Disney Perversions?

Wait a minute...is it a form of sexual assault for Prince Charming to kiss Snow White? 

Actress Kristen Bell, the voice of Princess Anna in Frozen (2013) posed this question when she read Snow White to her two daughters: “Don’t you think it’s weird that the prince kisses Snow White without her permission? Because you cannot kiss someone if they’re sleeping!”

Kristen told a magazine interview that “every time we close Snow White I look at my girls and ask, “Don’t you think it’s weird that Snow White didn’t ask the old witch why she needed to eat the apple? Or where she got the apple?” 

She added: “I say, “I would never take food from a stranger, would you?” And my kids are like, “No” And I’m like, “OK, I’m doing something right.””

This was the opening salvo in the article this morning entitled: “Disney film sends wrong messages?”

There is another similar view, this time from a sociology professor at Osaka University (Japan), Ms Kazue Muta. On Twitter, she wrote this: -

“When you think rationally about Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, that tell of a “princess being woken by the kiss of a prince,” they are describing sexual assault on an unconscious person.”

Then, Professor Kazue said: “You might think I’m ruining the fantasy of it all, but these stories are promoting sexual violence and I would like everyone to be aware of it.”

Now, for those who are scratching their heads about such attitude, here’s more - all thanks to the overhyped “worldwide #metoo awakening”?

It reports that “earlier this year, Amnesty International Canada posted a rendition of the children’s classic titled No Consent = No Fairy Tale,” and this weird Amnesty’s video shows “Prince Charming kissing an unconscious Snow White before groping the princess between her legs.” 

Yes, friends, no joke, Amnesty did just that, mutating a fairy tale classic into an indecent jig of a story. Here’s more.

After groping an unconscious princess, “a nearby owl interrupts the apparent sexual assault, shouting an expletive and throwing a nut at the prince’s head.” (Well, friends, the pun here is irresistible I know).

“No, it’s cool,” the prince says in the video. “I’m a prince; she’s a princess. We were going to - you know. We messed around at the party, so we’re just picking up where we left off.”

“But is she into it now?” a frog interrupts.

“What? We should have made a contract or something?” the prince replies.

The video then warns viewers: “Don’t have sex without mutual consent.”

???

Lesson? My god, have #metoo turned us men into #meguilty? 

Now, don’t get me wrong, the movement has uncovered a side of this world that I feel is long overdue. The subjugation and oppression of women are appalling in many parts of the world, especially countries which are religiously straitjacketed. 

Somehow, religion is often used as an excuse to deprive women of their basic rights and dignity in the name of honour, purity and well, men’s insecurity. 

That much, #metoo has unraveled and I strongly support the movement in its liberation of all who have been silent victims of such systemic and perpetual workplace and household abuses, and the prosecution of those who think they have immunity as bosses and husbands. 

I therefore have no reservation to give credit where credit is due. We must however be careful when we put on the #metoo lenses and see everyday reality (including fairy tales our kids read about) through those same lenses. 

Not every act by a man comes with ulterior motive. Sometimes, we just want to be chivalrous, gentlemanly - no strings attached.

Personally, I have been smiling (and nodding) at a rather senior-in-age female employee who is my next door neighbour, and strangely, every time I smile at her (out of politeness) she would squirm at me (as if I were hitting on her - at least that was how I interpreted it). This unfortunately went on for years (face palm).

It is said that when you have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. 

So, have we taken the #metoo movement too far with the above fairy tale interpretation such that we see every “happily-ever-after” as an unwholesome invitation by a man to sleep with the woman? Is Prince Charming really Prince Warning disarming the innocent just for a mid-afternoon’s roll in the hay? 

Yes, we are more aroused by sight, but we are fathers too with young daughters of our own and we love our daughters and wives very much. Not all of us think with an erected mind to take advantage of unsuspecting damsels in distress. We are not nails to be hammered into place, right?

Personally, I make no apology for disagreeing with how Kristen and Professor Kazue had interpreted Snow White. And I don’t even want to honour that Amnesty video with a reply (but I don’t mind hurling a hailstorm of nuts at the organisation for making that grotesque video).

Let me end with another famous movie star’s interpretation of Cinderella. 

Keira Knightley wants to ban...yes, Cinderella. Why? “Because, you know, she waits around for a rich guy to rescue her. Don’t. Rescue yourself, obviously.”

Then, Knightley also trashed The Little Mermaid saying: “this is the one that I’m quite annoyed about because I really like the film. I mean, the songs are great, but do not give your voice up for a man. Hello.” 

???

Hello, they are fairy tales we read to our kids before they sleep for the longest time. It is said that when you dissect a joke, you ruin it. Same here with fairy tales. In any event, why can’t we live and let live?

These fairy tales have been around even before Kristen, Professor Kazue and Knightley were born and they have been inspiring our kids and adults too for centuries. 

Look at Beauty and the Beast, you can look at it as an obsence act of bestiality or about love (both between father and child, and a prince and a village girl), sacrifices, overcoming odds, authenticity and not judging a book by its cover. 

And hello, we don’t live in a perfect world. All adults have their own skeletons in the closets. We often mistake idealism for our perceived reality, but idealism only increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem or issue. Most times, we pursue rightness religiously, but never thought about how far in the spectrum of wrongness we eventually end up because of our uptightness in self-righteousness. 

Mind you, fairy tales are written or conceived by imperfect beings who are themselves molded by the imperfect times they are living in, that is, you name it, patriarchy, chauvinism and feudalism. 

If you have an idle imagination, you can construe them in a thousand and one ways, like sleeping beauty, who has to pay for the sins of her father for not inviting Maleficent to his daughter’s christening. 

What a rude and impolite father! (and in another rendition of it (starring Angelina Jolie), he was supposed to be her old flame who betrayed her for another...how’s that for a tale in the likes of Fatal Attraction, Psycho and What lies beneath?) Should we as parents trash that tale also? 

Alas, it is said that the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense. So true. 

As it is, as the world is today, with leaders disgracing themselves more than upholding what is right, failing to set examples for our children, I am beginning to think that if you want to look for moral principles, look to friction or fairy tales, because our everyday reality is so confusing. Cheerz.