Weekly Blog
Weekly Blog 7 | Norms and Tales
This week’s blog we are invited to reflect on the messages that fairy tales convey to their young audiences. I probably should not admit this, but I have not watched too many Disney movies in their entirety or at all. That seems to be a child’s foundation into fairy tales. I watched more Pokemon movies growing up than Disney.
However, I would agree that yes, fairy tales do reflect cultural norms and values of the time that they are written/created–just like any other literature. The norms and values are developed in the minds of the creators/authors and is fairly difficult to keep their creation and values/worldviews separate. Though vivid and imaginary, and mostly for entertainment as opposed to fables, fairy tales still carry some moral weight in the representation of the characters, as well as interactions between the characters and the plot. Especially for young audiences whose minds are still sponges soaking up everything without a grain of salt.
No one fits in a box, every one is unique in their own way and it needs to be accounted for. Representation is very important.
As culture progresses and norms/values shift, change and pivot, I think it’s important for the main character to reflect the modern times, even if it challenges residual norms clung onto by the generation that was raised within it. As for Belle’s representation in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, I think it’s wonderful that she was given a more contemporary twist, as modeling these modern norms can serve as meaningful representation for the young girls watching the movie. It’s important that little girls have strong women role models in which to be able to see themselves. I also think it’s wonderful that the topic of homosexuality is becoming less taboo (although the stigma is still very much needing progress) to be able to show in children’s movies to show young boys that it’s okay and nothing is wrong with them.
Again, I did not grow up watching a lot of Disney movies. To be quite honest, I can’t jog my memory enough to even remember an example of a movie or novel where I felt profoundly affected in a positive way in my childhood years….But I can speak on more recent years of teen-hood. Youtube was in it’s prime, to the point that the “dark side of Youtube” became a thing because there was so much content, on everything. Everything.
I had always been called an “Oreo” or “white” despite being a very dark-skinned girl just because of my personality. And I could not for the absolute life of me find a black female actress that was not stereotypical in some way. I strived to find a trait of “awkwardness” in a black female actress being represented in media. One that was not always feisty, always had the right thing to say at the right moment, and the list goes on. That was not, and still is not me to this day.
But on Youtube, the Holy Grail of everything that existed and didn’t exist, I found a webseries called “Awkward Black Girl” and it changed my entire life. FINALLY! There I was, watching myself trip on my own words, trip over my feet, fumbling through life, buried in books and living outside the stereotypical box I couldn’t mold myself into. Thank goodness for Issa Rae.