Belle Breaks the Ideograph! Sort of...

Just when I had given up hope that a Disney Princess would come along that proved to be of any substance, enter Belle. With Belle, we are still a ways from having an ideal princess, but she is by far the most progressive to her date. What makes Belle so great? First of all, she is the first Disney Princess to be put into any sort of context. All of the princesses before her have no time period, no historical significance, and no country origin. By stripping these prior princesses of any continuity, Disney creates the princess as an ideograph, an interchangeable figurehead that allows the admirer to imagine themselves as a princess. But Belle is French.

The Third Wave feminism movement was emerging right at the same time as the release of Beauty and the Beast. The Third Wave movement was a backlash of the second wave, challenging the ideas of 'femininity' that were created in the 1960's and 1970's. Their main focus was on the acknowledgement that women are of all different races, cultures, and countries. Belle coincides with this movement as a post-structuralist princess. However, just because Belle is given a clearer identity doesn't mean that she is the poster child for Third Wave Feminism. 

My personal admiration of Belle has more to do with the message that Belle portrays to little girls. She is beautiful, but awkward, smart, and rather disliked. Some may argue that Belle conveys that it is alright to be awkward and disliked as long as you are beautiful too, but I believe she stands for more. Her compassion and affection for the ghastly beast show that it is ultimately the person within that counts. She portrays that it is okay to be kind, awkward, smart, and unpopular... AND you can be physically beautiful too. However, we still have an uncomfortable case of Stockholm Syndrome on our hands. And it also can't be ignored that she is still a slave and lives happily ever after.