Beauty and the Beast

I recently watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast which is about a young girl who agrees to live with a beast in order to save her father's life. The beast treats her badly and constantly is yelling at her. However, she somehow finds the good in him and eventually falls in love with him. This movie shows the typical interpretation of how Disney princess are expressed. Belle is portrayed as a beautiful girl who gives up her life for a man. Although the beast does not treat her well, she still gives him a chance to be a gentlemen and ultimately returns to be at his side and save him from being killed. This movie displays women as being damsels in distress and as being afraid to stand up to men. The women's life goals are to find a husband and live happily ever after. Belle ultimately achieves this when she falls in love with the beast and he turns back into a prince.

Gilmore Girls

I watched an episode of Gilmore Girls the other day starring Alexis Bledel. The episode was about leaving college and how the one girl had realized that she had had no love life while in her freshman year. All her friends made fun of her because girls her age are expected to have a boyfriend or are at least expected to be dating people. This episode shows how most people believe and expect girls to have a love life of some sort and are expected to be trying to find "Mr. Right." The girl Rory, is then forced to go out on a date set up by her grandmother and she ends up having a terrible time. The grandmother forced the boy on her because she felt that her granddaughter needed to get out more. Rory then explains and says that she can live her own life and who she dates is her choice. She shows how some women are independent and live their own life first without having to have a guy. This shows that women are not always dependent on a male and can live fulfilled lives through their own success.