is even transformed. The Beast’s transformation comes only after Beauty realizes that and comes back to him because she does not want to lose him. To say that “Beauty and the Beast” is a myth about how women transform men after marriage is a total twisting of the idea represented. We see that idea in acceptance of in individual for who he or she is creating the atmosphere for change. There is a story from Indonesia about the transformation of a very unattractive woman whom a young man desires to marry. Her father is overjoyed but almost incredulous. To shorten the story, several years later a visitor from the woman’s hometown comes to the couple’s house. He does not even recognize the woman as she has been transformed into a most lovely being. She was loved and accepted as she was and this action made all the difference.
LindaC T390
The original blog post author on “Clouded by Memories Past” makes a very fallacious argument when he states: “While we might condemn her objectification of men, the sad truth is her attitudes reflect what is close to becoming the dominant social reality, where women are increasingly objectifying men as nothing more than walking wallets.” As a woman who is currently the sole breadwinner of the family (and not minding a bit as long as our bills are paid) I find this extremely backwards from our progressive society. Now days, not only are more women earning college degrees at a higher rate, but more and more women are finding themselves earning more than their husbands (despite women only making 75% of their similarly situated male counterparts). Whether this is due to the downturn in economy (and especially in our area the near extinction of factory hard-labor jobs which were primarily occupied by men) or due to the fact that more women are earning college degrees it clearly shows that women are not marrying for the idea of having a husband who is a “walking wallet.” And as it relates to Beauty and the Beast, this author apparently has not read the original rendition – Beauty certainly was not interested in Beast for financial security, she was simply carrying out her duty and promise to her father to save his life. ~ Angiej T390
I think now in days a writer or anyone can take any fairy tale and relate it to whatever they desire. They could have taken Cinderella and said all women wants is the money and doesn’t care about the husband. I think now in society people don’t know what to write or come up with. Now money is a big issue and if a women marries for money the women is look bad but if the men do it it’s not as bad. It’s the way a person looks at it and how they think. Maybe the author was more interested in making the women look bad that a women likes to make a men beg and pay for it but why don’t look at it the other way around. In Beauty and the Beast can the Beast marry Beauty because of her looks and he is buying her from her father that maybe related to something now in days. It’s the way a person looks at the situation.
Maria G.
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