DARK MAGIC The Mixed Messages of Beauty and the Beast
Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, Beauty and the misogynist. While that’s not quite what Mrs Potts – voiced with aplomb and a few sugar cubes by the inimitable Emma Thompson in Beauty and the Beast (Bill Condon, 2017) – warbles, she may as well have. Fairytales, even the modernised versions, are ripe with antiquated messages about gender, mental health and the idea of attractiveness being a measure of one’s true worth. From Princess Aurora (Mary Costa) being awakened from her slumber with a kiss she did not consent to in Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi, 1959) to the decision of Ariel (Jodi Benson) to silence herself to please a man in The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements & John Musker, 1989), there are some highly problematic messages being conveyed to children in this genre. The live-action version of Beauty and the Beast does little to dispel these poisoned apples; instead, it willingly distributes them to an audience of entranced children hungry for simple narratives told via song and dance.
A screening of Beauty and the Beast in a classroom context is, however, an excellent idea if supported by critical-thinking discussions and activities. The film is ripe for analysis and offer opportunities for dominant, alternative, resistant and divergent readings – making it the perfect text to prepare upper primary and junior secondary English students for the critical thinking required of them in older year levels. There is capacity here for students to unpack and explore the ways in which challenging and archaic messages about gender, worth and success are often disseminated to children through beautiful-looking fairytale representations.
