Beauty and the Beast is
the ultimate Disney Princess movie for women and girls who don’t necessarily
believe in waiting for their Prince to show up on a white horse. I was told at
one point that if my prince rode up on a white horse, I’d probably push him off
the horse, steal the horse, and leave the Prince behind. Probably fairly
accurate. Though I would hope he didn’t have a white horse. Another colour
would be preferable :~)
But Beauty and the Beast
is not about your weak princess who needs her prince to rescue her from
anything, be it a tower, or an enchanted sleep, or an evil witch. Belle makes
her own way, not caring that the people in her little village think she’s
mental. She reads, she is intelligent, she loves her Father and helps him with
his inventions. She wants more to her life, and she isn’t willing to settle for
Gaston, who is supposed to be such a catch, even if it means that she remains
alone. His plan for her to be his “little wife” is nowhere near her radar, and
doesn’t care what anyone thinks.
She dreams of meeting
her “prince charming”, but then when she meets him, he’s not nearly so charming
as what she hoped. But she sticks it out, not even knowing that he is the one.
Thinking actually that he is more of a thorn in her side than anything.
In this way, they rescue
each other, instead of simply the prince rescuing the princess. He rescues her
from the mundane life she is living, and she rescues him from his curse, and
the life he had been trapped in. She teaches him to love, and learns to love herself.
The rescuing is mutual, not the stronger rescuing the weaker, but each of them
both strong and weak, and exactly what the other needs.
This is always the sort
of relationship I have wanted. Not a man to complete me, not a man to rescue
me, but one to whom I can give as much as he gives to me. Someone that I can be
myself with. Headstrong, loving, difficult, goofy, whatever. The good and the
bad. But I definitely do not want a prince riding in to save the day.
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