Fabulously Wicked
Mar. 22nd, 2012 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilDuring our trip to Disney World, I found it interesting that we saw not one, but two shows that pitted Mickey Mouse against Maleficent. A decidedly unbalanced match, which in any realistic scenario would have Maleficent easily emerging as the victor - but of course Mickey always wins. The reason for this, other than the obvious need for a kid-friendly happy ending, is that the actual conflict represented is the power of imagination versus the power of - well, I guess evil imagination, nightmares, cynicism, whatever you want to call it. In one show Mickey and his buddies, including a recently converted Donald Duck, fended off Maleficent with a repeated chant of "Dreams come true." Sheesh. I think I preferred the cynic Donald, with his hearty response of "Phooey!" to all nonsensical talk of dreams. Maybe I just like the word phooey.
But that saccharine coating is simply part of the Disney atmosphere, and I don't mind it so much as long as my kids are aware that dreams coming true includes more than just princesses finding their handsome princes. What Maleficent's role sparked, instead, was an exploration of the predominance of female villains in Disney movies. This isn't something Disney invented, of course. Fairy tales are rife with evil mothers, stepmothers and queens. Why? And perhaps more importantly, is this a problem? After all, having strong female characters doesn't mean having only good female characters, and in fact having only angelic, uncomplicated females is as much a problem as having only monstrous, uncomplicated females. Of course there's the issue that these females are often defeated by strong manly heroes, rescuing their various damsels in distress. I'd definitely like to see more females pitted against females.
All that aside, though - the real question is, what sort of female villains are these? Multi-dimensional, or flat cliches that only further promote gender stereotypes?
The first few fairy tale movies all contain a woman as the primary villain, and their various motivations are rather disappointing. Snow White's queen is thrown into a jealous rage because she isn't as pretty as the heroine. The very picture of a shallow, catty female. I suppose it could serve as a warning to our society, in our tendency to present an attractive appearance as a woman's best and perhaps only asset. The queen's state of mind is vanity in extreme excess. Still, I think we can agree that no male villain would ever develop a murderous vendetta against someone more attractive than him, and that's pretty telling.
Cinderella's stepmother is motivated, as far as we can tell, by an overwrought motherly pride that has her despising the girl who outshines her daughters in every way. She also seems to have ambitions to get one of her daughters married to the prince, but at its core she is one of those psychotic mothers who can't love anyone except their own children. It shows up a lot in fairy tales, and the children they dote upon are always rather repulsive creatures. I could get into a nature/nurture debate on that whole mess. But let's ask, again, would a male villain behave similarly as a doting father who despises his stepchild? There are certainly evil father figures, but this specific trope seems reserved for a distorted version of caring mothers.
Maleficent, on the surface, appears much stronger. No petty vanity or crazy motherhood for her. Yet...what motivates her? Wounded pride at not getting invited to a party. Yikes. And she rages and rants for sixteen years about this? I'm not sure if that vendetta necessarily has a ring of "those crazy women and their parties" to it...maybe just an all-around-crazy feeling. I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to see a male in a similar role, taking offense at a minor breach as an excuse to curse everything within reach. Maleficent makes for a striking villain all around, terrifying in appearance (probably why she shows up in so many Disney World shows), with a deliciously wicked sense of humor and tremendous powers of destruction and devastation. Why she uses those powers to target a sixteen-year-old girl with no powers or pretensions....well, we can always assume it was part of a bigger plan to gain dominion over the whole kingdom, right?
A few other villainesses from the non-fairy tale movies come to mind, including the Madames Mim and Medusa from The Sword and the Stone and The Rescuers, respectively. Mim is peculiar for being an invented character in a story that otherwise borrows familiar existing ones from the Arthur legend. Is she a sort of silly kids' version of the more malevolent female Arthurian figures? Perhaps. She always made me giggle, and I can't recall anything too revoltingly stereotypical about her. Medusa is a little more problematic, motivated purely by her burning desire for a giant sparkly diamond...but her male lackey is almost just as crazy about the sparkly, and we can't discount the fact that the story is balanced by not one, but two strong females: the girl Penny who is justifiably scared but keeps fighting against her captivity anyway, and Miss Bianca, the fearless delegate from the mice version of the United Nations. ;)
Well, then there's Ursula from the Little Mermaid. Aside from a few suggestive bits of body language, I don't think there's anything particularly stereotypically female about her. We only get the vaguest traces of a backstory, but she seems to be motivated primarily by revenge at being ousted from court, and the desire to regain her power. Scary and vicious. Not petty or girly. She might be a more compelling character than Ariel, actually.
