A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast
Johnson Bridgette. Beauty and the Beast: Across Cultures and time. 2013.
Retrieved from: http://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1108&context=honors
The fairytale ‘Beauty and The Beast’ has a very important message which is revealed by the ‘modern retellings’. According to the article, McKinley portrays a vivid picture of Beauty and Beast in the American culture. For most important part, the retelling is focusing on female teenagers who do not understand their role in the community, their self-identity and their modern values. The purpose of retelling the fairytale is to portray the image of traditional femininity and the struggle of women in finding their identity. The important point is not about the physical beauty but rather it is about the inner conflict and turmoil which female goes through in life within the Beast’s society. The latter presents the American society and gender Stereotypes.
Stevens, Heather A, "CHANGING THE NATURE OF THE BEAST: AN ANALYSIS OF SIGNIFICANT VARIATIONS FROM MADAME DE BEAUMONT’S LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE IN DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST" (2013).
Retrieved from: http://aquila.usm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1138&context=honors_theses
In altering the fairytale, the author is driven by gender ideology and intends to present the feminist in popular culture. The article asserts that the author of the novel alters the message from woman empowerment and reflects on anti-woman. Beauty (Belle) is intelligent but struggles to free from family troubles and Beast’s curse. She does not follow her self-determination but rather is she forced to marry. She endures selfless attitude and physical trauma from Beast and the latter has a dominant role in the Beauty’s life. The author is compelled by social issues and reflects the popular culture of feminine objectification. The author made a significant alteration to show how Belle as a female protagonist struggles to resolve the social and moral issues. With respect to the novel, popular culture is creating discrimination and sexism against women and they are struggling with their self-identity and femininity right.
Stone Elizabeth. Victorian Influence on Beauty and the Beast. 2013
Retrieved from: http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=english_4710cl
According to the article, the author altered to the fairytale to presents the dynamic gender in cultural context. In retelling the story, she focuses in historical approach to expose the didactic functions of Beauty and the Beast in modern culture. Since 1897, woman has experienced difficulties in attaining gender equality in the society. In modern culture, the author focuses on concepts of love, culture norms and the role of female gender. In this article, the author uses the Victoria literature to show the convection of fantasy and encourages children to understand their intelligibility through fantasy. The author was also is driven by economic issues and tends to show the child labor during industrialization period. On the same note, the urbanization and industrialization led to regression in child labor and created a hustling and bustling society.
Diamond, Fleur. "Beauty And The Beautiful Beast." Australian Feminist Studies 26.67 (2011): 41-55. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
Retrieved from: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c1a62c13-6301-4336-a743-95c9c24f2ffe%40sessionmgr4008&vid=0&hid=4107
The author asserts that the retelling of the fairytale represents gender and heterosexuality in culture. The story recounts the central dilemmas of sexuality faced by young women. The author of this article asserts that the retelling portrays the’ raunch culture’ where sexualized images and sexual feelings of young girls are openly portrayed. Beauty forms a liminal relationship in heroine’s social world and the latter portrays her normative heterosexuality. In popular culture, woman is portrayed as a sexually inexperienced character who is threatened by male power in the form of a monster. In retelling the story, the author focuses on gender ideology and understands that despite the second-wave of feminism, women in popular culture are struggling with institutional heterosexuality. The latter means that there is a different between men and women toward their identity and behavior. The heterosexuality and herero-patriarchy is creating gendered division and women are separated from their desires.
Walsh, Kimberly R., Elfriede Fürsich, and Bonnie S. Jefferson. "Beauty And The Patriarchal Beast: Gender Role Portrayals In Sitcoms Featuring Mismatched Couples." Journal Of Popular Film & Television 36.3 (2008): 123-132. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
In contemporary American culture, the author shows how Beauty and Beast works in the society. The modern culture reinforces the patriarchal ideology where male trait undervalues femininity and views sexism as a normal thing. The author asserts that U.S sitcoms are portraying feminist as minor characters. Women in sitcoms are portrayed as post feminist trap which means that they are oppressed in gender constellations and sexist edges. The negative portrayal is long-established in American modern culture and beauty and beast is presented to reinforce this ideology. The beauty is shown to struggle with nature and civilization. The gender ideology drives the author in retelling the story to show that women are struggling to define their identity between patriarchy and feminism.
England, Dawn, Lara Descartes, and Melissa Collier-Meek. "Gender Role Portrayal And The Disney Princesses." Sex Roles 64.7-8 (2011): 555-567. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
With respect to this article, the author of the novel used the fairytales to enter in the contemporary discourse and examine the modern issues. She creates an implicit drama to reevaluate the feminist and masculine domination in popular culture. The author concentrates on young women as her audiences with an ultimate goal of teaching them on personal identification in the midst of racism and sexism. The purpose of the retelling is to explore how gendered stereotypes is affecting modern children and to allow them understand their gender classification in the film. In modern culture, men are physically strong, assertive and unemotional.
Anderson L. Amanda. The Scripts that Tame Us:“Beauty and the Beast” As Vehicle of Cultural Construction and Deconstruction. 2013.
Retrieved from; http://www.fallenprincesses.com/flash/essays/anderson_amanda_formatted_dissertation_fall_2013_for_dg.pdf
The Beast and the Beauty focuses on relevant cultural concerns in popular culture. The novel is interconnected with cultural transmission where culture reveals the anthropocentric privilege. Gender is the main topic discussed in the fairytale and the author represents how female and male role are viewed in the society. For many years, women have been discriminated and treated as sexual tools, and the author revisits the issue in popular culture. They are used as sexual objects by men and in the society; they are unable to define their identity or their role. Being driven by the gender ideology, the fairytale play an important role of revealing the popular culture and domesticated female in the patriarchal society.
Maity Nandini. Damsels in Distress: A Textual analysis of Gender roles in Disney Princess Films. Research scholar Department of English University of Burdwan.2014. Retrieved from https://people.ucsc.edu/~cjgoldma/E0191032831.pdf
In the novel, the literature has a big impact on children life as they teach how young girl lives a happily life after meeting with her lover. The retelling of the story also touches the youthful life on how they struggle to maintain their beauty with the use of consumer products. The author portrays the dangerous society where girls are forced to marry for material wealth rather than their self-consideration.The feminine beauty in the society is viewed as oppressive and is devalued in that whenever they internalize the society norms and portrays their attractiveness to gain power, they are seen as weak and men’s objects.
Collier-Meek A. Melissa. Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses. 2011
Retrieved from: http://people.stfx.ca/x2011/x2011bwz/Gender%20Portrayal.pdf
The article asserts that the novel in popular culture portrays women as sexual object and the ‘male gaze’ towards feminine gender. The beauty endures the male gaze who is symbolized as a beast. Women are portrayed as ‘female bestial subject’ where they are required to comply with masculine power. In classic horror movies, women are defined as biological freaks and vulnerable characters to male power. As they struggle to free from the dominion, they are defeated and domesticated and survives unpleasant life. The fairytale portrays an implicit image on how female experiences hardships and turmoil in developing their identity.
Tonn Theresa. Disney’s influence on Females Perception of Gender and Love. 2008
Retrieved from: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/5067341.pdf
According to the article, the retelling of the story revisits the issue and demonstrates the gender-role development in popular culture. There are gender stereotypes and culture distinctions in American culture. The author introduces the femininity issue in that the social interaction in modern society is diminished. The media imagery shows stereotypic sex-role and females in media are not included in leading role. Though Beauty lives a high standard life happily ever after, she has gone through great turmoil and lacks of self-empowerment.
