4th summary

Summary
According to Elizabeth Bell in this book “From Mouse to Mermaid” (Elizabeth Bell, Chapter Ten, 1995), the author discussed masculinity and “Beauty and the Beast.” First, Bell talked about male heroes in the movies from 1980’s and 1990’s. The writer observed that the norm of hero characteristics was not always the same in each movie because starting in the 90’s, Hollywood tried to make males more sensitive and have feelings. In addition, Bell described that this includes the Disney movie too because the audience can notice the Beast changing his violent personality to be more calm and sensitive. The author clamed, however, the “clumsy” (Elizabeth Bell, p 169, 1995) beast is just changed because of a beautiful girl “Belle.” Also, Bell observed that the Beast represents “a stereotyped image of masculinity” (Elizabeth Bell, p 170, 1995) as hunting, drinking, and male bonding before he becomes a beast. Finally, Bell concluded that the Beast finally changes to a prince when he is twenty-one which states that many boys act like beasts until they reach the age 21 years old.




Analysis

In Beauty and the Beast, they show the beast to represent a very ferocious male character that is being insensitive. He is rude, violent, and strong, but he becomes a gentle prince at the ending. I think this may give young audience viewers the wrong impression, too. Some boys will believe it is acceptable to behave like Beast, and when they become adults it will be natural for them to act like a gentle human being again. This is obviously false, and may be very bad for society. Girls who may imitate Belle and fall for violent and insensitive boys think that one day the boy will become a prince and everything will create happy endings.