Of all the female villains, I'm starting to think that Mother Gothel might actually be the most disturbing. The others mostly wear their villainy on their sleeve. It's bad enough when Cinderella's stepmother treats her like a slave instead of providing the motherly love she needs. But Mother Gothel feigns a motherly love that is utterly false - justifying her exploitation of Rapunzel with fake assurances of her love and concern. It's really horrifying when you think of it. If she had begun, in spite of her initial purposes, to develop affection for Rapunzel, there might have been some redemptive quality to her behavior. But she is cold and heartless through and through, and we're not meant to feel any sadness at her sudden and violent death. I'm not sure what to think of that. (Well, I know one way to think of it - writing my own Rapunzel story where the mother is more complicated, neither entirely evil or good. ;)
A villain who poses as something as intimate as a mother - more than poses, for she is the only parent Rapunzel has all those years - is perhaps the most insidious of all. The closest parallel for male villains I can think of is Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame (which I confess I've never seen all the way through, too incensed at the notion of turning such a dark story into a Disney movie with a happy ending), and even he is conflicted, filled with darkness but still with some kernel of remorse. Mother Gothel is irredeemably evil. Is that a point on the side of feminism or against it? I don't know if it's a point for either side, honestly. And I'm not sure if it makes for a really powerful story or shows a lack of character development. Maybe both, or neither. But I think I'd rather face Maleficent (armed with sword and shield, of course) than grow up with the false love of Mother Gothel.
But that saccharine coating is simply part of the Disney atmosphere, and I don't mind it so much as long as my kids are aware that dreams coming true includes more than just princesses finding their handsome princes. What Maleficent's role sparked, instead, was an exploration of the predominance of female villains in Disney movies. This isn't something Disney invented, of course. Fairy tales are rife with evil mothers, stepmothers and queens. Why? And perhaps more importantly, is this a problem? After all, having strong female characters doesn't mean having only good female characters, and in fact having only angelic, uncomplicated females is as much a problem as having only monstrous, uncomplicated females. Of course there's the issue that these females are often defeated by strong manly heroes, rescuing their various damsels in distress. I'd definitely like to see more females pitted against females.
All that aside, though - the real question is, what sort of female villains are these? Multi-dimensional, or flat cliches that only further promote gender stereotypes?
The first few fairy tale movies all contain a woman as the primary villain, and their various motivations are rather disappointing. Snow White's queen is thrown into a jealous rage because she isn't as pretty as the heroine. The very picture of a shallow, catty female. I suppose it could serve as a warning to our society, in our tendency to present an attractive appearance as a woman's best and perhaps only asset. The queen's state of mind is vanity in extreme excess. Still, I think we can agree that no male villain would ever develop a murderous vendetta against someone more attractive than him, and that's pretty telling.
Cinderella's stepmother is motivated, as far as we can tell, by an overwrought motherly pride that has her despising the girl who outshines her daughters in every way. She also seems to have ambitions to get one of her daughters married to the prince, but at its core she is one of those psychotic mothers who can't love anyone except their own children. It shows up a lot in fairy tales, and the children they dote upon are always rather repulsive creatures. I could get into a nature/nurture debate on that whole mess. But let's ask, again, would a male villain behave similarly as a doting father who despises his stepchild? There are certainly evil father figures, but this specific trope seems reserved for a distorted version of caring mothers.
Maleficent, on the surface, appears much stronger. No petty vanity or crazy motherhood for her. Yet...what motivates her? Wounded pride at not getting invited to a party. Yikes. And she rages and rants for sixteen years about this? I'm not sure if that vendetta necessarily has a ring of "those crazy women and their parties" to it...maybe just an all-around-crazy feeling. I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to see a male in a similar role, taking offense at a minor breach as an excuse to curse everything within reach. Maleficent makes for a striking villain all around, terrifying in appearance (probably why she shows up in so many Disney World shows), with a deliciously wicked sense of humor and tremendous powers of destruction and devastation. Why she uses those powers to target a sixteen-year-old girl with no powers or pretensions....well, we can always assume it was part of a bigger plan to gain dominion over the whole kingdom, right?
A few other villainesses from the non-fairy tale movies come to mind, including the Madames Mim and Medusa from The Sword and the Stone and The Rescuers, respectively. Mim is peculiar for being an invented character in a story that otherwise borrows familiar existing ones from the Arthur legend. Is she a sort of silly kids' version of the more malevolent female Arthurian figures? Perhaps. She always made me giggle, and I can't recall anything too revoltingly stereotypical about her. Medusa is a little more problematic, motivated purely by her burning desire for a giant sparkly diamond...but her male lackey is almost just as crazy about the sparkly, and we can't discount the fact that the story is balanced by not one, but two strong females: the girl Penny who is justifiably scared but keeps fighting against her captivity anyway, and Miss Bianca, the fearless delegate from the mice version of the United Nations. ;)
Well, then there's Ursula from the Little Mermaid. Aside from a few suggestive bits of body language, I don't think there's anything particularly stereotypically female about her. We only get the vaguest traces of a backstory, but she seems to be motivated primarily by revenge at being ousted from court, and the desire to regain her power. Scary and vicious. Not petty or girly. She might be a more compelling character than Ariel, actually.
Of all the female villains, I'm starting to think that Mother Gothel might actually be the most disturbing. The others mostly wear their villainy on their sleeve. It's bad enough when Cinderella's stepmother treats her like a slave instead of providing the motherly love she needs. But Mother Gothel feigns a motherly love that is utterly false - justifying her exploitation of Rapunzel with fake assurances of her love and concern. It's really horrifying when you think of it. If she had begun, in spite of her initial purposes, to develop affection for Rapunzel, there might have been some redemptive quality to her behavior. But she is cold and heartless through and through, and we're not meant to feel any sadness at her sudden and violent death. I'm not sure what to think of that. (Well, I know one way to think of it - writing my own Rapunzel story where the mother is more complicated, neither entirely evil or good. ;)
A villain who poses as something as intimate as a mother - more than poses, for she is the only parent Rapunzel has all those years - is perhaps the most insidious of all. The closest parallel for male villains I can think of is Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame (which I confess I've never seen all the way through, too incensed at the notion of turning such a dark story into a Disney movie with a happy ending), and even he is conflicted, filled with darkness but still with some kernel of remorse. Mother Gothel is irredeemably evil. Is that a point on the side of feminism or against it? I don't know if it's a point for either side, honestly. And I'm not sure if it makes for a really powerful story or shows a lack of character development. Maybe both, or neither. But I think I'd rather face Maleficent (armed with sword and shield, of course) than grow up with the false love of Mother Gothel.
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no subject
Date: 2012-03-23 11:10 am (UTC)Have you seen Once Upon a Time on ABC? One of the interesting aspects is how they put an almost Grimm-like twist on the fairy tale part of the show, yet evoke the Disney versions with things like Snow White humming the Disney music. And there's actually been some interesting character work with the evil queen. (Now if only the real world part of the show was as compelling...)
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Date: 2012-03-23 12:57 pm (UTC)I haven't watched Once Upon a Time. My impression was - great premise, blandly executed. When we were in Disney World last month we saw commercials for it at Hollywood Studios, I guess because ABC is affiliated with Disney. So maybe they're required to have a few nods toward Disney. ;) Seriously, the films have become so embedded in our culture it's impossible to reference fairy tales without conjuring up the Disney versions. It makes me wonder how different things would be if Walt Disney had chosen an entire different genre for the first full-length animated feature....
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Date: 2012-03-24 01:47 am (UTC)Heh heh, Gaston v the Evil Queen in the Miss Fairy Tale pageant. THAT will keep me chuckling all evening! (And almost makes me want to write silly Disney fanfic...)